Trying To Think of A Blog Post Title Sucks

With the exception of turning around, walking away, and pretending I don’t love you, writing a book is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.  I devote pretty much every hour of the day to writing the thing and as of right now I’ve only made a small dent in the final product.  The main problem is that I’m a perfectionist who reads through everything I write a thousand times to make sure I don’t mispell anything or have any tyops, which means it sometimes takes me hours to write a single paragraph.  But another big problem I’ve run into is that I can’t really make jokes about current events since the Trillion Man March won’t understand the references/they won’t be nearly as effective when the book comes out in a year.  For example, I can make a joke on my blog about Rashard Mendenhall dry-humping an accused rapist on national television, but I can’t put it in my book because it will be a completely irrelevant story in a year.  And of course, the last problem I’m having is the inability to link to awesome YouTubes in my book, which is something that makes up about 50% of my blog and 100% of the interesting parts of my blog.  I was under the impression that the book would be just as easy to write as the blog, but that was before I realized that it’s a completely different process that’s much more challenging and unlike anything I’ve done before.  Anyway, the point is that writing a book is more tedious and  mentally draining than my first marriage.

This is why I’ve decided to put the blog on the backburner for awhile.  The way I see it, I can either stop doing my blog to focus on my book now, or I can ignore my book and realize six months from now that I’m screwed as a scramble to finish it (Before you ask, no, I’m not capable of writing both at the same time.  I’m a terrible at multitasking and I’m terrible at writing, so doing something that involves both doesn’t seem like a very good idea).  I know that the TMM isn’t thrilled with my decision, but I really do think it’s better than the alternative.  Besides, when my book comes out and you all buy at least ten copies (in the words of Latrell Spreewell, I’ve got a family to feed), this will be water under the bridge.  By then you’ll all be mad at me for talking about pubes too much or using the word “poopdick” too much in my book and you’ll completely forget about the time I didn’t write my blog for months.

In the meantime, if you really are desperate to swim with The Shark and can’t fathom a life without my off-base and ignorant thoughts (judging from the bombardment of “what the hell happened to you” emails, many of you apparently are for whatever reason), you do have some options.  First of all, you can follow me on Twitter, where I routinely make fun of Daequan Cook and then get disappointed that nobody finds him as hilariously awesome as I do.  Yeah, I know – “Twitter is gay and is only for people with self-confidence issues who can’t figure out that nobody cares they’re having a muffin for breakfast.”  I can’t say I fully disagree.  But if you actually checked Twitter out you’d realize that as long as you don’t follow professional athletes, celebrities, or 16-year-old girls, you’ll most likely never see a dumb tweet about what someone is having for breakfast.  #jussayin

The other option that you’ll have pretty soon (within the next month for sure) is the SharkWolf podcast that I’m starting with my BFF Andy Keller, who calls himself The Electric Wolf (yeah it’s a terrible nickname, but just go with it – you’ll hurt his feelings if you tell him how badly it sucks).  I can only imagine what’s going through some of your minds as you read that sentence so I figured I should just list what you’re thinking and address your thoughts right now.

1. Didn’t you already have a podcast? And didn’t it kind of suck? 
   Yes I did and yes it did.  The biggest difference between my old podcast and the SharkWolf podcast is that I really just don’t give a s*** this time around.  With the old podcast, I tried too hard to be professional and not piss off the higher-ups at Ohio State, which ultimately made me kind of bland and uninteresting.  For the most part, the SharkWolf podcast will never have guests and will instead just be Keller and me discussing things like the strange hypothetical situations we always come up with (and probably tons of “would you rather…”).  Since I do this with him everyday anyway, it will be a lot more natural for me and won’t result in me trying way too hard to conduct an interesting interview with a guest and failing miserably.
   
2. You’re turning into Simmons. 
   I see your point, but I promise you that I won’t end up being Simmons 2.0.  The truth is that I really don’t care about sports all that much, which is the primary reason why I want nothing to do with sportswriting.  My proof is that I dabbled in college basketball writing for ESPN a little bit, but I really wasn’t feeling it so I stopped.  I know it puts me in the minority, but sports are enjoyable for me only when I’m watching the actual games.  All the arguing and banter that goes on in between the games is exhausting and completely pointless to me.  It’s occasionally entertaining to watch other people do it (and argue about sports LOL), but I don’t really want to be a part of it.
   
3. Yeah, but you’re still turning into Simmons. He took time off to write his book and now he podcasts more than he writes.
   I don’t know what to tell you.  It just makes sense to do it that way.  I’m not a good enough writer and there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to consistently write two different things.  Podcasting is a good way to let the Trillion Man March inside my brain without having to take huge chunks of time away from writing my book.  It makes sense and you know it.  As always, if you don’t like it, you can suck it.
   
4. Podcasts suck.  I don’t have an hour and a half to take out of my life to listen to you talk.
   Like you, my pet peeve with podcasts is that they are always way too long.  This is why the SharkWolf podcast will aim for 30 minutes every time.  After all, you people have lives, and even if you don’t, your video games aren’t going to play themselves. We might go over 30 minutes every now and then, but that’s the goal. Just like I’ve told every girl I’ve ever dated: If you want longer, there are plenty of other options.

So there it is.  Follow my ass on Twitter, listen to my ass on the SharkWolf podcast, or be SOL.  Those are your options.  If you have your heart set on only reading the blog, well I guess this is goodbye.  For now.  I’ll be back eventually, but maybe it’s best that we go on a little break and rekindle our love somewhere down the road.  After all, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all of the high school/college chicks I’m Facebook friends with, it’s that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

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Your awesome YouTube is the video that everyone keeps asking me about.  Watch it first if you haven’t already and then meet me on the other side for my commentary.

The concept for a video like this is a good idea (I say this because I proposed a similar idea to some OSU higher-ups while I was there, but it got shot down because they’re all jealous douchers), but the execution was terrible.  I don’t mean that the three guys blew it, because they made it as entertaining and funny as they possibly could have.  I mean that the song choice was awful and having them just sit there and sing while reading the lyrics was another poor choice.

If I’m in charge of this thing, I get together five guys (three sitting down and two standing behind them) and have them sing “Tha Crossroads” by the Bone Thugs, but I don’t let them look at the lyrics.  Since they all know how the song goes, but nobody actually knows the words, I’d have them sing with hardass looks on their face while they basically just mumble the words.  I’d split the parts of the song up so that it mirrors the Bone Thug’s style of passing the baton and letting another guy take over the song every so often.  After the inevitably hilarious “bow bow bow bow bone bow bone bone” intro, the rest of the video would fall into place and would be equally awesome.  Just imagine Aaron Craft looking hard while mumbling about how tough ghetto life is, before letting Jon Diebler take over and struggle to tell us all about the homeys that he’s lost in the streets.  I say throw in Sullinger and Lighty, who are both great at playing along and would bring some over the top comedy, and then round it out with Will Buford, who would take the thing dead seriously and would make it that much funnier because he probably knows all the words. That’s an F’ing video. It would’ve taken 30 minutes longer to film this thing than it did to film the Miley Cyrus one, but it would have definitely been worth it because my idea would have been much, much better.  But alas, my suggestions always fall on deaf ears, which, interestingly enough,  is exactly what I have after listening to those guys sing.

Proud To Be An American But Even Prouder To Be A Buckeye,

Mark Titus

Club Trillion Founder

The Blahs

We got hit by a winter storm yesterday that left several inches of snow on the ground, cars stranded in ditches, and a big gray sky today. That dull monochrome sky mirrors my mood at the moment.

I haven't exercised in a week. I've been doing a lot of sitting. I was going to walk to the nail salon across the street yesterday evening to get a pedicure, but then it started snowing fast and furious and everything closed down.

On Monday, the guy I've been dating for a couple months and really like announced he's moving across the country to accept a new job and he doesn't want to do the long-distance thing. What that really means is he's not into me enough to even try the long-distance thing.

I intended to work out with Jillian last night, knowing exercise would help boost my flagging spirits, but I simply couldn't muster the strength to do more than lay on the couch with the TV on mute.

Since getting that news on Monday, I haven't had much of an appetite, which I guess is good for off-setting the lack of exercise in the net calorie department. For breakfast today, I had two peanut-butter cookies with chocolate pieces on top. It was the only thing that sounded good.

Awesome.

Woodson: Anthems, Sonnets, and Chants

Anthems, Sonnets, and Chants

Recovering the African American Poetry of the 1930s

Jon Woodson

In the 1930s African Americans faced three distinct historical crises that impacted the lives of African Americans directly—the Great Depression, the existential-identity crisis, and the Italo-Ethiopian War, with its threat of a race war. A sizeable body of black poetry was produced in this decade, which captured the new modes of autonomy through which black Americans resisted these social calamities. Much of it, however, including the most influential protest poems, was dismissed as “romantic” by major, leftist critics and anthologists.

Anthems, Sonnets, and Chants: Recovering the African American Poetry of the 1930s, by Jon Woodson, uses social philology to unveil social discourse, self fashioning, and debates in poems gathered from anthologies, magazines, newspapers, and individual collections. The first chapter examines three long poems, finding overarching jeremiadic discourse that inaugurated a militant, politically aware agent. Chapter two examines self-fashioning in the numerous sonnets that responded to the new media of radio, newsreels, movies, and photo-magazines. The third chapter shows how new subjectivities were generated by poetry addressed to the threat of race war in which the white race was exterminated.

The black intellectuals who dominated the interpretative discourses of the 1930s fostered exteriority, while black culture as a whole plunged into interiority. Anthems, Sonnets, and Chants delineates the struggle between these inner and outer worlds, a study made difficult by a contemporary intellectual culture which recoils from a belief in a consistent, integrated self.

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Anesko and Brookes: The French Face of Nathaniel Hawthorne

The French Face of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Monsieur de l’Aubépine and His Second Empire Critics

Historical Introduction and Translations by Michael Anesko and N. Christine Brookes

Most students of American literature probably can recall the playful French nom de plume—Monsieur de l’Aubépine—that Nathaniel Hawthorne occasionally employed to disguise some of his early attempts at authorship. But very few will know that Monsieur de l’Aubépine enjoyed a surprisingly intelligent critical reception in France during his lifetime. No fewer than six—often startling—essays about the American author appeared in leading French periodicals from 1852 to 1864. The French Face of Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Michael Anesko and N. Christine Brookes, recuperates these lost (or forgotten) critical assessments, making available to English readers for the first time the full texts of these extraordinary contemporaneous French critical essays. Besides offering elegantly rendered (and helpfully annotated) translations of the essays, Anesko and Brookes analyze them in relation to their immediate historical context and examine their unexpected relevance to later critical trends and arguments.

Literary scholarship in our own time calls more and more for the enlargement of perspective and the adaptation of our reading practices to dismantle the narrower limits of nationalist traditions. The French Face of Nathaniel Hawthorne is a remarkable body of work that can help scholars better understand the complexity of transatlantic cultural exchange in the nineteenth century.

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Knobloch-Westerwick and Kleinman work accepted at CR

Congratulations to COPS members Silivia Knobloch-Westerwick and Steve Kleinman for having their paper, “Pre-Election Selective Exposure: Confirmation Bias versus Informational Utility” accepted for publication at Communication Research. As many of you may remember, Steve and Silvia presented this work at COPS in April last year, and a provocative conversation followed.

Knobloch-Westerwick, S., & Kleinman, S. (in press). Pre-Election Selective Exposure: Confirmation Bias versus Informational Utility. Communication Research.

Nisbet and Myers Have Lead Article in the New Issue of Political Communication

Congratulations to Erik Nisbet and Teresa Myers for having their article as the lead paper in the new issue of Political Communication! For more details and access, see below:

Challenging the State: Transnational TV and Political Identity in the Middle East, Pages 347 - 366
Authors: Erik C. Nisbet; Teresa A. Myers
DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2010.516801
Link: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1058-4609&volume=27&issue=4&spage=347&uno_jumptype=alert&uno_alerttype=new_issue_alert,email

Upcoming ASAN meetings

ASAN-Ohio State/Central Ohio will be holding its next meeting this Thursday, January 20 from 5:45pm to 7:00pm. We will be meeting in the campus-area Barnes & Noble, located at 1598 N. High St., in the coffee shop area.

All are welcome! Among other things, we'll discuss plans for spring self-advocacy workshops, button designs, and future guest speakers.

Other upcoming meetings are scheduled for Thursday, February 10 and Thursday, February 24 at 5:45pm at the campus Barnes & Noble.

Inspiration

I just read this story on Yahoo! Health about people who have lost serious weight and blogged about it during the process. (I wish this blog had that kind of following!) It's always inspiring to hear about people who have really changed themselves and their lives. You see that it takes perseverance, perspective, and patience, and that there's no magic bullet or shortcut when it comes to making lasting change.

I really love that so many of the individuals say that they focused on being healthier, not necessarily on losing weight. That has been key for me, too. I've paid more attention to my body over time and learned that I feel better when I exercise, when I eat a certain way, when I get up early. It's a strange irony that it is often difficult to do things that I know will make me feel better, even after all these years of living a healthier lifestyle. Why is that? Why are we our own worst enemies?

I encourage you, my three readers, to check out the story and feel inspired too.

Joint meeting with the Interpersonal Communication Research Group

Please join us this Friday for a joint meeting between COPS and the newly formed Interpersonal Communication Research Group. Chip Eveland will be speaking about his current work in a talk titled, Moving Beyond Standard Practice in the Study of Informal Political.

More about the Interpersonal Communication Research Group:

A new group has been formed based on the growing number of faculty and graduate students with research interests in interpersonal communication. The goal of the group is to provide a relaxed opportunity to discuss recent developments in Interpersonal Communication theory and research as well as research in progress. Faculty and students are also invited to check out our new blog at www.ipcosu.blogspot.com. If you would like to be added as a contributor to the blog, please contact Chip Eveland with your gmail address. We plan to have periodic meetings—day, time, and topics will be announced.

Better Than Nothing

Exercise report for yesterday: I did the 30-minute Pilates portion of my previously mentioned Cardio Pilates workout. This is my general go-to workout whenever time is short because it doesn't make me sweaty so I don't have to shower afterwards. Such was the case last night, when I didn't have much time between finishing work and going to a friend's house for dinner. Enter: Cardio Pilates! Thirty minutes of challenging ab work and I can check that exercise box for the day.

How to Bring Peace to Tajikistan

I'm watching a movie in which one of the characters was writing an article with the title above and it seemed as appropriate a title as any for this post.

So this hasn't been a stellar week for exercise, as you've no doubt noticed. I've been feeling pretty shlubby and poorly dressed all day and I just ate a lot of bacon, which probably wasn't a good idea.

Luckily, tomorrow is another day with more opportunities for exercise and fitness and better eating, if only because there isn't much bacon left.

Ari Ne'eman visits Ohio State

On November 29, Ari Ne'eman delivered a public lecture at Ohio State entitled "Neurodiversity and the College Campus," with over 50 people in attendance. Prior to the talk, an anonymous protester stood outside the conference room and handed out tracts that bore the following slogan: "'NEURODIVERSITY' is treatable with early detection." The author, who refused to name himself, claimed in the flyer that anyone who is autistic, by definition, cannot self-advocate, and additionally maintained that anyone belonging to ASAN is not disabled.

From left to right, top to bottom: Benzion, Noranne, Ari, Rachel, Melanie, and Justin

During his speech, Ari discussed the disability rights movement and the ways in which  autistic self-advocates have been systematically prevented from speaking in the conversations that concern them and their lives. During the Q&A session, the student president from the local Autism Speaks chapter made herself known and claimed that they were "just trying to help people like you." This exchange sparked a lengthy discussion, from autistic self-advocates, parents, and disability service professionals alike. Toward the end of the Q&A, one parent noted how appalled she was that so little funding from popular autism organizations went to quality of life issues.

Ari's talk was generously co-sponsored by the OSU Office of Student Life, the Autism Society of Central Ohio, and Aspirations Ohio. Video footage of the event (captioned) is available here.

Pine Needles

I didn't exercise yesterday, but I did workout with Jillian today. Do you know what I kept thinking during all those old-school mat exercises that made all my muscles burn? I was thinking, "Where on earth are all these pine needles coming from?"

I took down my Christmas tree a week ago, leaving my floor awash in pine needles. I vacuumed, emptied the canister, vacuumed again. I vacuumed almost every day last week because I kept seeing errant pine needles that had somehow escaped that powerful Dyson suction. So why do I keep finding pine needles on my floor, in all the same places? I pick them up as soon as I spot them, and they mysteriously reappear before my next workout. How does this happen?

The other thing I was thinking today during my workout was, "When is this set going to be over?" As Jillian points out at the end, that workout is no joke. It's tough, but I feel awesome when I'm done.

For dinner after my workout I had an underwhelming salad of butter head lettuce, a little feta, and some edamame, topped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (I was out of tomato and the avocado wasn't ripe enough.) Not the most satisfying salad I've ever made, but that edamame sure was tasty! Then I turned on The Biggest Loser and recognized again that I am actually in pretty good shape already.

Workout Buddies

I've been so happy with the new Jillian Michaels exercise video that I wanted Holly to try it. So when I went over to her house to hang out on Saturday, we did it together. It's a seriously tough workout and we were both feeling it exceedingly about 10 minutes in. The difference is, Holly is probably still feeling it today, whereas I didn't really have any day-after soreness this time around (thank goodness!).

Holly's 5-year-old did a lot of the moves with us in the beginning--through the warm-up and part of the first circuit--which was hilarious and adorable. He's tall for his age and rather stocky, and looked so cute trying to do lunges and bicycle crunches. He got bored or tired before the end of the first circuit and went to play with his brother and sister, but came back later to watch, when he decided to taunt us with helpful observations like, "That doesn't look very hard" (meanwhile, our abs/shoulders/quads/triceps were screaming), to which we replied, "Really? Then why don't you do it with us?" He declined every time.

I'm proud of Holly for doing the whole tough Jillian workout with me, and proud of myself for exercising four times last week, and eating well every day too. Now, at the beginning of the second full week of the new year, Game On again!

Game On!

So Marni decided to allow me to be a writer of this blog to help me with my motivations as well.  After having had a baby a couple of months ago I am ready to lose that baby weight and get back to a normal healthy body again.  In fact, this was baby number 4 for me, and I haven't really gotten back to my pre-baby weight EVER.  So that would be awesome, but the real (more realistic) goal I'm setting is to lose 25 pounds in 26 weeks, by July 1, when our family is getting together for the semi-annual beach week. 

My weight loss plan includes less sweets, better portion control, and exercise whenever possible.  I started the week off pretty well, with a Tae Bo basic workout on Monday.  Tuesday I did three of the 10-Minute Solutions workouts, including one cardio and two pilates workouts.  Wednesday I didn't work out because instead I spent my evening making Rice Krispie Treat snowmen for my son's school class. 

Today I was blessed--and I mean blessed--by having my newborn get very tired at the same time that my 2-year-old daughter was ready to do her quiet time.  I quickly ran upstairs, put the baby to bed, and jumped into workout clothes, deciding to do a full 60-minute workout using The Firm DVD.  I love this workout because it combines weight and strength exercises with cardio segments, getting a real full-body workout.  I was able to complete the whole thing with only one interruption to help my daughter (who is potty training) do some business, and even got a shower in as well!  I'm feeling good!

Hopefully I'll be able to workout again tomorrow and/or Saturday.  I'll let you know.  And I'm going to be doing a weigh-in at the end of every week to chart my progress, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Oh, and Marni?  Game on!

Waking Up with Jillian

Let me put your minds at ease by saying that I did not literally wake up with Jillian Michaels in my house this morning. I'm sure that was a concern, based on the title of this post. However, I did get out of bed this morning with the intention of doing the new Jillian Michaels workout first thing, which I did. I knew I wouldn't be able to exercise later in the day or this evening, so it was sunrise or never today. I chose sunrise (and, by extension, my health).

I swear, just putting on those workout clothes is 90% of the exercise motivation battle for me. Once I'm changed, there's no turning back. It's getting myself to actually put those clothes on that's often the challenge.

The workout was just as hard this time as it was the first time I did it, two days ago. My heart rate was seriously up and I even had to pause a few times to catch my breath, at the expense of finishing some sets. I also have a really pathetic excuse for upper body strength. The regular push-ups are too hard, so I have do "girl" push-ups, on my knees. Hey, it's good to have something to work towards, right? If I could do it all perfectly already, there wouldn't be much point to it.

Small consolations: Jillian only uses 3-lb hand weights throughout the workout. As she notes, she could indeed be lifting 20-pounders, but not for five minutes straight, which is what one of the circuits requires. That made me feel a whole lot better about using my little 3-lb weights.

Another small consolation: Jillian isn't very flexible. When it comes time to stretch at the end, her sidekicks have a much larger range than she does (subject of some rare humor on Jillian's part). This also makes me feel better--not in an evil "I don't like her because she's in better shape than me" way, but in the sense that even someone that fit and trim has limitations, which means that level of fitness is also attainable for me, in spite of my limitations.

Here's to more sore abs tomorrow!

Pilates Wednesday

Yesterday's workout with Jillian gave me some sore muscles today, but I wasn't complaining. I was actually much less sore than I had expected based on the intensity of that workout, which I suppose is a good sign that I'm still in reasonable shape, even though I haven't exercised as much as I normally do this past month. Sweet.

My abs were particularly sore, so to counteract that, I did my favorite Pilates workout today, Cardio Pilates with Ana Caban. I was introduced to this DVD by my sister's mother-in-law several years ago and it has remained one of my favorites--perhaps my absolute favorite. Ana takes you through a 30-minute series of easy-to-follow Pilates moves that really work your core (of course), as well as some moves focusing more on the legs and glutes. After the Pilates segment is a 15-minute Cardio segment that features a very basic, uncomplicated cardio routine of repeating moves to get your heart rate up a bit.

I did the full Pilates segment today and skipped the cardio portion in favor of doing a 10-minute workout that came in my Special K cereal a few months ago. It's meant to tone your abs but really it's just a great cardio workout that moves very quickly without a lot of fancy steps or dance moves. (We all know how I feel about those!) In between the two DVDs, I did 20 pushups to get rid of some of the soreness in my arms.

After 40 minutes of Pilates and intense cardio, I felt terrific. I topped it all off with a light salad and some cottage cheese for dinner. I think I'll sleep well tonight!

Hello, Jillian!

I did my new Jillian Michaels workout today. It was SO hard and so AWESOME! True, Jillian lacks some of the personal warmth and charm of Leandro, but she leads the no-frills workout in a straight-forward manner that keeps you motivated and interested all the way through.

No More Trouble Zones is a 50-minute circuit training workout, comprised of a warm-up and cool-down bookending seven different circuits that target different muscle groups--often more than one group at once. For instance, several of the moves worked arms and legs/glutes, while others works arms and abs/core. My heart rate was up from beginning to end, starting with the warm-up exercises, which include jumping jacks and simulated jumping rope.

No frustrating dance moves in this work-out! In fact, nothing that requires too much coordination or balance, which we all know I don't have. No Beach Beauties placidly shimmying and not breaking a sweat. Jillian's two back-up dancers (not an accurate term for these ladies) got shiny from sweat and they were seriously ripped and strong. Much more than just pretty faces with tiny waists! Love it!

I'm looking forward to being sore tomorrow. And I'm looking forward to the day when I can do all the moves in this workout without my muscles quivering or without having to do the modified version because I'm not strong enough to do the regular version. (I seriously have zero upper body strength. It's pathetic.)

Bring it on, Flordia in February!

Resurrection

In the interest of being fitter in 2011, and looking better in non-winter clothing when I go to Florida in February, I've decided to resurrect this blog. I'm hoping that the accountability it provides will serve as motivation for regular exercise, like it did during my (failed) experiment with the Brazil Butt Lift last summer.

Yesterday I went to Target and bought a new work-out DVD, No More Trouble Zones, starring Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser fame. I'm going to pair this with the other work-out videos already in my possession (including the Brazil Butt Lift), as well as some awesome work-outs I've discovered on Netflix. Thank goodness for exercise videos to keep me fit in the winter, when I hate going out in the cold!

Holly is also trying to lose weight before her beach trip this summer. Which means: Game on! Hopefully we'll both be more motivated if it's a competition of sorts.

I should be more specific about how much weight/inches I want to lose or how much I intend to exercise, but I prefer to keep things vague and fuzzy. Makes it easier to feel like I've succeeded that way. Basically, I just want my clothes to fit better. I want those pants that used to practically fall off my hips to fit that loosely again. I'm not expecting to have a body like one of Leandro's beach beauties by February (or ever), but I'll at least feel better because I'm exercising, and my body is bound to change sooner or later if I really keep at it.

Anyone want to come up with an eating plan for me for the next month? Right now I'm incorporating more veggies/salads and reducing my portion sizes a bit, but I'd love some more-specific guidance to kick-start my metabolism.

Next entry: How Jillian Michaels kicked my butt with her circuit training.