Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Clothes shopping

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As I keep tweeting about, I’ve been clothes shopping recently. While nothing explains the recent fetish for expensive high heels, the need for clothes is easy: nothing that I owned in August still fits me. That is because since August I have worked my ass off to lose 30 pounds. I was wearing size 12 (which was getting a little tight), and now I’m wearing mostly size 6 or 8.

Although I did pick up a size 4 skirt from J. Crew yesterday. I think J. Crew is my new best friend. I am so happy they’re opening a store in my town.

(Anthropologie hates me. It wants me to wear size 10. I’m not going to shop there for a few more pounds.)

I refuse to say simply “I lost weight.” Sorry, it didn’t just slip off somehow. I have worked very, very hard on this. I write down everything I eat and I work out 5 to 6 days a week: 3 days of weights, 2-3 days of aerobic exercise. I’m entering the penultimate hard part now—the last 10 pounds.

The ultimate hard part, of course, is maintenance. As everyone on 3fatchicks.com says, you treat maintenance exactly like you do losing weight, except you don’t get the fun of seeing the scale move. So I’m going to write down what I eat and what I weigh and do some kind of exercise every day from here on out.

Better than having to buy another wardrobe in double-digit sizes, that’s for sure.

Since August I have lost 2-3 minutes per mile off of my running time, which is one of the greatest incentives I’ve ever had to keep going with my exercise program. I want to lose that next 10-15 pounds to see if I can’t get another minute off. One of my big goals this year to run a single 8:00 mile. Doing more than one would be totally amazing. And may even be doable.

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Sometime last summer—I can’t remember exactly when—I said, “This is not my body.” It wasn’t a mean thought or something I was using to castigate myself. It was like waking up and realizing I was in someone else’s body. For most of my twenties I was a 6 or 8. Then I went to grad school, gained weight, did the liquid diet, and went back to being a 6 or 8, which I was until I had Sophia. It took a long time after having Sophia to understand that I really, really, really was a size 12 and I needed to go shop on the Large rack rather than the Medium rack.

I looked back at the last time I lost weight, two years ago, when I thought it was due to the thyroid medications I’d started taking. I honestly didn’t think I had much to do with the weight loss at that time. What I discovered when I looked back at my records (I’m, shall we say, rather particular about keeping copious workout records) was that I hadn’t lost weight nearly as fast as I thought I had. I’d had the memory that it had just come off crazy fast, but in fact, it hadn’t. What else had I been doing two years ago? I was lifting weights all the time.

Hmmm. “I could do that again,” I thought.

I started in August, after the vacations and going to Chicago for my father-in-law’s birthday party. And I discovered pretty quickly that I couldn’t jump right into weights, at least not to the same degree I had before, because of my shoulder surgery in April. My favorite weightlifting exercise is doing squats, and I could barely raise my left arm to touch my fingertips to the bar, let alone grasp the bar for balance. I had to do the bar alone, with no weights on it, because it was all I could handle. The squat rack bar is 45 pounds but still.

After a couple of months, I had my hard firmly grasped on the bar, and I had 90 extra pounds on there. So in addition to improving my muscles, my arm was getting better in a hurry.

Weightlifting: best shoulder recovery tool EVER.

My original weights program, as it was a few years ago, was Body For Life. I’m not a huge proponent of BFL, mostly because it’s so heavy on the cult experience, as well as the supplements marketing, and I’m not a joiner by nature. But the program—do 5 sets for one body part, followed by a different exercise for the same body part—really is an excellent way to build up endurance and work those muscles. (Get the book from the library.) After several months of doing weights on my own I had improved my endurance and ability somewhat: 

				8/4					11/20
Squats		0, 5, 7.5				60, 70, 80
Leg Curls		25, 30, 35				50, 55, 60
Chest			8, 10, 12				60, 65, 70
Lats			15, 20, 22.5			75, 80, 85

I hired a Personal Trainer at Club Swanky. It’s expensive, but he is in fact kicking my ass.

(Actually, those squat numbers are somewhat misleading: after trying to do the squat rack for a week, I finally gave up and moved to the squat machine for a couple of months. After I felt strong enough to give it another try, I returned to the squat rack.)

I also kept up the running with my buds, even though I was often lagging far behind them. (One time I remember quite clearly getting dusted by them, stopping, and turning around to go home, because there was no way in hell I’d be able to keep up with them.) At the end of October I realized something had really changed, when we did the Silicon Valley Half Marathon. I realize now that probably what happened to me was the first and only time I’ve experienced “the runner’s high.” But that feeling of being able to go! go! go! was quite intoxicating. “Oooo,” I thought, “I wanna do this a lot.”

I’ve never had a run like that since, but I keep on trying. 3fatchicks has a “1000 miles in 2009” challenge, and I did 77 in January. If the weather were a little warmer, I’d definitely be doing more.

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I really like wearing single digit pants. I want to wear more of them. At lower digits.

Of course, I had to learn about low-rise and mid-rise jeans, courtesy of my running bud Nina. I missed that whole development in jeans and was still wearing my high-rise “mom jeans.” Which I’ve always worn because I have such a long damn waist. However, now that I have moved into Gap Long and Lean jeans, I now understand a)people’s obsession with muffin top and b)the need for a belt. Because these things do not stay up without help. (At least, not with my figure they don’t.)

For those of you who might also have missed this development in jeans technology, please to consult “Are you wearing mom jeans?” for your edification.

Oscars

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Quick hits on today’s nominations:

It’s good to see the Academy leaned strongly toward popular movies that people might have actually seen this year. At least a little bit. (C’mon, Academy: meet us halfway.) I know Benjamin Button got some ungodly number of noms, but I also don’t know anyone who’s seen it, whereas I know tons of people who saw, loved, and talked up Slumdog Millionaire. If they know what’s good for them, they’ll vote lots of awards for the little movie that has long stretches take place in Hindi. It’s the multicultural future, people!

Best Motion Picture of the Year:

  • “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  • “Slumdog Millionaire”
  • “Milk”
  • “Frost Nixon”
  • “The Reader”

    Still haven’t managed to make it out to see Benjamin Button, which is 3 freakin’ hours long and needs to be the best thing since sliced bread to make me shoehorn that into a date night. Of the three we have seen— Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, and Frost/Nixon—the best far and away is Slumdog Millionaire, which you should go see right now if you haven’t seen it yet.

    Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:

  • Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
  • Sean Penn, “Milk”
  • Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  • Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
  • Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”

    Seen three of these as well, and Mickey Rourke is just as fabulous as everyone says in The Wrestler. As Darin put it, while watching that movie you don’t think about parallels to Rourke’s career, you think about the fucking character he’s playing. That said, Sean Penn was also pretty great as Harvey Milk, but Rourke’s career comeback story makes for much better copy.

    Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:

  • Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
  • Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
  • Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
  • Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
  • Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”

    We’ve seen one of these: Anne Hathaway, who was really good in her role, but the entire movie annoyed me so much that I refuse to think about it any more. This is probably Kate’s year—and it’s a Holocaust movie! Lesson learned: always listen to Ricky Gervais for career advice.

    Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:

  • Josh Brolin, “Milk”
  • Robert Downey, Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
  • Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
  • Michael Shannon, “Revolutionary Road”

    Ha! They definitely want viewers’ butts in seats this year! Sorry, Josh, you were wonderful, but this is Heath’s year.

    Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:

  • Amy Adams, “Doubt”
  • Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Christina Barcelona”
  • Viola Davis, “Doubt”
  • Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  • Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”

    Again, seen one of these, and while Marisa Tomei was very good in The Wrestler—that whole Oscar thing: not so much of a fluke!—I have no idea whose year this is.

    Achievement in Directing:

  • Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
  • David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  • Stephen Daldry, “The Reader”
  • Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
  • Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”

    I actively disliked the direction in Milk, and I thought Frost/Nixon was just…stentorian. I think this is Danny Boyle’s.

    Best Animated Film:

  • “Bolt”
  • “Kung Fu Panda”
  • “WALL-E”

    Are they allowed to give it to anyone other than Wall-E? Check the Academy’s charter on this one.

    Best Original Screenplay:

  • Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
  • Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
  • Dustin Lance Black, Milk
  • Martin McDonough, In Bruges
  • Andrew Stanton, Wall-E

    I’m happy to see Martin McDonough here, because In Bruges was a classic McDonough piece, contrasting outrageous humor and horrifying, wrenching violence in one of the more thrilling and affecting movies we saw last year. Of the three I’ve seen, I’d probably go with Milk, as kind of a consolation prize for losing everything else.

    Best Adapted Screenplay:

  • Eric Roth, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  • John Patrick Shanley, “Doubt”
  • Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
  • David Hare, “The Reader”
  • Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”

    Probably Benjamin Button, to make up for losing every other damn category to Slumdog Millionaire.

    • Stuff Darin has gotten to miss all these years

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    Until now.

    I came home yesterday from my shopping expedition.

    Me: “Want to see the shoes I bought?”

    Darin: “Um…sure, I guess.”

    Me: “By which you mean, ‘I’m a man, I could care less.'”

    Darin: “Yes, that’s pretty much it.”

    Yes, I’m now the woman who buys shoes and then shows them off instead of, you know, just wearing them.