Life&Style.

THE
STS

OF
el

By Sharon Miki, Assistant Editor

 

Deal with it

Jacey Gibb and Sharon Miki signed up for Douglas’
Biggest Loser competition with the goal of losing the
highest percentage body weight in eight weeks. Join
them on their noble quest as they chart their triumphs
and tumbles. Winner gets the bragging right, loser
eats a cockroach. Seriously.

GS: it’s week two and I was feeling really

positive about my progress after my second

weigh-in this morning: I’d lost some
pounds, was feeling healthy, and was fitting into
older clothes with ease. Things were peachy on
the BL front, until my nemesis Jacey did how he
do and bested me by doubling my weight lost
percentage.

Reading his text announcing his mini-
victory, I sunk into a spiral of negative feelings.
At first, I was doubtful—he lost an incredible
amount of weight and it seemed impossible to
fathom. Once he proved it, I was jealous. Why
do good things always happen to Jacey? My
mother always told me if you’re good and kind
you will always come out on top; Jacey publicly
taunts me, and he loses more weight? No fair.
That's where | had to stop myself—before |
found myself at the bottom of a shame binge,
undoing all my hard work.

For some people, weight issues come from
a simple love for linguine carbonara; for others,
excess poundage has more to do with emotional
issues. I’m with the latter group.

Since I was a kid, I’ve dealt with my
overwhelming feelings of self-hatred by stuffing
my gullet with foodstuff—the more processed
and poisonous, the better. As a teenager, |
slimmed down by dealing with my demons
through physical activity. In recent years,

Week Two

however, I’ve gotten lazy and launched myself
back into the cycle of eating to feel better about
feeling bad about myself then feeling bad about
myself because of how much I’ve eaten then
eating to feel better about feeling bad etcetera,
etcetera.

I know that if I allow myself to let Jacey’s
success affect me, I will fail. So, I’m not going to
hide behind my favourite baggy sweatshirt and
pretend like I’m not eating six servings worth of
carrot cake. I’m determined to stay mindful and
stay on track. He will not defeat me, even if he
does, somehow, lose more weight than I do.

So why the determination now? How can |
be so sure things will be different this time?

I often joke about my extreme affinity for
Diet Coke, but my taste for aspartame comes
from being raised in a household with a diabetic
father. A few months ago, my mother was also
diagnosed with Type II diabetes. I’ve seen the
havoc that obesity-related disease can wreak
on people, and with my mom’s disease, I can
now count both of my parents, two of my
grandparents, and most of my aunts and uncles
as hereditary fodder for illness. How dare
I wantonly disrespect the suffering that my
family has gone through by munching away my
sorrows? This might have started as a quest to
make my friend eat an insect, but it’s become
something that could mean a lot more to the rest
of my life.

Sorry, Jacey. You might be ahead in the
sprint, but I’m going to win this war. Clear eyes,
full heart, can’t lose.

Totals so far:
Jacey: -9%
Sharon: -4%

The Rival Report:
an update from

Waistland

By Jacey Gibb

p until our first weigh-in, I was
| | dreading having to write my

Rival Recap. The back pain |
mentioned in last week’s War of the
Waists reached bed-riddening heights
on the following Saturday, and I missed
a good chunk of my planned workouts
because of it. But, an acupuncture
appointment, chiropractic visit, and two
hot tub rendezvous later, my back is back
to normal. At least my sense of humour
didn’t suffer because of it!

Officially joining Team Not-Sharon is
The Other Press’s very own vegan/funny
man, Joel MacKenzie. He'll be helping
me do strength training during the week
and will also be there to smack pieces of
pizza out of my hands. Welcome aboard,
sir!

As for my first weigh-in, the school’s
scale tells me that I’ve lost 22.4 Ibs, or
nine per cent of my body weight. I’m
giving my change in eating habits the
most credit here, seeing as how I’ve gone
from eating out all the time and eating
packaged, processed garbage to mostly
fresh fruits, veggies, and lighter meats.

It feels great to be going into Week Two
with a solid seven days behind me and
an even better seven ahead. See you folks
next week!

 

Pll have a vodka cran, hold the vodka

By Allie Davison, Staff Writer

for the last eight years or so.

There have definitely been
times, years, when I was drinking
quite heavily, but as I’ve matured
I’ve come to realize that getting
completely hammered ain’t all it’s
cracked up to be. The hangovers,
the blackouts, the waking up in
strange places—it just got old (or
maybe that was just me).

In the past few years, I’ve
tapered off drinking a lot. Oh, I
still generally drink on a weekly
basis but I don’t remember the last
time I didn’t remember anything.
Progress! Yet, | have maintained
a fairly high alcohol tolerance
level. I can out drink most of my
friends without even getting drunk.

10

[« been drinking pretty steadily

So, when we do go out, even if I
don’t get drunk drunk, I still have
the highest bar tab in the joint.
Something my bank account just
can’t afford.

An even bigger problem
lately is even when I do limit
myself to three or four drinks, I
feel absolutely awful the next day.
Stomach ache, headache, body ache,
the works. Drinking, why you be
hatin’?

All of this led me to make
a drastic decision a few weeks
ago: Allie Davison was giving up
drinking. It just wasn’t working
anymore. A sweeping declaration
was made. I promised myself not a
drop of alcohol would touch these
lips for the next month! Done and
done.

Bold move, I know.

That lasted exactly seven
days. I went out for lunch with my
brother—at a pub—and caved. It
had been a long week, I was tired,
and I just wanted to relax. Trust
me, I had all the right reasons. I
ended up having three beers and a
vodka cranberry (my all time fave
beverage). It was good at the time,
but I started feeling sick later that
night.

I was sick all weekend, and
because now my boyfriend is also
extremely sick, I realize that it
probably wasn’t exactly the booze
that did me in. Perhaps a little
bad karma was sent my way for
breaking a promise to myself? Or
maybe I just had the flu.

Either way, the ban is back on.

Allie Davison is giving up drinking!

And this time, I mean it. It’s not

going to be easy, but sometimes you
just gotta’ take one for the team.
Wish me luck!

™
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