Wednesday, February 17, 2016

#ExerciseWithBuffy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Downton Abbey don't really seem the least connected, and they're not. Well, I'm sure I could find some justification to connect the two other than my love for both, but that isn't what this post is about. This isn't about Downton Denial, this is about something that's been going on now for almost six months which I've been meaning to talk about. If you follow me on twitter or look over at my twitter feed in the right sidebar you've probably noticed my daily use of the hashtag #ExerciseWithBuffy. This is a thing I've created to motivate myself. Being a graphic designer and reviewer kind of chain me to my computer. Seeing as my "hobby" (really it's more of a calling) is reading, well, there's not much get up and go. There's a lot of the sedentary about my lifestyle.

Sedentary can be good in moderation, anything is good in moderation, but the fact is, I needed to get up and go. I like to walk. In fact it's the only form of exercise I like. I've tried to integrate it into my life a little at a time, but it's never stuck, and once winter sets in, I don't want to leave the house. I even joined a health club once only to get so sick on two separate occasions due to the filth of the facility that I had to stop going. So this past fall I decided enough was enough. I want a long time to live on this planet to read books and have a good life. I don't care about weight loss, I care about fitness and my health. I don't want to get diabetes and die young. So I got a treadmill and I told myself it's all or nothing, so I haven't skipped a single day, though there is the rare occurrence of exercise taken not on my treadmill.

But how did I motivate myself to get onto that treadmill everyday? The answer was simple, TV. I love TV and there are some shows I love more than others. There are some shows that are a part of my DNA. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of them. I remember the first time I saw it. I remember sitting up in my friend Jess's bedroom watching season six, with her room rearranged for the best possible viewing experience on a very tiny TV. I remember that by season seven we had her whole co-op watching so we moved into the TV room in the basement that was always cold and a little dungeon like. I remember the first Buffy convention I went to and all the ones after that. Buffy has been a part of my life for so long it helped form it. I've meet about fifteen actors from the show, more if I counted Angel, and been impressed that the people Joss Whedon surrounds himself with are so nice. I've met Joss Whedon. Seriously, I HAVE MET JOSS WHEDON! (Photographic proof provided because I'm that geeky.)

This show changed my life so I thought, maybe it could change it again. And it totally has. When I started I couldn't walk half a mile without feeling like I was going to die, I can now walk 1.70 miles for 43 minutes every day without dropping down dead; I would say without breaking a sweat, but that would be a lie, and seriously, it's good to sweat. I have lost five pounds and though it's not about that, the serious toning that has happened as well as the weight loss, well, it gives me visible proof of my hard work. But why am I telling you about this now? Because yesterday I watched the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and now it's time to move on. To Angel. So please join me for #AngelAerobics! I'm starting today! And if there's one takeaway from rewatching Buffy? It's that the show needed Anthony Stewart Head desperately. The decline started as soon as he boarded that plane back to England and Manchild.

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