It's New Year's Eve, the classic day for taking stock. Here I am, very nearly two years into this ridiculous project, and although I completed the entirety of Doctor Who itself several months ago I still have plenty more material to work through. I will wrap up The Sarah Jane Adventures in a few more days, and then I still have the Australian K9 series to watch, the more recent YA spinoff Class, I have the two Peter Cushing films, three semi-unofficial spinoffs featuring Sergeant Benton and the like, not to mention the recent Thirteenth Doctor's debut season. Oh, and also the recent reconstruction of Shada, the recent BluRay release of the Fifth Doctor's first season, and I expect the upcoming BluRay of the Fourth Doctor's final season will be out before I run out of these things. So yeah, several more months to go before I even have to think about what's next. As for my own personal progress, it feels like this year has been a mixed bag. I am much stronger physically than I was a year ago, able to do a hundred push-ups with little difficulty and two hundred sit-ups with somewhat more difficulty. I am about fifteen pounds heavier than I was a year ago, but some of that is clearly do to increased muscle mass. And in any case, I keep stressing that this isn't about weight (more often than not I am stressing that to myself, because on some days it is awfully hard to believe that). But broadly speaking I am extremely satisfied with what I have accomplished with this ridiculous project, and with how I continue to improve health-wise. So hey, 2018 has been a pretty dang good year overall.

Let me tell you about 200 sit-ups, at least for me: It ain't easy, and it takes a solid half hour to get it done.  Frankly it almost qualifies as a complete workout all on its own. Today was my second time reaching 200. I hope it gets easier over time, because right now it totally kicks my butt. As for The Sarah Jane Adventures, well, I wasn't emotionally prepared to cry today. I thought that wasn't going to happen until Wednesday.

I did it today! I dropped back under 260! It will take a few more days of consistency in order to drop the moving average below that point, but I am very very pleased right now. I also did one hundred push-ups as per usual, the question is whether I can repeat on two hundred sit-ups tomorrow morning? Hopefully... Also, today I watched a particularly good episode of Sarah Jane Adventures that included a plot line with Lady Jane Grey, and you know I'm a sucker for historicals.

I am most certainly a child of the 70's. I was born in 1968, but all of my early pop culture memories come from the 70's. One of the first "scary" TV movies I ever remember seeing was 1974's Where Have All the People Gone, in which most of humanity disappears suddenly and a small group of survivors has to try to figure out what happened and how carry on. I actually remember very little about it from a plot standpoint, but it left a deep emotional impression on me as a child. So I have to say, today's SJA story really brought back those memories in force.

Still catching up, still a day behind. But this day? Oh, this day I got to visit with Jo Grant again for the first time since The Green Death, and it was wonderful. And yeah, the Eleventh Doctor was there, and he was just fine, but really it was just nice to see Jo and Sarah Jane actually meet.

This is a catch-up post. I watched this episode on the 23rd, and then got distracted by - you know - Christmas. So it'll be a short one.

It's not about the weight. I have been saying that from Day One of this ridiculous project. Literally. On my very first post I said: I don't care about any particular goal weight, I don't want to be "skinny" or "healthy" (whatever that means). I just want to feel good about myself physically and mentally. So it's not about the weight. I keep saying it, and keep saying it, and some days I even believe it. But damn it is frustrating right now. Going into Thanksgiving I was making forward progress and set a goal to be below 150 by Christmas. Not only am I nowhere near that goal, but I am back up well over 260. I can tell myself that some of that is muscle mass from the strength training that I have added back in, but...

I dunno. It's just frustrating, that's all I'm saying. Anyway, I did watch a new episode of Sarah Jane Adventures today, so there's that.

Ugh. Really, Sarah Jane Adventures? This is how you are going to end your third season? Ok.

I ended yesterday's post by saying today's episode could be great or it could be awful. Well, it wasn't great...

The bad news:  Ugh, I feel fat. Which is stupid, but true. The ground I gained a few weeks ago was completely lost between a mild illness and a near-brush with GI troubles, and having only been back on the treadmill for two days in a row the trend has not turned back around yet. Much like poor Verruca Salt, I want the world and I want it now. The good news: today I did a hundred and forty six freaking sit-ups. I am back up to my maintenance level of doing a hundred push-ups every other day, and it seems I am within a week of hitting my goal of two hundred sit-ups every other day. So, you know, a day of plusses and minuses. Speaking of minuses, there were some conspicuous absences from today's viewing.