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.

The Nightmare Man - Parts 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This story marks the final appearance of Luke Smith as a lead character, and he takes K9 along with him. Behind the scenes, actor Tommy Knight needed to step away from the show in order to focus on school. I have to say, he was given quite a nice farewell.

The story involves him stressing out over moving away to go to University at Oxford, while also suffering nightmares at the hands of the titular Nightmare Man (played brilliantly by Julian Bleach who also played the creepy Carny man on Torchwood's Out of the Rain and more notably played Davros in The Stolen Earth / Journey's End and The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar). The bad guy could have been a low-rent Freddy Krueger, but instead he was his own thang.

From a dramatic perspective I really liked how well the story portrayed the dynamic between Sarah Jane and Luke, and the misunderstandings that come from each of them trying to put on a brave face. There is a particularly nice scene where Luke threatens to just go ahead and leave four days early because he things his mom doesn't even care that he is leaving and that she won't miss him at all. Of course, he is very very wrong.

I also liked that the final resolution of the conflict came not from Sarah Jane's actions, but rather from the trio of Luke, Clyde, and Rani standing together in friendship as a unified front. It was very well done, and made for a particularly nice send-off for Luke. I have no doubt that he will continue to linger around the edges, much like Maria after she left, but his departure makes for a huge shift in the show's dynamics.

At this point, Sarah Jane is literally the only character still around who was present in the first episode. Given that she is the title character, and not a Time Lord so she can't regenerate into a new body, of course the show can't function without her. The real question now is, will the show be able to function without Luke? I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

STATS:

Featuring: Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Clyde Langer, Rani Chandra, K9
Episode(s): The Nightmare Man - Parts 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 7,266 today, 4,164,634 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 2,180.60 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 9,200 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 2,063 total
Weight: 262.94 lbs (five day moving average), net change -44.36 lbs