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7 Second Slate

16 Jan

Slate: a quick blurb you say about yourself on camera right before the start of an audition to make it easier for the casting directors to know who they are watching. In your slate you generally say some combination of your name, your agent info and what role you are auditioning for.

Easy peasy. πŸ™‚

acting

Well, there is a new type of slate being used in the acting world and today I filmed one. It was 7 seconds and I had to say my name and something about me that is not about acting. I had 7 seconds to show my personality, make myself sound interesting and basically convince people I have never met to choose me to see in person.

omg! Who can do that in 7 seconds?! lol

Oddly enough I find it harder to do a slate than to do an audition scene. Either type of slate! I think because slipping in to the skin of a character is easy, and since you are no longer you but your character it doesn’t matter what you do in front of the camera cause it isn’t you, it is the character you are being. But a slate? Ugh. You have a super short window of time to show who you are, while saying a blurb of information, and for some reason I always turn in to a bit of a robot when I do a slate.

Today, after I did my second take the camera guy said, and I quote “ok, that was good, let’s do one more and try to have fun” Fun. *rolls eyes* I do have fun when acting but sooooometimes I have to be reminded of that, usually during an especially intense scene, which for anybody reading this who isn’t into acting is kinda normal so don’t go thinking I suck or something lol But to need to be reminded to have fun while doing a slate? Makes me want to kick myself a little bit lol The next take was much better, in fact, it was the one we used, so yay!

For the slate I had to dress in the same outfit I wore for my main head shot and I had to try to make myself look as close to my head shot as possible, this means I had to make myself look purdy πŸ˜‰ lol So today I was that girl who had the makeup and hair done, the cute dress and high heeled boots on and wow is it funny how you get completely different looks when dressed like that vs wearing yoga pants and a hoodie lol

Dressing up like that always makes me feel a bit like an imposter lol

I’m going to pretend you are interested in why these 7 second slates are being filmed and explain where they are used lol Feel free to skip ahead if you *gasp* aren’t curious…though how could you not be? πŸ˜‰ πŸ˜›

There is a website that is used by agents, casting directors and actors for setting up auditions. It isn’t the only way auditions are set up but one of them. As an actor it is my responsibility to have an updated resume, head shots, demo reel and now a slate on the site. My agent can submit my page from that website to casting directors who are posting casting calls and auditions. When my page gets submitted the casting director will take a look, see my head shot, check out my resume and if they like what they see they will then click on my head shot and they will get a pop up page that will show them my 7 second slate. This gives them a chance to hear my voice, see my body language, witness my energy…basically give them more information so they can decide if they want to see me in person or not.

So far there is only one website that is using this 7 second slate, other sites you can upload your demo reel either for free or for a small amount of money and the casting director can watch that instead. This particular site wants to charge me $22 per minute for my demo reel! Ridonkulous! Which means they get my little slate and not my demo reel cause dude, I’m not made of money, eesh.

So yeah, my day was planned around filming something that lasts 7 seconds lol Oh the weird life of an actor πŸ˜›

Afterwards I grabbed some take out sushi, hung out at a friend’s house for a couple hours, came back to my place did some random tidying up, put laundry in, plopped my butt down in my living room chair and proceeded to watch really boring tv lol. I decided I was fed up with my viewing options and was starting to stand up so I could go change and go to the gym when my timer beeped reminding I had to switch over the laundry and poof! my plan of going to the gym went up in smoke cause oops, I’d kinda forgotten I had clothes in the machines and other stuff waiting to go in. I hate being that person who takes up the laundry machines by not removing my stuff within five minutes of the machines being done so no way was I gonna go out, especially when I still had a whole other load to go in the wash. My laundry didn’t finish till 10:49pm and my gym closes at 11pm so guess who completely missed out on a gym visit due to laundry? Yup. This girl. How dumb is that?!

I’m gonna set my alarm for earlier then normal tomorrow morning and see if I can drag my butt out of bed early enough to go to the gym before work but considering how much I hate mornings I’m not holding out much hope I’ll make it to the gym. lol. And no, I don’t even feel bad saying that cause I figure hey, least I know myself! πŸ˜€

Buh-Bye 2013

31 Dec

At midnight tonight 2013 will be gone and we’ll be living in the year 2014.

Colourful 2014 in fiery sparklers

2014.

Anybody else’s mind blown?…just a teeny bit? a smidge?…Yeah, mine too when I actually think about it.

I don’t do the whole New Years Resolution thing, I don’t see the point. If there are things I want to do why wait for Jan 1st to start working towards doing them? Also, if I have to actually sit down and think about what I should add to a list to create a New Years Resolution list well, to me that seems I probably don’t want to do those things all that much or I wouldn’t be having to sit and make a list, I’d already be working towards those things.

Does that make sense?

If I were to make a list the things on mine would be (1) work on acting career (2) get in better shape (3) travel more or at least find a way to save money to go towards travelling.

Not that hard. But ya know what? I’m already working on all those things. *gasp* I know, shocking huh?

Sure, I have a new work out plan I am going to be following but that isn’t because tomorrow is Jan 1st, that is because my most recent challenge didn’t net me the results I wanted and I researched to find a better plan to follow. I researched this back on Dec 22nd and would have already started following it except I got sick and I’m waiting till I am better before I go to the gym. Nothing worse then people at the gym sweating like crazy and breathing super hard while sick…why not just cough right in my face? Speed up the spreading of your germs why don’t ya? Ugh.

Let’s look at the other two things on my so called list shall we?

Work on the acting career? Oh wait, I do that already! Am I not the girl who recently (like two weeks ago) signed with a new and totally awesome agent, has new headshots, updated her various online acting related sites and as soon as she is talking normally (stupid congestion, grr) will be making appointments to take care of some other acting related things that will help promote her to casting agents? Yeah, yeah that is me. Coolio. Sooooo, working on that one but not cause it is on any kind of list…

Hmm, the third is travel more or find a way to save money to go travelling. I love love love to travel! Once I started University I sadly became waaaaay too poor to be able to travel anymore. Boo! 😦 For the past 6 years all I do is go between where I live now and where I used to live, until this past summer! I broke with that little tradition and went to Los Angeles this past August and it was awesome! It’s not like L.A. is far away but (1) I hadn’t been anywhere new in 6 freakin years so it felt amazing to go! (2) I got to hang with a friend I hadn’t seen for years for ten whole days! (3) hello? it was L.A., my acting mecca lol and well, it was vacation. Vacation that wasn’t spent jumping from one friend to another trying to make sure everyone got an even amount of time with me, it was ten days where I called the shots (for the most part) about what I did and where I went. Glorious. πŸ˜€ Sooooo, I already started travelling, even if it was a baby trip and yeah, not cause I’d put that on some sort of list….guess I must have really wanted to do that huh?

Something great that came of that trip was I decided that this no travelling thing can’t go on! I don’t care if I have to backpack everywhere I travel, I haaaaave to travel! My master plan was to alternate years. So, since I travelled summer 2013 I would spend 2014 saving money and travel again in 2015 but I have a family wedding summer of 2014 in England and if I am gonna spend all that money going to England for a wedding might as well check out a country I haven’t been to yet that is in the area, right? I mean, makes sense to me…I had been planning on going to Germany but have decided to switch that to somewhere else, I haven’t decided where yet. The only condition is it has to be somewhere I haven’t been before. I love that condition. πŸ™‚ The trip will definitely be a low budget one but who cares as long as I am seeing a new part of the world? πŸ™‚

where to go? where to go? hmm...

where to go? where to go? hmm…

Perhaps you are someone who does make a New Year’s Resolution List? If so I hope that works for you and whatever you put on that list happens for you in 2014! πŸ™‚

If you’re like me and you don’t make a list don’t let that stop you from thinking of a goal and aiming for it!

2014 can be your year, I sure as hell plan on making it mine! Booyah! πŸ˜€

I’m Back and I Can’t Breathe

28 Dec

I’m sick and I can’t breathe and I have no appetite and I have to work tomorrow and I’m going to bed soon. *yawn*

I managed to catch a cold the day before I left Alberta, boo! Every time I go home for Christmas I get sick. Every. Time. I was so sure I’d managed to ditch that particular tradition but my immune system apparently had other ideas. Stupid immune system. lol

If you take away the getting sick part of my trip I had a great time! Got to hang out a lot with my parents which I am sooooo grateful for, I miss them lots and was glad to have a whole bunch of quality time with them. My last full day there I hung out with various friends. It’s always good to catch up and gossip with my peeps. πŸ™‚ I wish I’d been able to have a longer trip but even as I miss my family and friends that are in Alberta I also miss here. This is where I live after all, where my cat is, my BC friends, my soon to be awesome career (please please please let the acting gods be with me! lol).

One other thing I miss when I’m not here in BC? The weather! I left -21C weather (and colder) this afternoon to come back to +5 with nooooo windchill! wOOt! πŸ˜€ Also no snow, no icy roads, no winter in the traditional Canadian style lol

Normally I get sicker earlier in my Christmas visit and as a result two things happen. The first is my mom takes care of me for a couple days and that is always nice. The other is I lose weight. I’m the only person I know who loses weight every Christmas and ya know what, I don’t care if I lose it cause I am sick, I lose it and I keep it off and all is merry and bright. lol πŸ™‚

This year however I got sick late in the visit, the night before I had to leave. Which means that while my mom (and dad) were sympathetic that I was sick there was no coddling cause I had stuff to do before leaving. I did however get a nice big bowl of my mom’s homemade turkey soup, best soup ever! It was delish! Also, I didn’t lose weight this year. *gasp* In fact, I think I gained weight. Who am I kidding, of course I gained weight there is no “I think” about it!

this would be me if I was a cat

this would be me if I was a cat

I exercised two of my days there but I ate ridiculous amounts of food all but one of my days there sooooooo weight gain. Guess I can’t gloat about how I always lose weight at Christmas anymore…sigh…

I am not worried about it thought cause (1) I’m sick now which means I won’t have an appetite till I am better which translates in to lost weight (yay!) and (2) I was researching before I even left for Alberta a new workout schedule for once I got back to BC which means before I even gained the weight I had a plan to get in better shape. How awesome is that?! It’s not even some weird kooky trend type of thing but a solid work out plan, blatantly stolen from a legit fitness website. Crazy days!

So sure, I have a bit more padding on me (which fyi, did nothing to keep me warm in the -35C weather!) but I’m gonna get rid of it soon so, meh, who cares? πŸ™‚

i-will-finish-what-i-started

 

Yeah I have to start over again after Christmas but I didn’t quit, I just paused a little bit lol Tomorrow I will start back eating healthy and as soon as this cold starts to go away I’ll be at the gym so this is me restarting for perhaps the billionth time lol but at least I am restarting!

If you stumbled a bit over the holidays don’t fret, just get up tomorrow and restart. πŸ™‚ You’ll get to your goal eventually as long as you keep going. Think happy thoughts everyone!

Not Enough Time

20 Dec

I need more time…for everything! lol

I need more time to get back on track with my eating plan in the hopes I will fit in those jeans. I need more time to get packed for my trip home for Christmas. I need more time to find an outfit to wear to my agency Christmas party. I need more time to emotionally prepare myself for leaving my cat at a boarding place. *sniffle* I don’t wanna leave my cat! 😦

I’m not sure if it would be better to add more hours to the day or just add a day or two in to the weekend…as if I could do either! lol πŸ˜›

I had a horrible three days this week when it comes to food. Each day I ate something super high in calories, and what’s even worse is I can’t get specific nutritional information for any of those days so my numbers are guesses, sigh, I hate inaccurate nutritional information, makes me feel like I am cheating lol So now I am freaking out about being able to fit in to the jeans that are hanging on my wall. The goal jeans. The jeans I have been aiming to be able to comfortably wear since last month when I went on this revamped eating plan. Arg!

Packing. Man oh man I suck at packing. Actually, no, that’s not true, I can pack and pack well, you’d be surprised at how much stuff I can fit in to a suitcase! lol I suck at actually getting around to packing…I have this unfortunate habit of trying to pack practically all of my clothes and shoes, realizing I can’t take them all, taking over half the stuff out of the suitcase, squishing what I deem essential in to the suitcase, expand the suitcase, realize I forgot something then try oh so hard to fit it in, give up and decide to fix it the next day but the next day is the day I am leaving so when I try to fix it I am super rushed and always end up with an overweight suitcase when I get to the airport. It’s practically tradition! lol

luckily my suitcase isn't that small! lol

luckily my suitcase isn’t that small! lol

I don’t have time to do any of that this trip so I actually *gasp* wrote a list of what to pack! A list! Eeegads, I feel so grown up…I packed my clothes and the Christmas presents and am shocked at how quickly the process went, maybe there is something to this list thing…Of course the packing isn’t done, I still have to pack my wash kit but I don’t fly out for a couple days yet and I need that stuff till then lol

I spent part of yesterday shopping for a dress to wear Saturday night to the agency Christmas party. I failed miserably. Ugh. Shopping is one of those activities that either makes me ridiculously happy or ridiculously miserable. The party is a formal affair and I don’t have an appropriate dress, crap! I didn’t have a lot of time to shop so picked one shop I usually have success at and basically put all my eggs in one basket…let’s just say I broke the eggs *rolls eyes* lol broken-eggs1Nothing they had looked right on me which was disheartening. I ended up buying two blouses and hoping one of them would match a lace skirt I already had at home. I tried them on with the skirt this evening and the one was ok, not amazing or anything but I guess it’ll hafta do. shrug.

For the first time ever I am putting my cat in to boarding and I am spazzing about it. sigh. He would be too if he knew what was coming. I had a cat sitter but that fell through and an awesome friend said she’d come over daily with her daughters and take care of my little bundle of fur but she is a super busy lady and the more I thought about it the worse I felt. She doesn’t have time for that and even though I knew she’d somehow find the time I (1) didn’t want to cause her even more stress and (2) realized that she’d at most spend an hour a day at my place which would mean he’d be spending 23 hours a day alone and that’s not cool. I put his name on waiting lists for boarding places and was told odds were way slim so I bought him a plane ticket and was all excited he’d be coming with me. Well go figure someone cancelled and he got in to a boarding place so now he is staying here and I’m sad he won’t be coming with me and worried he’ll be miserable. What if he thinks I am abandoning him? Not coming back? Don’t love him? 😦 I took him to the vet this past Tuesday and he only finally forgave me for that today…that’s three days of upsetness over one little trip. What the hell is he gonna do when he is left somewhere for a week?!

On happy notes we had snow again today, more then the last snowfall! There was enough snow I had to brush it off my suv, some people at work made a snowman and everything is gorgeous looking. πŸ™‚

Snow Day!

Snow Day!

Gotta love a snowman!

Gotta love a snowman!

 

Best. Day. Ever.

10 Dec

ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!

Did I say ohmygod! enough times? No, I think I need one more…

Oh. My. Gaaaaawd!Β 

BEST. DAY. EVER! πŸ˜€

Remember how yesterday I mentioned I had an appointment to go to today at 1pm? I purposefully didn’t say what the appointment was for because I am superstitious and didn’t want to jinx anything but it has happened, epic things came of it, and now I get to bring you up to date! *girly squeal*

I had an interview with an agent, an agent at a really good Talent Agency, to see about signing to his roster and have him represent me.

When I initially contacted the agency D responded and said they were only looking to expand their commercial roster right now and if I was interested then yes I could send my info to him. What this means is I would be put in for auditions for commercials but not for tv shows or movies. Well, I want to go for tv and film roles but am aware I have to earn my way up the ladder so I said yes I’d be open to commercial representation. I figured get my foot in the door, after I’ve proven myself talk to them about also repping me for tv shows and film. Sounds good, right? Right!

Well, while we were talking he said that even though they are expanding their commercial roster he can tell that I am “meant for tv and film” and he is going to start me with commercials but push to get me out there for tv and film auditions quickly because it is obvious that is what I am meant to be doing! Oh. My. God! Yesssss! πŸ˜€

What would normally be a one hour interview became a bit over two hours and he offered me a spot on his roster right then and there, no having to wait and let him think about it or meet with the others on his team, he wanted me. Just as I am. Amazing. Just…wow…

We had such an instant and solid connection that I already knew I wanted to sign with him and am so thrilled he feels the same! πŸ˜€

Normally I would never try to get an agent in December, it is such a bad month for that. Agents are already thinking vacation, filming has shut down for the holidays, the only people really working are doing prep things for January (like costume fittings etc), it is traditionally a horrible month to try to find representation. A friend of mine who is also signed with this agency recommended them to me and when I took a look at them I had this feeling…I know, sounds hokey, but that really is what happened, I just had a feeling I should apply. Forget that it is a bad month for it, forget that I am not at my “perfect weight” yet, forget all the logical reasons for not applying, just apply! It is what my gut was saying and I decided to listen. Man am I glad I listened!

The lull in the industry for the next couple weeks is perfect too. D said he will use the next two weeks to get all my online profiles etc looking the way they should, everything can get shifted to show I am signed with D, my brand can be re-worked a bit so when January gets here everything will be good to go and he can start submitting me asap for auditions. Who’d of thought a lull in filming would be a good thing? lol

We talked about getting me in front of casting directors, workshops, my headshots, all kinds of things. He is so pro-active about getting me seen and getting me in the audition room that I feel really confident about what we can accomplish. πŸ™‚

Oh, and get this! He never once said I have to lose weight! He believes in diversification, he knows the trends are changing, people want to see a wider variety of looks on screen and instead of trying to force me to look like everyone else he is going to promote me the way I am, because I have my own look, I am unique, there is no one else that looks like me and the industry is changing and seeing they need that different look. I love this man. I have had agents say they won’t put me out for work until I get 15 pounds underweight! Not “lose a bit of weight” but “get 15 pounds underweight”! that is so unhealthy! Not just for the body but the psyche. Being told you are worthless as an actor until you are underweight by a noticeable amount, not cool. It really messes with a girl, boo! But D, he loves how I look. He loves how I can pull of different “types” (badass, down to earth, quirky etc) and what is great is he noticed while we talked all those different parts of my personality (and more) which means he is observant and will be better able to sell me to casting directors because he really does know I can be all those different things, he isn’t just making it up.

Can ya tell I’m still over the moon about today? lol

This morning I was an unrepresented actor with not a lot of hope for landing a well paying roll. Tonight I go to bed a represented actor whose chances just got a whole hell of a lot better.

I can’t wait for 2014 to get here, I am going to make it my year!

Maijah Lewk Logo

Stuff To Share

28 Nov

Alrighty, so I skipped writing a post yesterday and now I feel I have too much stuff to share and not enough time to type…that and I’m sure I’d lose all my readers before they got through such a long post lol I thought I’d try writing it all in bullet form, see how that goes, shall we give it a go? πŸ™‚

  • I picked up my new headshots today! Yay! The levels of excitement I have over this are through the roof! They turned out great – I always feel like I’m being narcissistic when I say that lol I don’t mean they are great because of me but because of the border and the font for my name and the overall look of the thing. I want to share them with you but I don’t have photo shop so I can’t black out my name along the bottom and while I might be leaning to the side of “it’s ok to share pics of me on this blog now” I don’t want to give you my full name…no offence but I think we still need a bit of space between you an I, don’t you? πŸ˜‰
  • When I was picking up the headshots I was driving through the sketchy part of downtown and saw a homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a building, surfing on his laptop. For some reason this made me really curious about what he was doing, updating his facebook status? Tweeting the random stuff he sees? Looking for an online sale? Job hunting?
  • Two days in a row I made sure to go to Zumba, yay me! I resisted my natural inclination to be lazy and exercised. I’m really enjoying Zumba, I get all sweaty and gross but have lots of fun while doing it. I have trouble thinking of Zumba as real exercise because of how much fun it is. Don’t take this to mean I look good while doing it! Oh heavens no! But hey, most of us look ridiculous to some degree so I figure that’s ok. πŸ™‚
if I keep doing Zuma do I get to look like this? Pleeeeease?

if I keep doing Zuma do I get to look like this? Pleeeeease?

  • I have been searching for a replacement piece for one of my cat’s toys for almost a week, finally got it which means the cat has stopped giving me looks of death every time he tries to use his toy and can’t lol Oh, and because I can’t resist buying the little furball stuff I bought him a soft catnip filled toy in the shape of a pig. Cutest. Thing. Ever!! For those of you who don’t know I heart pigs and seeing my cat scoop a little pig in to his mouth then walk purposefully away so he can have privacy while he plays with it was freakin adorable!
  • Another cat story, last night the cat clawed me in juuuuust the wrong way, ouch! His claw sliced through where my thumbnail connects to the skin of my thumb, along the side of the nail. He got quite deep and it bled for ages. Now it hurts to do pretty much everything and I am still muttering under my breath about getting a dog (in an attempt to put him in his place). He is of course acting super extra over the top cute (not a hard thing for him) and knows that I will forgive him soon…he probably also knows he doesn’t have to fear a dog being brought in here since he is obviously in charge, sigh, I’m so whipped πŸ˜›
I swear it is a lot worse then it looks in this pic and I'm not just a big baby lol

I swear it is a lot worse then it looks in this pic and I’m not just a big baby lol

  • I watched an interesting documentary this evening called Xmas Without China. About how people in the States are so anti-China and anti products being imported from China but could not survive without them. A family got rid of all items in their house for the month of December that were Made In China and were not allowed to buy anything that was Made In China. Lemme tell ya, their place looked bleak once everything was taken away. Even their dishes were gone! It gave them a new perspective on just how much they rely on other countries (specifically China) to survive and how they as a country don’t really produce anything and the guy who came up with the project learned to be a bit less biased towards the States (probably a good thing since he moved there when he was 8 from China and is now at least mid-twenties).
  • I have lost the ability to sleep at night, ugh. I am going to bed later and later and even once I am in bed I don’t fall asleep, I just lie there, for ages. That’d be fine if I wasn’t about to start my work week, meaning I will have to actually get up at a decent time instead of sleep the day away. I’m not sleeping any longer than anyone else (on average) I’m just sleeping 4am-noon instead of 11pm-7am.
  • I’m really sick of the ads for Black Friday. Even though this weekend is not our Thanksgiving the stores up here give all the same Black Friday sales as you would get if you were in the States so there is a constant bombardment of ads via email, tv, billboards, radio, websites and any other way you can imagine telling us to shop! shop! shop! It’s not that I don’t like shopping but having a holiday that is supposed to be about families getting together, spending time with each other and thinking about what you are thankful for being oh-so-over-board commercialized is making me mildly disgusted with the whole thing. I don’t remember it being this bad last year, was it this bad last year? Also, I keep hearing that stores in the States are opening on Thanksgiving? Seriously? People don’t get a day to just chill with their families without feeling like they are missing all the best deals? Oy! I’d be pissed if I normally got it off but now had to work it because some corporate suit decided the store should open so he/she gets their yearly bonus *rolls eyes*
  • I bought mandarin oranges, Mmm! A sure sign of it being the Christmas Season! It’s ridiculous, no way can one person eat an entire box but I’ll do my best and then share the rest. πŸ™‚
Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!

Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!

And that is it for now! πŸ™‚ I’ll type you all later!

The Aftermath

13 Nov

It is amazing how being sick can throw everything off kilter, and I mean everything!Β 

"No More Sick Days Allowed!" says me to me

“No More Sick Days Allowed!” says me to me

This past Monday was my first day feeling healthy, yay! πŸ˜€ I only had one coughing fit, I got to the end of my work day and still had most of my voice and energy, it was all kinds of good. This means that my days off are being used to get back on track food wise, exercise wise, errands wise, acting wise…you get the idea lol.

I have to go agent hunting, sooooo stressful! There is a lot that has to be done prior to submitting your info to agents when going agent hunting. You need new headshots, you need to get those headshots printed, you need to revamp your demo reel and resume. Submissions are all done electronically now so you have to take care of that. Β For some people this might not be a big deal but for me it takes a while because it all costs money, sigh. And not small amounts of money, nope, decent chunks of the stuff, something I don’t have randomly lying around. I got my headshots done a bit ago but haven’t been able to afford to print them. I’m finally able to do that so I’ll be placing the order soon (as in tomorrow when the shop is open). I started the process of revamping my online account so I can electronically submit to agents, I’ll be working more on it after I finish typing this post. I decided I can’t afford to redo my demo reel so I am going to continue using the one I have, luckily I still look the same (for the most part) and I am also working on memorizing a monologue to perform if the agents want to see something a bit newer. Luckily I’ve been working on some independent projects and can provide links to them, or at least to one of them (its on YouTube) and I juuuuust might be able to get a copy of something else I have been working on if I’m lucky! *crosses fingers* So that’s all good, I’m working on getting my submissions out there and while I wish I was moving a bit faster with it I am doing the best I can. πŸ™‚

Food wise, well, hmm, a lot of food went bad while I was sick, oops! What can I say, when I am sick my appetite nose dives, shrug. I did a clean sweep of my fridge this evening and oh wow, soooooo much stuff had to be thrown out (well, technically, it was composted, but still!) I have been talking to a friend at work who is a personal trainer, asking for her help with getting in better shape. The way I work is easy, I need rules, I need someone to give me a list of rules, better yet an eating plan, a very specific eating plan, and I need for them to say “follow this, don’t deviate, deviating is cheating and you won’t lose weight if you cheat, just follow it even though it sucks and I guarantee it will work” or something along those lines lol. I had a friend who isn’t a trainer but who is in really good shape and he did something along those lines a long time ago, I think it was almost 2 years ago, wow, I can’t believe I’ve known him that long, crazy! Anyways! lol When I followed the eating plan he gave me it was hard, it was restrictive, it was not conducive to having any kind of social life but it worked. Something that works is what I want, I want that more then a huge wide variety of food, I want that more then a social life that revolves around eating, I want that more than anything (well, what I want most over anything ever is for my acting career to take off but that’s a slightly different topic…although still related…)Β I told her this and her response, after asking me a lot of questions and learning my eating habits as they are now, was to go Paleo. Ugh. I will do a whole separate post on what I think about Paleo but rest assured, it is not going to be a sunshiny review, I have not “drunk the Paleo kool-aid” so to speak lol. I started re-reading about Paleo, (I researched it last year), so I could refresh myself on the rules and basically skipped to the back of the book to read the recipes lol After reading the recipes I realized that this wasn’t gonna happen, not because the recipes seemed particularly hard or complex but because I just don’t want to cook that much, shrug. My fix for this whole needing-to-cook issue was to revert back to the eating plan my friend gave me two years ago. What he put me on was Paleo but Paleo gone hard core, as in oh.my.god. crazy hard core! Once I get back in to the routine of my hard core Paleo I will once a week try one of the Paleo recipes. This way, my food won’t be quite as boring, but I’ll be easing in to the whole cooking-in-a-whole-new-way-with-all-kinds-of-different-ingredients-thing while still following a strict but good eating plan. To accommodate my return to this hard core Paleo eating plan I went grocery shopping today, with a list! An actual list! lol It actually felt pretty good, going in there with a plan, getting just what I needed, Β knowing that what I was buying was going to be used in a healthy way. I haven’t had that in a while, it was nice getting that back. πŸ™‚

With my exercising, I went to a boxing class with a friend last night. I love boxing! I’ve always loved it but it is so pricey, sigh. It was a one off, I wasn’t actually intending to join the club lol but don’t look at me like that, the friend I went with was intending to join, and did join so we didn’t waste the trainers time. πŸ˜› I maaaay have slightly over done it though, kind of a pushed a bit too hard too soon kind of thing, oops! This morning my voice was not quite all there and the throat was back to hurting and today I’ve been way low on energy, more so than normal. Because of that I didn’t go to the gym today like I intended but will for sure exercise tomorrow. Maybe it’s better to start back with the exercising by going every second day, don’t push the body too too far until for sure it is 100%? At least this is what I am telling myself lol

So the aftermath of my cold is slowly being dealt with, errands caught up with, eating plan back on track, exercising starting back up again, agent hunting preparation underway. That cold put me behind for 2 whole weeks but I’m back in the game now and will make up that lost time quick quick quick! Brace yourself for the awesomeness that I am going to be bringing, it will be epic! πŸ˜‰