Could You Go 40 Days Without Being Mean? — The Cut – Given that they include sarcasm in there, I’m gonna have to say “No.” (I’m amused by imagining Kylie trying this experiment. I think her head might actually explode.)

Lessons on Women and Power Dressing — The Cut – Interesting thing to think about. I want to be someone who has a definable personal style, but I’m constantly getting distracted. I can never quite get it together to ruthlessly curate and edit a wardrobe to just things that go together. A few years ago someone gave me a tip that Sportscraft would suit me, and I’ll since bought several of their dresses. But they’re mixed in my closet with dresses from Op Shops, Target, Heart of Haute, Myer, and of course, dresses that I’ve sewn myself. If I’ve got an important meeting, I usually dress a bit more “grown-up.” (That’s how I actually think of it in my mind.) But at the end of the week on a Friday, all bets are off. Yesterday as I walked to work in a homemade sundress, cardigan, and sneakers, I found myself standing at a crosswalk next to a 10-year-old wearing pretty much the exact same outfit. Hmm. I secretly wondered if I looked ridiculous, a grown 37-year-old woman dressed like a grade schooler. I went from feeling happy and comfortable to a bit embarrassed. Maybe the real problem is that I OVERTHINK EVERYTHING, RIGHT?

I did dress “corporate” for the three months I worked at CBA, and I hated every minute of it. I hated having to always tuck in my shirt; I hated having to carry a “sensible purse”; I hated hated HATED women’s slacks. It was such a relief to get out of there and back into a more “startup” style culture where a bit more personal expression was expected. Maybe that’s why I haven’t settled on a work “uniform” yet – because my career has meant that I never really had to.

Still, my style has changed a little. The big change is that I wear dresses a lot, LOT more than I did just a few short years ago. When I first participated in Frocktober in 2011, one of my co-workers at the time commented with surprise that “You never wear dresses!” And now I’ve got enough for every day of the month plus some. And now here we are a mere three years later, and when I wear jeans now people comment on the novelty of it. So I guess that’s pretty much the extent of my style evolution these days.

Oh, and I wear a little makeup now, but only when I feel like it.

The Hobbit: The Tolkien Edit | Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy recut into a single 4-hour film – Interesting! I would like to see that. I did laugh when I read this bit about one of the additional cuts s/he went back to make: “taking out the Bombur “barrel bounce” (which is apparently the bane of some people’s existence)”.

Huh. I just realised that I used “he” in the original version of this post, automatically assuming that it would be a guy who did this. That bothered me. I changed it.

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’-inspired burger returns to UK pub – NY Daily News – I’ll be honest. My first thought was, “What, does it have LUBE ON IT?”

I’m getting to the stage of weight loss now where people are really starting to comment on it. (13.3kg so far.) Above is a graph of my daily weigh-ins since January of 2014. I have a Fitbit Aria scale, but simply using Fitbit’s dashboard can be confusing because the numbers jump a lot. That’s why I also use TrendWeight to pull in the data and give me a smooth trendline from a rolling average. It makes it a lot easier to visualise whether a big jump (and as a lady, I can easily jump a kilo or more in 24 hours) is just a momentary blip or part of a larger trend.

While I did start 2014 on a health kick determined to shed some weight, I can’t claim that all of what happened was intended. I got a big promotion that February and spent the next six months working my ass off (pretty literally). It wasn’t particularly healthy, in that I was often skipping meals. I had trips to the US in April and June that threw off my routines as well. Fortunately by September things had evened out and I was pretty constant. My weight was starting to creep up by the end of the year though, which is why I’ve recommitted to Whole30. I feel really good. My knees are hurting less. And though I really miss alcohol and the occasional bit of dairy, I’m starting to think I really should stay as close to this going forward as I can. It suits me. I’m still firmly in the “overweight” BMI category, but at the rate I’m going, I won’t be there for very much longer…

Breakfast: Two eggs fried in ghee over leftover roast pumpkin and broccoli
Lunch: Leftover curried broccoli soup
Dinner: Leftover paleo Text Mex casserole

The Old Reader: behind the scenes – What The Old Reader Readers Are Reading – I wonder to what extent Flipboard has further cannibalised RSS usage? I’ll admit that I actually read Flipboard more, just because it looks a lot nicer.

Why are Some Croissants Straight, and Others Curved? | The Everywhereist

Why You Should Never Worry Alone — Science of Us – Good advice. I’m a perpetual worrier, and it causes me issues. (Search the blog for “stomach” if you’re curious.) I’ve gotten better at sharing things with the Snook though, which helps. Sometimes I can’t even put it into words, but he knows when I say “Everything is ruined,” it’s time to pull me back from the abyss.

The wearable tool, the new Leatherman Tread – Leatherman Blog – I thought it looked dorky til I saw the version with the watch face. Wow. That’s pretty neat!