Season 3 ends; 200 miles walked

And so with a bang (from a gun in a fast food restaurant) season 3 comes to an end. It's possibly the best X-Files season, certainly the best so far. It has been a Darin Morgan fest with 3 (and a half if you count Quagmire) episodes from my favorite writer. It's also been the season on my favorite informant, X who comes to an sticky demise at the start of season 4.

The best episode of them all was the final Darin Morgan effort, Jose Chung's From Outer Space. It's a confusing episode, and this must be probably my tenth viewing of it. But Jose Chung is very very clever. It's a parody of The X-Files, ridiculing the characters and situations from previous episodes. That was all the more obvious to me as I've been watching the episodes back-to-back. Plenty of shows have parodied The X-Files, but none have done it better than The X-Files itself.

Today marks my 200th mile (well 199.1 so far), and also the loss of another pound. Six pounds lost now from watching 3 seasons -- all without any other changes in diet and exercise.

The missed day

On February 16, it finally happened. My first day without walking an X-File. In my defence a day off seemed appropriate. Mulder and Scully had just completed their famous three-parter with the Anasazi tribe that saw Mulder locked in a box car and apparently burned alive (only, of course to have escaped somewhere in the summer hiatis between seasons 2 and 3). Since then I've skipped another day too, but I'd doubled up the day before, so guess that's OK.

The last few weeks have seen The X-Files at its peak. Some of it's most celebrated and popular episodes have now come and gone: two more double bill episodes focusing on the mythology (in addition to the three-parter I mentioned earlier), and two more wonderful Darin Morgan episodes. This was the time when everybody was talking about the show, its ratings were sky high, and the characters Mulder and Scully were never more popular. It's great to see it all again.

When writers get it right

Many X-Files fans have favorite characters, but it's the truely dedicated who have favorite writers. This week saw an episode from the most celebrated X-Files writer of them all -- Darin Morgan. Darin is the brother of Glen Morgan (one part of the Morgan & Wong double act who wrote dozens of X-Files episodes). He wrote only four episodes (and appeared as an actor in two others), but all of them are among the very best standalone episodes the series has to offer. This week's walk saw his first episode: Humbug. This was something of a turning point for the series, as its the first episode to be as much a comedy as a horror. I've seen every Darin Morgan episode at least a half dozen times, but every new viewing is a pleasure. The story is so well written and so beautifully connected that I always spot something new and clever on each viewing. His other episodes are War of the Coprophages, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, and Jose Chung's From Outer Space. Check them out. Some of my other favorite writers made their first appearance this week too: Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz. An exciting time for fans of the writers :-)

This week also saw another pound dropped in weight. I was beginning to wonder if I'd lose anything at all in Season Two...

100 miles walked; morphing

Last weekend saw me walk my first hundred miles -- all of them in my little home gym glued to the television set.

This week also saw witness to a reminder of the special effect of the 90's -- morphing! You remember morphing, where one person's head morphs into another. A twist of the nose, an adjustment of the eyes, and there you have it, a new face. Morphing was perfect for The X-Files and they certainly made the most of it. Today I watched Mulder throw Scully against a wall, then morph into an alien bounty hunter. What's not to love?!

Darn commercial breaks

One of the pleasures of watching The X-Files on DVD is the absence of commercial breaks. But that hasn't stopped them interfering with my progress. In season one, an average episode is about 45 minutes. That's enough time to comfortably burn over 400 calories. But season two is averaging a mere 43 minutes per episode -- a change that can only be accounted for in increasingly long commercial breaks for Fox. The reason why remains a mystery. By season 2, The X-Files was a big hit so were Fox cashing in by throwing a few more commericals into the breaks? Regardless, this is screwing with my burned calories total (don't Fox execs think of these things?!). I've been coming in below 400 calories for 43 minute episodes which just doesn't seem sufficient. The solution? Increase the incline so I'm now walking up a 6% hill (previous incline was 5%). Additional commercials -- they really do make things an uphill struggle :-)

PS -- no weight loss this week.

Another week, another pound

Although not quite up to par with The Biggest Loser, the Walking The X-Files challenge has now seen me lose a "whopping" 3 pounds, with one pound shed this week. Not an amazing total, but remember all I'm doing is walking an extra 45 minutes a day, without any other changes in diet or exercise.

According to the Medical Review Board, a pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So assuming my current diet keeps my weight stable, if I burn 3,500 additional calories through exercise, I should lose a pound of weight. That's holding true so far: to burn 3 pounds I'd need to expend 10,500 calories. So far I've burned 10,855 and indeed lost 3 pounds. Spooky!

One down, eight to go

After 18 hours over 19 days, walking 64 miles, and burning 10,000 calories, The X-Files season one concludes. A New Years Resolution lasting into Jan 19th is without doubt a record for me, and so far I've not skipped a day. Up at 6:45am for brekkie then on to the treadmill... and the occasional weekend double bill too. Or have I? As the conclusion to season one states: "trust no one!"