EDITING PHYSIQUE

I’m now on the sixth day of my LEOINEDES DIET. My ideal weight used to be 140 since I’m 5’8. But for the past year I indulged myself in the DIONISIAN style of living. Which is eat as much as you like and be damned about the weight. So I ballooned. But I told myself that I could always burn everything in the gym. Initially it worked. So the flab became muscle and I could run like 20 minutes on the treadmill.

All of that changed when I started editing the projects that I was involved in. When I was working for TV. I used to pity the editors. You can tell if someone’s an editor by the way they look. THEY’RE ALL FAT!

And you can’t blame them that’s the nature of the job. They sit 24 hours a day inside an air-conditioned room as they trim and enhance shots and footages! The rooms are lit very low and when you’re deprived of sleep all you can do to regain the energy and your conscuiness is to eat high calorie food and lots of coffee.

The most exercise an editor indulges in is when they swivel their chair left to right, to slip in a videocassette or to touch up something on the audio. Occasionally they would stretch their legs and then look at you with eyes bleary and devoid of thought.

“ WHATS THE NEXT SHOT, DIREK? “

I had an editor once. We used to work out in the same gym and when I hired him he was lean and taunt. I told him that I’d give him four months before his body dissolves into a sea of fat.

EDITOR: “ That would never happen. I will stick to this regimen. Even if I don’t sleep.”

FLIM: “ Brave words from a newbie. Id give you four months. Three if you get a girl friend.”

I was wrong. He ballooned in seven months. But the weight he put on made up for all the difference.

FLIM” FUCK! YOU ARE BIG! WHAT HAPPENED? ”

EDITOR: “ I got a girlfriend.”

FLIM: “ Yes, blame it on the poor girl.”

EDITOR: “ And I had so many projects, left and right.”

FLIM: “ Yeah that happens! “

Editing is the most thankless job in the world. When I was editing my films I had a gym installed so that in between sessions I could work out. But now in the new studio there’s no room to put the equipment in.

And now that I’m editing three projects at the same time with infinitely long running times I spend more time in the editing suite that I would really like.

The gym sessions that I used to follow regularly has now abated because of the workload. The traffic eats up an hour going there so multiply that in a week you realize that 14 hours of your life would be lost just staring at the windshield while an idiot cop flags down and fleeces an erring motorist!

So nix the gym and just concentrate on the cuts. And in no time, you can see your stomach pushing the waists of your pants. And you can ‘t tell when your stomach became a gut!

Now being overweight is ok if you just intend to stay put and face the three flickering monitors all your life. But when you do the camerawork yourself …well now you’re in deep trouble!

AGILITY and stability are the main ingredients in making great shots! Those two are
Seriously jeopardized when you become overweight! You sweat more and you pant more and panting is bad when your hand holding a cam. You can see it on the viewfinder!

But it wasn’t that that force me to undertake the LEONIEDES diet. It was when I look at the mirror and stare at my stomach. Resolving to go on a diet is very easy. It’s taking the first step of not eating too much that is difficult. Especially when you’re a fantastic cook!

When you taste that slice of heaven, your mind goes…” Ohm wow! Id just take another bite and I can go on a diet tomorrow and then tomorrow…ETC.

Until you look back and it’s been months since you promised to stop over eating. But once you start and the longer you maintain it the easier it becomes.

I have the weighing scale clutched to my chest. I check like four times a day. And every time I eat I always get a small plate. VERY VERY SMALL. So you can overfill it but your stomach wont.

Next when I’m faced with a formidably delicious fare I always do a mental exercise.
I visualize the days that I have deprived myself. The long climb that I did towards MOUNT HELACON. IF I BETRAY MYSELF WITH ONE MORE MOUTHFUL
THEN ALL THE WILL POWER THAT I HAVE MUSTERED IN THE PAST DAYS would be for naught!

That’s just one of the mental exercises that I use for the LEOINEDES DIET. But I sued it before and it worked. Of course Cess tells me that any day now I would succumb to the dark side and would pig out! DAMN I LOVE THAT WOMAN!