August 12th starting weight: 154.1 lbs
August 24th Saturday weigh-in: 152.6 lbs
August 31st Saturday weigh-in: 152.1 lbs
Weight change: -0.5 lbs
Total change: -2.0 lbs
At least I lost that extra half a pound I had gained the previous week. I ended up only working out one day last week, it was a futile effort with how sporadic my husband's schedule had been. *le sigh* Oh well, he goes back to his normal schedule this week, which means I'll be able to go back to my normal schedule as well. Huzzah!
-Dawn
Showing posts with label zombie apoc prep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombie apoc prep. Show all posts
Monday, September 2, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
ZAP - Weigh-in #2
August 12th starting weight: 154.1 lbs
August 17th Saturday weigh-in: 152.1 lbs
August 24th Saturday weigh-in: 152.6 lbs
Weight change: +0.5 lbs
Total change: -1.5 lbs
Had a wedding to go to on Saturday, so I didn't get a chance to update then.
I didn't push myself as hard as I wanted to this week, and ended up having a stupid decision eating day late in the week. I have also only been engaging in half my planned workout because of my husband's day shift schedule this week. He'll only be on day shift for one more week, then I can get back to my regularly intended workout schedule. Honestly I can't wait until he goes back to his normal schedule and I can kick my workouts back into high gear.
That said, gaining only half a pound isn't a total travesty. It's a setback, but luckily it's a relatively minor one. I'm not going to let myself get down about it. It's the start of a new week.
-Dawn
August 17th Saturday weigh-in: 152.1 lbs
August 24th Saturday weigh-in: 152.6 lbs
Weight change: +0.5 lbs
Total change: -1.5 lbs
Had a wedding to go to on Saturday, so I didn't get a chance to update then.
I didn't push myself as hard as I wanted to this week, and ended up having a stupid decision eating day late in the week. I have also only been engaging in half my planned workout because of my husband's day shift schedule this week. He'll only be on day shift for one more week, then I can get back to my regularly intended workout schedule. Honestly I can't wait until he goes back to his normal schedule and I can kick my workouts back into high gear.
That said, gaining only half a pound isn't a total travesty. It's a setback, but luckily it's a relatively minor one. I'm not going to let myself get down about it. It's the start of a new week.
-Dawn
Thursday, August 22, 2013
ZAP - Weigh-in #1
August 12th starting weight: 154.1 lbs
August 17th Saturday weigh-in: 152.1 lbs
Weight change: -2.0 lbs
Total change: -2.0 lbs
Not a terrible start.
I took tape measurements on August 12th as well, and will measure again on September 12th to see how things changed over the course of a month. Unfortunately I didn't take any before pictures when I took my measurements though. Oops!
-Dawn
August 17th Saturday weigh-in: 152.1 lbs
Weight change: -2.0 lbs
Total change: -2.0 lbs
Not a terrible start.
I took tape measurements on August 12th as well, and will measure again on September 12th to see how things changed over the course of a month. Unfortunately I didn't take any before pictures when I took my measurements though. Oops!
-Dawn
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
My descent from the wagon, the realization as to why, and my vow to do something about it
As the title says, and is probably evident from my lack of updates on the subject, I fell off the wagon. That said, I didn't fall so far off the wagon that I was being dragged behind it by my ankles. I didn't exercise as regularly as intended, however I didn't completely throw my diet out the window in that I gained 10 lbs. My weight stayed about the same, but still fluctuated a few pounds in either direction. So while there was really no forward momentum, fortunately there was no backward momentum either.
I'm not going to make excuses as to why I fell off the wagon. I'm not going to blame anyone else but myself for it. I'm not going to say the winds were blowing the wrong direction, or the stars weren't aligned quite right. What I will say is I have a pretty good idea why it happened. My priorities weren't what they should be, and I believe I could just never find a suitable balance between mother, wife, homemaker, page admin, gamer, lover of far too many hobbies, and sleep with only 24 hours in a day. When we couple this with that fact that I can be a bit lazy sometimes, and as I said before "my 360 controller [could] win out over running laps around my neighborhood almost every time." Playing video games is an enjoyable way to pass the time, while working out just felt like a chore, so it wasn't hard to sweep my motivation under the rug. Not to mention I later found out the Zombies, Run app didn't even remotely work like it should have on my phone, and since the devs dropped all Windows Phone support, it was never going to either. So I lost the one thing that would have made running tolerable. My heart wasn't in it anymore, and I just didn't care.
Last month my husband and I traveled a few states over to visit my in-laws, and were gone about a week. While I wasn't entirely looking forward to the trip to begin with, and had considered simply staying home by myself, I decided to go because I needed a change of scenery. I had also hoped this would be enough of a break in the day-to-day monotony that we could come home to a fresh start. When we got home, I felt a little bit better, but was still uncertain that anything was truly going to change. A few days later my uncertainty was justified as it seemed we quickly settled back into our old routines. I became frustrated, and any motivation I had was completely thrown out the window.
A few weeks later I decided to dust off the Kinect, so to speak, and start playing around with Your Shape Fitness Evolved again. Maybe the Kinect could make this endeavor fun again. I played a few games, went meh, and sat down and started scrolling through my facebook feed. Then a post by Devious Cosplay caught my attention. It was a Friday, so it was one of their #fitnessfriday posts that they had shared from another page called Superhero Fitness Challenge.
This led me to check out the page and as I started scrolling through the feed, something clicked. We have all seen those Beachbody before and after pictures where the people go from flabby to fabulous, but at the same time I just didn't find myself relating to those people. Maybe because they were "normal," or because they became these totally fitness obsess gurus where all their facebook updates were motivational pictures, healthy recipes, and links to their Beachbody Coach pages in order to buy Beachbody products. That just wasn't me. Working out wasn't fun or enjoyable to me, and I hate the "buy this product from me" type of posts. However as I scrolled down the page, looking through previous posts, seeing these geeky inspirations, seeing others who were just like me gave me a renewed motivation. That same day the UPS man dropped off my order of Popchips (they're about 3 PointsPlus, give or take depending on flavor, for a single serving bag for you Weight Watchers peeps. They're also really tasty), as did my issue of Fitness magazine (I had a free subscription).
This was just the universe lighting a much needed fire under my ass. I hopped off the computer, got out my stationary bike (which Amazon got back in stock a few days after my last ZAP entry), turned on my PS3, and started up Jetpack Joyride. Jetpack Joyride is a simple, yet highly addicting, game with one-button gameplay, and each round will only last a few minutes. Let's not forget that it's the grand old price of FREE. I decided to make my own workout game from it, which I merely made up as I went along. I also intend on working on it later down the line, and hopefully posting it for others to enjoy as well. It wasn't on par with an INSANITY workout, but it still got me off my ass and I felt better about myself afterwards. That was it, I decided to jump back on the wagon full force. *cough*
...starting Monday.
I'd give myself the weekend to get pumped, heal up from the massive soreness induced by my impromptu workout, figure out a schedule, and then dive in head first.
Monday came around and I originally intended to start a workout routine on Your Shape Fitness Evolved, but after the first session I realized how much of a lousy program it was for that. There was just too much time elapsing between exercises, there was no cooldown/stretch included in the workout routines themselves, the game merely pointed me in the direction of the Zen classes which consisted of just Yoga. One pose in particular, which was done more than any other pose, left my knees popping in a way I wasn't entirely comfortable with. Overall YSFE just left me frustrated, and necessarily sore, but not in a good way, due to the lack of post-workout stretching. I decided to put it back on the shelf, and popped in EA Sports Active 2 instead. I put fresh batteries in the heart-rate monitor, updated my profile info, and started up the three week cardio headstart program again. While I knew EA Sports Active 2 wasn't necessarily going to be fun, I knew it was a decent enough program. You go through your warm-up, then your core routine, and then you cooldown with some stretches. Before you started your routine you could opt out of specific exercises if you wished/needed to, and you can skip individual exercises during the workout if you needed to as well. This was a set-up that YSFE severely lacked, or at least one I didn't feel like dedicating the time to finding. I finished my workout, and felt a little bit better.
My workout schedule is now Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday while throwing in extra workouts as I feel like it. Generally this will include going through a routine on EA Sports Active 2, then hopping on either my stationary bike or my Gazelle (which I got secondhand for $40), while watching an episode of [insert show here]. I did say "generally" though, as this week and next are going to work a little different with my husband being on dayshift. You see, I don't like working out in front of other people, not even my husband. This is partially why I opt for working out in my living room instead of going to a gym, and this is also why I didn't work out today. (Lame excuse, I know.) I had intended on working out while he was at work, but he came home ridiculously early. So early, I wasn't even out of bed yet. -_- I also didn't work out on Friday, however that was because I tweaked my back on Thursday (before my workout) in such a way that moving around was rather bothersome. I opted to give my body the extra day to heal up, rather than risk making it worse.
Anyway, as such I'm changing my schedule up a bit. I'm going to attempt to get up with him, or at least before he leaves for work, and then get my workout in before the pip-squeak wakes up. Then after he gets home later in the afternoon, the pip-squeak will go in her room for "quiet time," then we'll do the bike/Gazelle portion of my workout together. This is great because I read in this month's issue of SELF magazine, I'll need to find the specific article to cite the source, but around 4pm your metabolism drops, so a late afternoon workout will help keep it going into the evening.
As for my workout shows; currently I'm finishing up season two of Game of Thrones, but haven't decided which show in my backlog I'm going to move onto next. Perhaps I'll restart Spartacus (all those hot bodies, talk about motivation!), or check out Mad Men since I haven't watched it yet. Though during the two weeks my husband is on dayshift and we're watching together, we've decided on season two of The Walking Dead. The season is short enough that we should be able to watch the whole thing, or at least the majority of it, before he goes back to his normal swing shift schedule.
Ugh... There was so much more I wanted to put into this entry, however it's already after midnight and I should already be in bed if I'm going to get up early with my husband. It doesn't help that this chick is not a morning person in the least, but rather more of a night owl.
In my next ZAP entry I'll try to go over some tips and ideas to try and help out if you feel like you're falling off the wagon yourself.
I got this. Now it's time for me to crawl into bed. Stay geeky my friends!
-Dawn
I'm not going to make excuses as to why I fell off the wagon. I'm not going to blame anyone else but myself for it. I'm not going to say the winds were blowing the wrong direction, or the stars weren't aligned quite right. What I will say is I have a pretty good idea why it happened. My priorities weren't what they should be, and I believe I could just never find a suitable balance between mother, wife, homemaker, page admin, gamer, lover of far too many hobbies, and sleep with only 24 hours in a day. When we couple this with that fact that I can be a bit lazy sometimes, and as I said before "my 360 controller [could] win out over running laps around my neighborhood almost every time." Playing video games is an enjoyable way to pass the time, while working out just felt like a chore, so it wasn't hard to sweep my motivation under the rug. Not to mention I later found out the Zombies, Run app didn't even remotely work like it should have on my phone, and since the devs dropped all Windows Phone support, it was never going to either. So I lost the one thing that would have made running tolerable. My heart wasn't in it anymore, and I just didn't care.
Last month my husband and I traveled a few states over to visit my in-laws, and were gone about a week. While I wasn't entirely looking forward to the trip to begin with, and had considered simply staying home by myself, I decided to go because I needed a change of scenery. I had also hoped this would be enough of a break in the day-to-day monotony that we could come home to a fresh start. When we got home, I felt a little bit better, but was still uncertain that anything was truly going to change. A few days later my uncertainty was justified as it seemed we quickly settled back into our old routines. I became frustrated, and any motivation I had was completely thrown out the window.
A few weeks later I decided to dust off the Kinect, so to speak, and start playing around with Your Shape Fitness Evolved again. Maybe the Kinect could make this endeavor fun again. I played a few games, went meh, and sat down and started scrolling through my facebook feed. Then a post by Devious Cosplay caught my attention. It was a Friday, so it was one of their #fitnessfriday posts that they had shared from another page called Superhero Fitness Challenge.
This was just the universe lighting a much needed fire under my ass. I hopped off the computer, got out my stationary bike (which Amazon got back in stock a few days after my last ZAP entry), turned on my PS3, and started up Jetpack Joyride. Jetpack Joyride is a simple, yet highly addicting, game with one-button gameplay, and each round will only last a few minutes. Let's not forget that it's the grand old price of FREE. I decided to make my own workout game from it, which I merely made up as I went along. I also intend on working on it later down the line, and hopefully posting it for others to enjoy as well. It wasn't on par with an INSANITY workout, but it still got me off my ass and I felt better about myself afterwards. That was it, I decided to jump back on the wagon full force. *cough*
...starting Monday.
I'd give myself the weekend to get pumped, heal up from the massive soreness induced by my impromptu workout, figure out a schedule, and then dive in head first.
Monday came around and I originally intended to start a workout routine on Your Shape Fitness Evolved, but after the first session I realized how much of a lousy program it was for that. There was just too much time elapsing between exercises, there was no cooldown/stretch included in the workout routines themselves, the game merely pointed me in the direction of the Zen classes which consisted of just Yoga. One pose in particular, which was done more than any other pose, left my knees popping in a way I wasn't entirely comfortable with. Overall YSFE just left me frustrated, and necessarily sore, but not in a good way, due to the lack of post-workout stretching. I decided to put it back on the shelf, and popped in EA Sports Active 2 instead. I put fresh batteries in the heart-rate monitor, updated my profile info, and started up the three week cardio headstart program again. While I knew EA Sports Active 2 wasn't necessarily going to be fun, I knew it was a decent enough program. You go through your warm-up, then your core routine, and then you cooldown with some stretches. Before you started your routine you could opt out of specific exercises if you wished/needed to, and you can skip individual exercises during the workout if you needed to as well. This was a set-up that YSFE severely lacked, or at least one I didn't feel like dedicating the time to finding. I finished my workout, and felt a little bit better.
My workout schedule is now Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday while throwing in extra workouts as I feel like it. Generally this will include going through a routine on EA Sports Active 2, then hopping on either my stationary bike or my Gazelle (which I got secondhand for $40), while watching an episode of [insert show here]. I did say "generally" though, as this week and next are going to work a little different with my husband being on dayshift. You see, I don't like working out in front of other people, not even my husband. This is partially why I opt for working out in my living room instead of going to a gym, and this is also why I didn't work out today. (Lame excuse, I know.) I had intended on working out while he was at work, but he came home ridiculously early. So early, I wasn't even out of bed yet. -_- I also didn't work out on Friday, however that was because I tweaked my back on Thursday (before my workout) in such a way that moving around was rather bothersome. I opted to give my body the extra day to heal up, rather than risk making it worse.
Anyway, as such I'm changing my schedule up a bit. I'm going to attempt to get up with him, or at least before he leaves for work, and then get my workout in before the pip-squeak wakes up. Then after he gets home later in the afternoon, the pip-squeak will go in her room for "quiet time," then we'll do the bike/Gazelle portion of my workout together. This is great because I read in this month's issue of SELF magazine, I'll need to find the specific article to cite the source, but around 4pm your metabolism drops, so a late afternoon workout will help keep it going into the evening.
As for my workout shows; currently I'm finishing up season two of Game of Thrones, but haven't decided which show in my backlog I'm going to move onto next. Perhaps I'll restart Spartacus (all those hot bodies, talk about motivation!), or check out Mad Men since I haven't watched it yet. Though during the two weeks my husband is on dayshift and we're watching together, we've decided on season two of The Walking Dead. The season is short enough that we should be able to watch the whole thing, or at least the majority of it, before he goes back to his normal swing shift schedule.
Ugh... There was so much more I wanted to put into this entry, however it's already after midnight and I should already be in bed if I'm going to get up early with my husband. It doesn't help that this chick is not a morning person in the least, but rather more of a night owl.
In my next ZAP entry I'll try to go over some tips and ideas to try and help out if you feel like you're falling off the wagon yourself.
TL;DR - I fell off the wagon, figured out why, and hopped back on the wagon full tilt. No more excuses.
I got this. Now it's time for me to crawl into bed. Stay geeky my friends!
-Dawn
Monday, June 17, 2013
Zombie Apoc Prep is Off to Slow Start
Saying I was going to jump head first into my Zombie Apocolypse Prep routine the week before this year's E3 Expo was probably a stupid idea, as I spent most of my days in front of the computer watching streams. *le sigh* That said, I at least was good and not parked in front of my computer with a bag of potato chips and a two liter of Coke.
Technically my starting weigh in should have been June 8th, but I just ended up eating way too much food too late at night for that to be an accurate starting point, not to mention the whole E3 thing would leave me pretty sedentary. BTW, for those interested, the scale rewarded my idiotic behavior with a lovely 157 lbs. Derp. However my weight this past Saturday, June 15th was 153 lbs, which would be a more accurate starting weight. Unfortunately my body tape is MIA, so measurements may have to wait. *le sigh*
I ordered an armband for my phone, so I can start taking advantage of my Zombies, Run app. (Still bitter about the dropped Windows Phone support though.) I had found a stationary bike for free in one of the local base sales groups, however it was a bit big and just impractical to keep in our living room. I scoured Amazon a bit and found a folding stationary bike that would better suits my needs and space. It also isn't nearly as expensive as I expected it to be, so I'll probably look into picking that up in a week or so. (Basically so it would be delivered after ACE, and not during.) I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone, as I'll be able to get a workout in, and start to tackle my show backlog. I figured trying to stay active during a full 40 minute show or two 20 minute shows would be a feasible goal. With Amazon Instant Video on my 360, I can easily use the Kinect to merely yell at the TV to change episodes if need be, thus cutting down on needing to stop and fiddle with a controller.
Another advantage of the local base sales groups is I managed to snag some bags of ViSalus shake mix for less than retail, so I have added two shakes a day to my daily routine to give myself a bit of a kick start. All things considered, they actually taste rather good. My only complaints are there's still that minor powered health shake consistency going on, but certainly not as bad as some others I have tried. The other complaint is I find myself having to use a hand blender to actually mix it, otherwise the mix will just clump together, and that's just not appetizing at all. It's also pretty versatile, and you're not limited to just the mix. You're encouraged to mix in things like cocoa powder or fruit. I just added a banana and a little bit of Ovaltine to the one I just made, and it was really good. I also don't find myself absolutely starving two hours later like when I used to drink SlimFast if I was running late and didn't have time for an actual meal.
ETA: so apparently in the time since I originally had this written out, the stationary bike I was planning on getting is no longer available. *le sigh*
Technically my starting weigh in should have been June 8th, but I just ended up eating way too much food too late at night for that to be an accurate starting point, not to mention the whole E3 thing would leave me pretty sedentary. BTW, for those interested, the scale rewarded my idiotic behavior with a lovely 157 lbs. Derp. However my weight this past Saturday, June 15th was 153 lbs, which would be a more accurate starting weight. Unfortunately my body tape is MIA, so measurements may have to wait. *le sigh*
I ordered an armband for my phone, so I can start taking advantage of my Zombies, Run app. (Still bitter about the dropped Windows Phone support though.) I had found a stationary bike for free in one of the local base sales groups, however it was a bit big and just impractical to keep in our living room. I scoured Amazon a bit and found a folding stationary bike that would better suits my needs and space. It also isn't nearly as expensive as I expected it to be, so I'll probably look into picking that up in a week or so. (Basically so it would be delivered after ACE, and not during.) I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone, as I'll be able to get a workout in, and start to tackle my show backlog. I figured trying to stay active during a full 40 minute show or two 20 minute shows would be a feasible goal. With Amazon Instant Video on my 360, I can easily use the Kinect to merely yell at the TV to change episodes if need be, thus cutting down on needing to stop and fiddle with a controller.
Another advantage of the local base sales groups is I managed to snag some bags of ViSalus shake mix for less than retail, so I have added two shakes a day to my daily routine to give myself a bit of a kick start. All things considered, they actually taste rather good. My only complaints are there's still that minor powered health shake consistency going on, but certainly not as bad as some others I have tried. The other complaint is I find myself having to use a hand blender to actually mix it, otherwise the mix will just clump together, and that's just not appetizing at all. It's also pretty versatile, and you're not limited to just the mix. You're encouraged to mix in things like cocoa powder or fruit. I just added a banana and a little bit of Ovaltine to the one I just made, and it was really good. I also don't find myself absolutely starving two hours later like when I used to drink SlimFast if I was running late and didn't have time for an actual meal.
tl;dr: Zombie Apoc Prep is off to a bit of a slow start, but it's a start
ETA: so apparently in the time since I originally had this written out, the stationary bike I was planning on getting is no longer available. *le sigh*
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Zombie Apocolypse Prep - [Dawn]
This isn't an overly geeky sort of post, but something a bit more personal, and even more so it's something to hold myself accountable. I also figure it's something that more than a few people can relate to, even if it's not something they actively admit to.
I, like many people, am not happy with my weight. (As I said, if you were looking for an attempted witty and/or funny entry about games and geekery, this isn't really going to be one.) I was a chunky kid late elementary school through middle school, and then the summer before my starting my freshman year of high school I started down the road to a decade long battle anorexia, or rather EDNOS as I was never underweight enough to be considered an anorexic by definition.
When I became pregnant a few years ago, I decided I just couldn't live like that anymore. For one I wasn't so selfish that I would risk the health of my unborn geekling by starving myself. Secondly my anorexic tendencies left me exhausted and feeling like crap all of the time. This was just something I couldn't afford to deal with on top of taking care of an infant. As a result, I ballooned up to about 200 lbs by the time I had given birth to our daughter in January 2010, most of the weigh being packed on in the second half of my pregnancy. After my pregnancy, I opted against stepping on a scale for a long while, and also opted against playing the starvation game.
September 2010 rolled around. We had been at our new base for a few months, I was fat and unhappy, and at a bit of a loss. A neighbor of mine came over with some birthday cake left over from her husband's birthday, and told me she had overheard me talking to a mutual friend about how I had wanted to lose weight and so on. She decided she wanted to start going to Weight Watchers that Saturday, and asked if I wanted to join her as she felt silly going by herself. I was a bit apprehensive, because when I imagined a WW meeting, all I could think of was Kathy Bates and her character in Fried Green Tomatoes. However, asking me while presenting me with leftover chocolate cake was underhanded, but it was effective. I agreed.
That Saturday we went to our first WW meeting. I hadn't been on a scale in months, but figured I was probably in the 160s, 170s at most. You can imagine my surprise when I hopped up on the scale and it told me I was 185 lbs. (I'm only 5'3", so 185 was NOT a flattering weight for me.) It was definitely a real eye-opener, but I was determined to make it work. This left me wanting to lose about 60 lbs to reach my goal. I stuck with the program for a little over a year, but I eventually stopped using eTools and hadn't been going to meetings. It was better for me to cancel my membership, rather than continue to spend $40 for a program I wasn't actively using like I should have been. By the time I had canceled my WW membership though, I had gotten down to 145 lbs, and lost another five pounds after that. All this loss was all with no/minimal exercise. While 140 didn't put me at goal, it did put me at a healthy weight, and one I was definitely happier with than 185. Fast forward about a year and a half, and I'm now back up to about 155 lbs. Which 15 lbs in 19 months isn't a huge gain, it is definitely more of a setback than I would have liked to experience.
Now onto the reason for this particular entry. I have decided I want to jump back on the wagon, so to speak. The problem is I loathe exercising and running. Oh yes, I'm one of those geeks. Though where my 360 controller would win out over running laps around my neighborhood almost every time, I'm not so bad that cool ranch Doritos trump granola, and soda doesn't trump green tea. So at least I have that going for me, right?
Some people are quite comfortable in their own skin, regardless of their body shape, and that's absolutely amazing. I'm very sincere when I say that I'm truly jealous of those people. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those individuals. That said, I'm not doing this for anyone else but myself. I want to be comfortable enough with myself and my body to be able to cosplay a character other than Moira Brown and wear something a bit more flattering than a Vault jumpsuit. I want to wear all the awesome shirts I've gotten from TeeFury, Ript Apparel, and the like without feeling like it was a mistake to get the fitted shirts instead of the unisex sizes. Though one of the best reasons I can think of to get in better shape;
I don't want to be zombie food, ergo the title choice. Frankly I don't think anyone wants to be zombie food, but I'd at least like to stand a decent chance. Going to the gym really isn't all that feasible for me, and DVD workouts just aren't my cup of tea since they offer no actual feedback. It doesn't seem like there's much out there fitness wise that caters to gamers and geeks, although that's not totally true. Here are some of the things/titles I currently have at my disposal in my house;
When I was using EA Sports Active 2 before, I would typically do a workout and then pop in either Dance Central or Kinect Adventures and play those until I was just too tired to play anymore. I'll probably try to get into that habit again some nights, I just may need to expand my non-fitness Kinect selection a bit, as the only other two titles I didn't mention were Rise of Nightmares and Once Upon A Monster.
I only plan on making entries about my "zombie apocalypse prep" progress once a week, maybe twice if I feel there's just something that can't wait until the weekly update. Don't want to turn this into a fitness blog or anything like that, I just know some other geeks can relate to this sort of thing. Finding time, motivation, those sorts of problems. I can also probably guarantee they won't be nearly as long as this one.
I'm going to dive head first into this on Monday, June 10th. This gives me a chance to work out my schedule, get things set up, find my measuring tape, and also gives me a chance to break in my new shoes. I'm currently getting my My Weight Loss Coach profile set up, so I'll probably start keeping track on that this week to start getting into the habit of it. I do plan on taking before and after pictures, as well as measurements, however these items may not be posted right away. Depending on how active this blog gets with other stuff, I may give this project its own separate blog entirely.
If anyone else wants to jump on the wagon with me, THE MORE THE MERRIER! I'd love to hear about other experiences with this as well.
-Dawn
I, like many people, am not happy with my weight. (As I said, if you were looking for an attempted witty and/or funny entry about games and geekery, this isn't really going to be one.) I was a chunky kid late elementary school through middle school, and then the summer before my starting my freshman year of high school I started down the road to a decade long battle anorexia, or rather EDNOS as I was never underweight enough to be considered an anorexic by definition.
When I became pregnant a few years ago, I decided I just couldn't live like that anymore. For one I wasn't so selfish that I would risk the health of my unborn geekling by starving myself. Secondly my anorexic tendencies left me exhausted and feeling like crap all of the time. This was just something I couldn't afford to deal with on top of taking care of an infant. As a result, I ballooned up to about 200 lbs by the time I had given birth to our daughter in January 2010, most of the weigh being packed on in the second half of my pregnancy. After my pregnancy, I opted against stepping on a scale for a long while, and also opted against playing the starvation game.
September 2010 rolled around. We had been at our new base for a few months, I was fat and unhappy, and at a bit of a loss. A neighbor of mine came over with some birthday cake left over from her husband's birthday, and told me she had overheard me talking to a mutual friend about how I had wanted to lose weight and so on. She decided she wanted to start going to Weight Watchers that Saturday, and asked if I wanted to join her as she felt silly going by herself. I was a bit apprehensive, because when I imagined a WW meeting, all I could think of was Kathy Bates and her character in Fried Green Tomatoes. However, asking me while presenting me with leftover chocolate cake was underhanded, but it was effective. I agreed.
That Saturday we went to our first WW meeting. I hadn't been on a scale in months, but figured I was probably in the 160s, 170s at most. You can imagine my surprise when I hopped up on the scale and it told me I was 185 lbs. (I'm only 5'3", so 185 was NOT a flattering weight for me.) It was definitely a real eye-opener, but I was determined to make it work. This left me wanting to lose about 60 lbs to reach my goal. I stuck with the program for a little over a year, but I eventually stopped using eTools and hadn't been going to meetings. It was better for me to cancel my membership, rather than continue to spend $40 for a program I wasn't actively using like I should have been. By the time I had canceled my WW membership though, I had gotten down to 145 lbs, and lost another five pounds after that. All this loss was all with no/minimal exercise. While 140 didn't put me at goal, it did put me at a healthy weight, and one I was definitely happier with than 185. Fast forward about a year and a half, and I'm now back up to about 155 lbs. Which 15 lbs in 19 months isn't a huge gain, it is definitely more of a setback than I would have liked to experience.
tl;dr weight loss roller coasters suck
Now onto the reason for this particular entry. I have decided I want to jump back on the wagon, so to speak. The problem is I loathe exercising and running. Oh yes, I'm one of those geeks. Though where my 360 controller would win out over running laps around my neighborhood almost every time, I'm not so bad that cool ranch Doritos trump granola, and soda doesn't trump green tea. So at least I have that going for me, right?
Some people are quite comfortable in their own skin, regardless of their body shape, and that's absolutely amazing. I'm very sincere when I say that I'm truly jealous of those people. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those individuals. That said, I'm not doing this for anyone else but myself. I want to be comfortable enough with myself and my body to be able to cosplay a character other than Moira Brown and wear something a bit more flattering than a Vault jumpsuit. I want to wear all the awesome shirts I've gotten from TeeFury, Ript Apparel, and the like without feeling like it was a mistake to get the fitted shirts instead of the unisex sizes. Though one of the best reasons I can think of to get in better shape;
I don't want to be zombie food, ergo the title choice. Frankly I don't think anyone wants to be zombie food, but I'd at least like to stand a decent chance. Going to the gym really isn't all that feasible for me, and DVD workouts just aren't my cup of tea since they offer no actual feedback. It doesn't seem like there's much out there fitness wise that caters to gamers and geeks, although that's not totally true. Here are some of the things/titles I currently have at my disposal in my house;
- Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix series (Xbox) - I only own the original Xbox installments of the series. DDR is great cardio, as jumping around on a plastic dance pad for 30 minutes is still a better workout than spending those 30 minutes sitting on the couch. You may look like a total idiot doing it, but you look like an idiot in the comfort of your own living room. You don't have to be super coordinated, or even super good at the game to enjoy it and get the benefit of a workout.
- My Weight Loss Coach w/pedometer (DS) - I recently picked this up from Hastings for a whole $0.99, and it was a new copy to boot. Though because I just picked it up last week, I haven't actually put it in my DS yet to poke around with it. The main drawback of this one is that the original DS/DS Lite is required to use the pedometer, as it plugs into the GBA slot. Luckily I still have my original DS that I can use specifically for this purpose. If nothing else, I got a pedometer for $0.99.
- EA Sports Active 2 (Xbox 360 w/Kinect) - I used this title before. It's not perfect, but it's not the worst thing ever either. The heart-rate monitor is a nice addition, when it actually works as intended, but the same can be said about the Kinect itself so... Yeah... In my opinion the biggest downside of EA Sports Active 2 was it isn't fun at all. It is strictly a workout program devoid of mini-games and other things like that. However as far as a fitness title goes, it does its job. (NOTE: Apparently EA took the online services for EA Sports Active 2 for all systems offline in April 2012. I don't know how this will impact the playability of the software. - http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates)
- Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (Xbox 360 w/Kinect) - This one I bought because EA Sports Active 2 lacks yoga, however I wasn't too impressed with what little yoga I did try in Your Shape. I also wanted something that would provide more amusement than watching paint dry in the middle of an Alaskan winter. I haven't dabbled in Your Shape nearly as much as I have with EA Sports Active though. The lower calorie burned count can be a bit depressing after using EA Sports Active 2 due to the absence of the heart monitor, but the mini games make it a bit more fun and it feels less like a chore.
- UFC Personal Trainer (Xbox 360 w/Kinect) - I actually don't have any personal experience with this one. I had snagged it because my husband had shown interest, and it was part of a B2G1 deal on Amazon, so I got it for free anyway. However it is still at my disposal, so best to include it anyway.
- Dance Central (Xbox 360 w/Kinect) - While not a fitness title, like DDR it's great cardio, but unlike DDR it's more than just jumping around. Since you're actually dancing, or at least attempting to do so, you're working more than just your legs. Unfortunately I never picked up any of the later installments in the series, but I may have to look into remedying that.
- Kinect Adventures (Xbox 360 w/Kinect) - Again, not technically a fitness, but it does the trick, especially if you're trying to reach platinum on all of the activities. Anyone who has a Kinect, unless they bought it secondhand, should have have this game. If not, it can be found for relatively cheap.
- Zombies, Run (Windows Phone, also available for Android and iOS) - I know some of you may be thinking "buwha-?" but let me explain. Zombies, Run makes running a lot less of a chore, even for someone who absolutely loathes running. I loathe running more than I loathe the yearly announcement of yet another Madden title. However Zombies, Run is a really unique and clever app. Personally I'm more than a little bitter than they dropped support for the Windows Phone, especially since they did so quietly and didn't bother to make a real announcement about it, but I'm getting away from the point. Zombies, Run puts in the shoes of Runner 5, quite literally. It's a running app scrambled with a radio drama, however you're actually part of the scenario that's playing out.
When I was using EA Sports Active 2 before, I would typically do a workout and then pop in either Dance Central or Kinect Adventures and play those until I was just too tired to play anymore. I'll probably try to get into that habit again some nights, I just may need to expand my non-fitness Kinect selection a bit, as the only other two titles I didn't mention were Rise of Nightmares and Once Upon A Monster.
more tl;dr blah blah blah, fitness games and stuff
I only plan on making entries about my "zombie apocalypse prep" progress once a week, maybe twice if I feel there's just something that can't wait until the weekly update. Don't want to turn this into a fitness blog or anything like that, I just know some other geeks can relate to this sort of thing. Finding time, motivation, those sorts of problems. I can also probably guarantee they won't be nearly as long as this one.
I'm going to dive head first into this on Monday, June 10th. This gives me a chance to work out my schedule, get things set up, find my measuring tape, and also gives me a chance to break in my new shoes. I'm currently getting my My Weight Loss Coach profile set up, so I'll probably start keeping track on that this week to start getting into the habit of it. I do plan on taking before and after pictures, as well as measurements, however these items may not be posted right away. Depending on how active this blog gets with other stuff, I may give this project its own separate blog entirely.
If anyone else wants to jump on the wagon with me, THE MORE THE MERRIER! I'd love to hear about other experiences with this as well.
-Dawn
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