Nyxkyria - Undead Starting Zone

[Nyxkyria]

Hi I'm Sarah/Nyxkyria and I'm based in NYC. I've been familiar with Nerd Fitness since about 2008/9 when it started, but never really got into the boards or anything. Medical issues, drinking too much, and general laziness have led to me putting on way more weight than I'd like. I hate the way I look in the mirror and none of my clothes fit. I have struggled with ED behaviours in the past, so any sort of exercising and "restricting" makes me nervous that I won't be able to do it without getting into a bad head space. As far as nerd interests: Game of Thrones/ASOIAF -- Sansan 5ever! HP since 1997 (I'm having a crappy day and just watched Potter Puppet Pals and I feel a bit better), and Buffy helped me realize that I wasn't a weirdo! (Thanks Willow!) I play more WoW and Civ5 than one person should. I tend to role Mages - usually Undead, but I play around. 

 

My main quest for this six weeks, is going to be to get sober(ish). I know that me attempting to go completely cold turkey will end in failure, so I'm looking to manage my drinking. I also hope to lose a few pounds in the process, but if not, no biggie. My 3 SMART quests are: not to go to the bar next to my house (I don't have an off button there), decrease drinking one night a week until I am not drinking at all, and decrease the amount by 15%-20% each week. So instead of drinking every night, then I'll only drink 6 nights a week and when I do, it won't be the whole container/bottle, only 3/4 until I'm not drinking anymore. 

 

As this is one of the cruxes* of my issues, tackling this first can only lead to better things. On to DeathKnell! 

*Miriam/Webster says that cruxes/cruces are both correct forms.

[Grumble]

3 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

I've been familiar with Nerd Fitness since about 2008/9 when it started, but never really got into the boards or anything

 

Preach. I joined back in 2013 and didn't become a participant until this year. 

 

14 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

My main quest for this six weeks, is going to be to get sober(ish). I know that me attempting to go completely cold turkey will end in failure, so I'm looking to manage my drinking. I also hope to lose a few pounds in the process, but if not, no biggie. My 3 SMART quests are: not to go to the bar next to my house (I don't have an off button there), decrease drinking one night a week until I am not drinking at all, and decrease the amount by 15%-20% each week. So instead of drinking every night, then I'll only drink 6 nights a week and when I do, it won't be the whole container/bottle, only 3/4 until I'm not drinking anymore. 

 

Good for you! It looks like you not only have a want to make a change for the better, but you have a solid plan in place to slowly taper down instead of big jumps. I can speak from similar experience that taking it slow works the best. Look forward to following your progress!

[Nyxkyria]

Thank you. It's daunting and I'm glad I have the next few days off to get my sleep schedule back on track. As I think this is the root of a lot of things, it seems like the most logical way to begin. 

 

Huzzah! On getting back into it for real. It isn't easy, but we're doing it. 

[Hazard]

34 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

My main quest for this six weeks, is going to be to get sober(ish). I know that me attempting to go completely cold turkey will end in failure, so I'm looking to manage my drinking. I also hope to lose a few pounds in the process, but if not, no biggie.

 

My 3 SMART quests are:

1. not to go to the bar next to my house (I don't have an off button there),
2. decrease drinking one night a week until I am not drinking at all,
3. and decrease the amount by 15%-20% each week. So instead of drinking every night, then I'll only drink 6 nights a week and when I do, it won't be the whole container/bottle, only 3/4 until I'm not drinking anymore. 

 

 

Hello Nyxkyria!  Welcome to the game!

 

Your Main Quest and your 3 subquests all look well-designed.  I think you're good to go! 

 

 

[Nyxkyria]

Thank you! I'm positive about being here, and I've already started decreasing my intake. 

 

Any advice on battle logs (ie what? how? where to post?) 

 

Gracias

[Grumble]

1 minute ago, Nyxkyria said:

Thank you! I'm positive about being here, and I've already started decreasing my intake. 

 

Any advice on battle logs (ie what? how? where to post?) 

 

Gracias

 

If you want to use one, you can go here

 

My two cents

 

Not necessary unless you want to track specific things every day well beyond your challenge. I track my workouts and food via apps and don't feel super inclined to duplicate it in a battle log. Almost all of my challenges I track workouts anyway. The other advantage I've seen is once you select a guild, posting in the battle log lets members of other guilds see your activity whereas challenges tend to be focused more on the members of the guild you are challenging in, with some exceptions. So a lot of it come down to how big and varied you want your potential audience to be.

[Nyxkyria]

Okay Grumble, your end quote makes me happy. And you seem to know what you're talking about. NF Friends? I'm still learning my way around the boards, though it seems my rudimentary HTML from LJ is coming back to me.  

[Nyxkyria]

I'm not sure if these is where I post my progress or not, but tonight and last night were the first nights I haven't had spirits in months. I did get "girlie drinks" aka those Smirnoff ice things, because the other night when I went completely cold turkey, I literally didn't sleep at all and I had work at 8am. That was a fun day. But babby steps... babby steps. 

[Hazard]

28 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

I'm not sure if these is where I post my progress or not

 

 

Yes.  This is your challenge thread for the (Sept 17 to Oct 14) challenge period.  Post your updates here.

 

 

[Jord]

9 hours ago, Nyxkyria said:

I'm not sure if these is where I post my progress or not, but tonight and last night were the first nights I haven't had spirits in months. I did get "girlie drinks" aka those Smirnoff ice things, because the other night when I went completely cold turkey, I literally didn't sleep at all and I had work at 8am. That was a fun day. But babby steps... babby steps. 

 

Baby steps are still steps! great job with avoiding the troublesome drinks. I myself know that is a lot harder than some people realize. 

 

It's good that you are making plans for how you are going to handle the cravings. 

 

Have you thought of ways to keep yourself busy when you are craving a drink? 

[Grumble]

12 hours ago, Nyxkyria said:

Okay Grumble, your end quote makes me happy. And you seem to know what you're talking about. NF Friends? I'm still learning my way around the boards, though it seems my rudimentary HTML from LJ is coming back to me.  

Consider yourself stalked followed friended.

 

24 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

Baby steps are still steps! great job with avoiding the troublesome drinks. I myself know that is a lot harder than some people realize. 

 

It's good that you are making plans for how you are going to handle the cravings. 

 

Have you thought of ways to keep yourself busy when you are craving a drink? 

 

This is a good point. Keeping yourself busy is only successful so far, but as was mentioned, baby steps. And it's good that you recognized that your body has become adapted to something and that you can't just walk away from it.

 

We're here if you need us!

[Nyxkyria]

Quote

Have you thought of ways to keep yourself busy when you are craving a drink? 

I need to get back into crocheting and I have a bunch of reading that I need to get done for my Votary program. So I have distractions, I just need to do them. 

 

Last night was a stumble. Bf is also trying to get himself together and we both fell down. Today is a different day, and I remember how bad I felt this morning. I have too much to get done both personally and professionally to continue this pattern. 

 

[Nyxkyria]

So two girlie drinks and half a pint later last night - I haven't slept a wink. Literally. And I just got home from work. (I work retail). What I HAVE done is purchase foods to make my breakfast (frittas) and lunches (ground beef, brocolli rabe and quinoa) and now to find Tupperware to put them in (I just moved in with bf and everything is still in boxes). I'm not quite trusting this scale as my number continues to go up, but my clothes don't feel different. So I'm going to rely more on measurements for now. Also - the way of the scale is madness. I'm sure I'll feel much better when I'm over the alcohol/period bloat. Headed to the gym to do my 30 mins of walking. Which I haven't done in WEEKS. A bit nervous to see how that is going to go, but it needs to be done. 

[Grumble]

29 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

So two girlie drinks and half a pint later last night - I haven't slept a wink. Literally. And I just got home from work. (I work retail).

 

Sounds like the drinks are about where you want them, which is great! The sleep, not so much. Do you normally have problems sleeping or is this partially attributed to the reduced alcohol consumption?

 

29 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

What I HAVE done is purchase foods to make my breakfast (frittas) and lunches (ground beef, brocolli rabe and quinoa) and now to find Tupperware to put them in (I just moved in with bf and everything is still in boxes).

 

Meal prep, even if only for a couple a days a week, is fantastic. Congrats on the cohabilitation.

 

29 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

I'm not quite trusting this scale as my number continues to go up, but my clothes don't feel different. So I'm going to rely more on measurements for now. Also - the way of the scale is madness. I'm sure I'll feel much better when I'm over the alcohol/period bloat.

 

Scales lie. Well, not really, but they don't give us the whole truth. Yes, you're weight goes up, but it may be muscle or water or fat. Hell it could even be a bad gravity day. No way to tell with just a scale, even ones with the biometric option. Also, thank god I don't have to do the whole period bloat thing. Several of our other warriors are very open about how much it sucks, so I'm way more informed than I ever was.

 

29 minutes ago, Nyxkyria said:

 Headed to the gym to do my 30 mins of walking. Which I haven't done in WEEKS. A bit nervous to see how that is going to go, but it needs to be done. 

You're going to the gym. Don't be nervous. The fact that you're going is a good sign. Just keep doing these.

[Nyxkyria]

Quote

Sounds like the drinks are about where you want them, which is great! The sleep, not so much. Do you normally have problems sleeping or is this partially attributed to the reduced alcohol consumption?

I do have trouble sleeping. Getting to sleep actually. Once I'm asleep - I'm out, but I have a hard time getting tired/shutting my brain off. Hence the starting to drink in order to "pass out" - I know it isn't really good sleep or restful sleep. But waking up this morning not semi-hungover was kind of nice. Though I'm still exhausted.

 

Quote

Meal prep, even if only for a couple a days a week, is fantastic. Congrats on the cohabilitation.

Thank you! I say JUST moved in, but I moved in in May. We've been dealing with all kinds of family stuff and home improvement stuff and the house is nowhere near where either of us wants it - the kitchen being the main part. So it's not really the most usable room currently - which contributes to this entire mess. If I don't meal prep with the limited resources I have, we tend to result to take out - though I do make the best decisions I can there (most of the time). 

 

Off to the gym.

[Nyxkyria]

I've spent the day doing meal prepping. I made the tortilla espanola and my ground beef with broccoli rabe and quinoa. It was a struggle not to eat the entirety of the BR while I was making it. Man, I love that stuff. Drinking is still slowly decreasing. 2 days since spirits and only about half a bottle of wine tonight, though that may change in order to get to sleep. It's happening - slowly. Bodyweight 2A/B workout tomorrow. See y'all on the flip side.

[Jord]

On 9/22/2017 at 2:33 PM, Nyxkyria said:

I do have trouble sleeping. Getting to sleep actually. Once I'm asleep - I'm out, but I have a hard time getting tired/shutting my brain off. Hence the starting to drink in order to "pass out" - I know it isn't really good sleep or restful sleep. But waking up this morning not semi-hungover was kind of nice. Though I'm still exhausted.

 

I struggle with this too. I talked to the hubs about this. In the summer I use a fan for the white noise to help me sleep but it's going into winter here. I downloaded a white noise app for my phone and he supports me using it. I go to bed before him but set it to stay on until he goes to bed, so it's helping us both. 

 

Do you both go to bed at the same time? If you don't, i also suggest podcasts to listen to to help you fall asleep. 

 

If I lay in bed in the quiet dark, I lay there and all of my anxieties and worries pile on me at once and that's when i start thinking I need something to put me to sleep. 

 

On 9/22/2017 at 2:33 PM, Nyxkyria said:

Thank you! I say JUST moved in, but I moved in in May. We've been dealing with all kinds of family stuff and home improvement stuff and the house is nowhere near where either of us wants it - the kitchen being the main part. So it's not really the most usable room currently - which contributes to this entire mess. If I don't meal prep with the limited resources I have, we tend to result to take out - though I do make the best decisions I can there (most of the time). 

 

What kind of work does the kitchen need done? out of curiosity. 

 

11 hours ago, Nyxkyria said:

I've spent the day doing meal prepping. I made the tortilla espanola and my ground beef with broccoli rabe and quinoa. It was a struggle not to eat the entirety of the BR while I was making it. Man, I love that stuff.

 

But you did the thing! Meal prep done.  

 

11 hours ago, Nyxkyria said:

 

Drinking is still slowly decreasing. 2 days since spirits and only about half a bottle of wine tonight, though that may change in order to get to sleep. It's happening - slowly.

 

Well done!

 

[Nyxkyria]

Update: Meal prep breakfast and lunch for the last week done - it was great. I didn't have to spend extra $$ and it was surprisingly tasty. The gym only happened the one day, but I've been consistently getting 10K steps a day, which I wasn't getting since I wasn't able to wear my fitbit at work, but have since grabbed a Bellabeaf Leaf, that I can wear as a necklace. I think it's fairly accurate. I have a festival tomorrow so I'll be getting quite a bit of a walking in - going to attempt to get in some body weight workouts this weekend. 

 

The drinking has shifted - I haven't had spirits in several days and am consistently decreasing my alcohol intake as planned. I have had some serious trouble sleeping, but that is to be expected considering the amount I've been drinking in the past few months. 

 

So, I'd say first week has been def diet progress, kinda drinking progress, and still need to work on exercise progress.

[Saibot]

16 hours ago, Nyxkyria said:

 

So, I'd say first week has been def diet progress, kinda drinking progress, and still need to work on exercise progress.

That's a really good start

 

I can  relate to the sleeping problems, had those for a couple of days after i reduced  my acohol consumption after a long period of drinking almost every day.

i started listening to "guided meditation" videos on youtube. they helped me with relaxing and shutting my my thoughts off. gave me some great dreams too, and i usually fell asleep after a couple of minutes. might be something to look into, if sleeping does not get easier?

[Nyxkyria]

Thank you, @Saibot. I will look those up. My Leaf has a meditation counter/some guided ones built into them, but I'm aiming for 20 minutes a day, so that would definately work for before bed.  

[Inazea]

Did you make it to Brill yet?

 

[Nyxkyria]

And that's meal prep week 2 in the bag. I could get used to this. Also have started a new protocol of only 2-3 drinks max when out and none at home if I can help it. So far that's resulted into being up until 5am, so I'm keeping some emergency gin, but I honestly don't really have the desire to drink anymore. The straight alcohol that I used to be able to chug is actually really burny now -- that's a plus.  

 

I've set up my goal structure and that is actually more motivating that I thought it would be. I have three categories: Meal Prep, Drinking, and Exercising. And the rewards correspond with making the tasks easier - i.e. a lunch box for my meal prep 1 week , (which was last week).  And get more complex/expensive as I continue to complete my goals. So far the best one has been meal prepping. Probably because it takes the least amount of time. 

 

Drinking has been up and down. Going to be a bit easier, but I just need to go to the gym. I need to make myself. Even if it's only to start walking on the treadmill again. My motivation is in the toilet and I'm not quite sure how to get it back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nyxkyria]

On 10/3/2017 at 3:57 PM, Inazea said:

Did you make it to Brill yet?

 

No. I'm still running around Deathknell like an idiot.

 

[Hazard]

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