Suave re-emerges from exile

[FatboySuave]

Hi, my name is Richard and I'm an older member who turned away from the Rebellion for a few years. I experienced great success with the help of the Academy and Forums, but I got caught in a downward spiral and have regressed to a point worse off than when I first started. I'm hoping to relearn my healthy habits and transform back into a productive and healthier person. This is my first step out of the dark and back into the light. I don't really have a concrete plan yet. I have a ton of goals in mind, but I want to start slow and ease back into things. 

 

Quest 1: Re-read Academy materials to get back into the right mindset. And begin to tackle some quests there. 

 

Quest 2: Drink more water, drink less energy drinks. I currently drink at least one Rockstar a day. My plan is to reacquaint myself with black coffee in the mornings to avoid my energy drink fix. I would like to start by going at least two days a week without an energy drink. And I'd like to drink at least 2 water bottles worth of water per day. 

 

Quest 3: Take my dogs on at least one walk a week. When I had just one dog, we would go on walks and hikes daily. But ever since I got a second dog, I found it harder to go on walks. It's been too long since we've had any outdoor recreation. I owe it to them to take them on a walk. One is a start. Eventually we will work our way up to daily walks. 

 

A little about me: I'm 33 years old and work as the managing editor for a small town daily newspaper. I have two dogs and one cat. I love video games. My go-to game is Rocket League, but I also love to play platformers, metroidvanias, action RPGs, and relaxing type games. I love listening to hip hop, R&B, jazz and a bit of electronica (video game soundtracks). I love comic books and graphic novels and just about anything related to superheroes. 

 

I'm looking forward to getting back out there on this journey with all you awesome Rebels  

[Sloth the Enduring]

Welcome back.

[Jupiter]

Welcome back! You've got some great goals!  

[Chesire]

12 hours ago, FatboySuave said:

I'm an older member

 

12 hours ago, FatboySuave said:

I'm 33 years old

Huh, as an over 40, I laugh in your general direction, in good fun of course.  You can't be "older" if I only just feel "grown up." 

 

Welcome back! 

[FatboySuave]

Thanks, everyone! It feels good to be back. 

 

@Chesire haha! By older I meant that I was a member a few years back- not in age. "Older" as opposed to a "new" member. 

 

I went down memory lane and read some of my old challenges to see what went wrong. It's hard to pinpoint one thing. A big challenge was my mental health. When I was at my fittest and most active, I was still very unhappy. I had tried therapy and medication, but then i started to slip up on my eating and exercise habits. And then I gave up on therapy and the meds. Another obstacle was a foot injury. I used that as an excuse to stop exercising. Mental health is still a challenge for me. Maybe therapy deserves a second chmess.

 

I had no energy drinks yesterday or today. I typically don't drink any on the weekends, but I end up getting tired and napping, which interferes with my sleep schedule. So instead I drank coffee and took no naps, which is good. 

 

I reread some Academy materials yesterday and today. There are quite a bit of mindset materials that I forgot about, so it was a nice reminder. I also took my benchmark test, which was a serious reality check. Squats and lunges used to be no problem for me, but i struggled yesterday. It felt good to do some physical activity. It's been years since I really exercised. I'm excited to get back into the habit. 

 

I'm currently still trying to work up the willpower to walk the dogs this afternoon/evening. 

[Chesire]

aha! I am enlightened.

 

I'm glad to see you are willing to revisit mental health in general, and therapy as a possible assistance.  And revisiting mindset materials hopefully will me helpful too.

 

So, I'm not too familiar with energy drinks.  Is the caffeine, and whatever else is in there, content lesser enough that black coffee is a reduction?  I suspect that feeling draggy and possibly headaches are in your near future as you process some of it out and readjust.  (as a caffeine sensitive person, they were a bad idea for me.  Feel for MrC's challenge on the day I have 3 cups of coffee and I have the excitable jitters.)

 

Enjoy your dog walking!  My doggly won't allow us not to walk and is currently grumbly about having to wait out a thunderstorm.

[FatboySuave]

The caffeine content isn't really an issue for me. It's more so the liquid calories and sugar that I'm trying to avoid. I've also been drinking a lot of sodas lately. I'm hoping to cut those out eventually. There used to be a time when I only drank coffee and water (and alcohol occasionally). My goal is to get back to that someday. 

[FatboySuave]

Success! I took one of my dogs on a short walk. But reality checked me again. It was more challenging than I expected. I used to be able to walk around the neighborhood easily. It was about 1.3 miles. Today I could only make it about a third of a mile and turned back. My dog loved it though. She was super excited and happy. My plan (for now) is to take one dog at a time and switch off every other day. The younger one has way too much energy and I need to train her more one on one. 

[Jupiter]

11 minutes ago, FatboySuave said:

Success! I took one of my dogs on a short walk. But reality checked me again. It was more challenging than I expected. I used to be able to walk around the neighborhood easily. It was about 1.3 miles. Today I could only make it about a third of a mile and turned back. My dog loved it though. She was super excited and happy. My plan (for now) is to take one dog at a time and switch off every other day. The younger one has way too much energy and I need to train her more one on one. 

 

Nice, sounds like you've got a good plan in place. And great job getting the walk in!  

 

 

[FatboySuave]

Today marks day three without an energy drink. I made coffee this morning and brought my water bottle to work. Haven't done that in a long while. It was good. And so far easier than expected.

I also felt quite a bit of soreness in my legs and back from the walk and the lunges/squats. That's a feeling I haven't felt in a long time. Usually, when I get up from my desk at work, I'm groaning and limping because of general out-of-shape-ness. Today I was groaning and limping from sore muscles. 

I didn't go on a walk today. I forgot how hard it is to will myself into doing things. I forgot that's it's not an automatic thing. I forgot that there's a lot of mental psyching up that goes into thinking about a thing, preparing to do the thing and actually doing the thing. That's something I need to re-learn how to do. Technically I've already accomplished my quest by doing one walk this week, but I'm determined to do more. 

Maybe, just maybe, I'll do an Academy workout tomorrow. Maybe. We'll see. Don't want to jump into doing too much too soon.

[Chesire]

9 hours ago, FatboySuave said:

Technically I've already accomplished my quest by doing one walk this week, but I'm determined to do more. 

Maybe, just maybe, I'll do an Academy workout tomorrow. Maybe. We'll see. Don't want to jump into doing too much too soon

Nice job getting the walk in.  I wouldn't be to surprised if you are still a bit sore tomorrow and need to push it out a day.  Ya know, as your body tries to figure out what in the world you just made it do.  lol   And as far was willing yourself for walks....  bet ya it won't take long for the dogs to figure it out and not take no for an answer!  No will power needed when a dog decides its walk time and deploys puppy-dog-eyes.  (I'm steadfastly ignoring the eyes just at the moment. She broke out the power combo move and used grumbles too. )

[fitnessgurl]

Duuude! You're back! Yay!!!!!

[fitnessgurl]

1 hour ago, Chesire said:

will power needed when a dog decides its walk time and deploys puppy-dog-eyes.  (I'm steadfastly ignoring the eyes just at the moment. She broke out the power combo move and used grumbles too. )

Haha! My dog does this!

[FatboySuave]

5 hours ago, Chesire said:

No will power needed when a dog decides its walk time and deploys puppy-dog-eyes.  (I'm steadfastly ignoring the eyes just at the moment. She broke out the power combo move and used grumbles too. )

 

My dog was definitely giving me some judgmental looks yesterday, lol, but no begging — yet.

 

4 hours ago, fitnessgurl said:

Duuude! You're back! Yay!!!!!

Thanks! It feels good to be back!

[FatboySuave]

WALKING THE WALK

Woot! I successfully took Page on a walk just now! She did much better than I expected. She was a bit too excited and distracted at the beginning, but eventually she started to groove with my pace. I may be able to take both her and Booklet together sooner than anticipated. I still couldn't make it around the neighborhood this time. I stopped a bit short of the halfway point and turned back around. But I think I'm close to the halfway point, so when we make it next time, there will be no choice but to keep going and finish the full route. We did 1 full mile in about 24 minutes. My legs and back are definitely still adjusting. But we'll get there. 

I thought I could outsmart the doggos. I knew that if I pulled out the leash, Booklet would think it was for her and then get jealous when she realized it wasn't actually for her. So I let Page into the front yard and left her there for a little while. Booklet doesn't typically like to go out into the yard. Then Booklet went under the bed (her den) to chill. So I thought I could sneak out and walk Page. But Booklet quickly figured out my ruse and was at the front door whining after I closed it behind me. But no biggie. We still did our walk and Booklet seemed fine when we returned. 

 

I decided to hold off on a workout. Part of me says that there's no moment better than now to start working out. But another part of me says I need to take it slow and not push myself too hard too early. So the workout can wait. I need to make walking a routine thing first. Getting up and out today was easier than the first walk. At first I told myself I should wait until later in the day when it was not as hot, as to protect Page's poor paws. But I checked the heat with my hand and it wasn't bad. So I threw that excuse out the window and used the momentum to hit the pavement. 

LIQUID CALORIES

Today is day four without an energy drink! This is going way better than expected. 

 

REFLECTING ON THE PAST

 

I spent some time yesterday trying to track down some of the Rebels who I used to follow and who followed me back in the old days. I'm sad to say that it looks like quite a few of them have been inactive for two or three years. But then I also realized there are plenty of familiar faces still hanging around, so I'm excited to get reacquainted and catch up. I'm also excited to make new connections with others. Thank you to all who have joined me so far!

[Jupiter]

11 minutes ago, FatboySuave said:

Woot! I successfully took Page on a walk just now!

 

Nice job!

[fitnessgurl]

3 hours ago, FatboySuave said:

Woot! I successfully took Page on a walk just now!

Great job!!!

[Chesire]

22 hours ago, FatboySuave said:

Woot! I successfully took Page on a walk just now

Woot! indeed!

22 hours ago, FatboySuave said:

I thought I could outsmart the doggos

We all think that, don't we? 

[fitnessgurl]

Checking...

[FatboySuave]

This week was rough. Currents events really got me down (Kenosha shootings and Chadwick Boseman's death and more). And a death in the community hit somewhat close to home. A woman who used to run a treatment program inside the jail recently died (possibly from a drug overdose). We had worked a lot together and I had done a lot of stories about the jail program. She reached out to me last week and we had scheduled to meet up for coffee Monday, but she had to cancel at the last minute. I found out two days later that she died. I couldn't help but wonder if she had contacted me because she was reaching out for help. There's nothing I could have done though. I had no idea what she was going through. 

Work is also causing some stress. One of my editors gave her two week's notice. She wants to move back home to be close to her family during this pandemic, which is totally understandable. But trying to find a replacement is going to be tough. Our entire newsroom is currently on a part-time schedule because of the pandemic, so I think it's going to be really hard to find someone willing to move here for a part-time job that may or may not transition into a full-time job.

As for quests, I stayed away from energy drinks Monday through Friday morning. I had one Friday afternoon to get me through my second work shift. And I had one today (Sunday) to help me get some work done in the office. I had to post job openings online and write a story about a police brutality death that happened in our community last year. I only walked the dogs those two times, no additional walks. And I haven't really done much with my Academy quests. I'll try to get caught up with those this week. I'm lacking discipline to actually get up and do things. I need to relearn how to will myself into doing things. 

[Jupiter]

I'm sorry you had a rough week.  

 

[FatboySuave]

17 hours ago, Jupiter said:

I'm sorry you had a rough week.  

 

 

Thank you. I'm feeling better today. There's something about the feeling of the entire world crashing down on me that springs me into Go Mode. Today was super productive at work. And I'm already getting interest in the job postings, so it's a relief to know that this task will not be impossible. There are also some backup possibilities if the online search fails. One of our reporters has a girlfriend who has some newspaper experience and is interested in filling in part-time. 

I took the dogs on a walk this afternoon! I had a moment when I tried to make excuses for myself by saying I still had work to do. But then I kicked myself in the butt and realized there's still plenty of hours in this day to walk the dogs and still accomplish some work after. We even completed the walk around the entire neighborhood — about 1.3 miles (I didn't track it this time). The beginning was tough. Again, Page gets too easily excited and distracted. Then she starts pulling too hard and choking herself. But after a while we all synced up. 

During the walk I came to a bit of an epiphany on why I fell off the wagon a few years ago. I had set a target weight for myself and got fixated on it. When I hit my target weight, everything flew out the window and I gained all the weight back. I have to remind myself that there is not necessarily a single concrete end goal. This journey is about forming lasting habits in order to live a healthy life. I was planning to weigh myself to get a "before" weight, but I think I'm going to skip it and just try to ignore my weight all together. Instead, I'll stick with the Academy goal of taking my measurements. 

[Jupiter]

Cool, glad today was better. And nice job getting the walk in. I like your plan to just focus on measurements also. 

 

 

[fitnessgurl]

Congrats - getting back on track! You got this!

[Chesire]

Oof.  That was a terrible week.  Very glad to see that you overruled the illogical voices in your head and rocked out a great walk!  And, on top of all that, reevaluating previous goals and how to grow from them, or make them grow with you.  Dang!