The Trouble With Tribbles (I mean, goal weight)

[CallunaTook]

I was doing so great with NerdFitness and Nerd Fitness Academy for several months. After almost a year, I made it to goal weight! Hooray! It was honestly a huge surprise. I felt better and healthier. And although I have managed to maintain this weight for several months, everything else has been slipping, and I can't remember for certain the last time I checked off a quest.  I don't know why this happened. I kept hanging a quest list to check off on my wall, but I quit checking the boxes, and eventually I quit making quest lists.

 

I thought my goal was always to have a healthier lifestyle and gain some kickin' skillz, but since I've reverted back to hours of videogames on the couch and hiding in my cave after work, was my goal actually to get back to a confidence-boosting weight again? I was so excited to fit into my old swimsuit, but now that I do, I  haven't worn it once, and the summer is flying by. I've bought some new pants, but all my shirts are still too big. 

 

Maybe I needed the handholding from going through the Academy in order, and now that I've done most of the quests and it's harder to check off those happy boxes (Ding! XP!), the extra effort to make my own quests without (Ding! XP!) instant feedback has defeated my motivation? 

 

Was the general normal chaos of life enough to derail me for good?

 

No idea. It's a sad state. I don't want to be that person that gets to level a jilliondy in Skyrim and AD&D but only level 3 in life. I used to be so active!! Now I am a lump.

 

Re-Spawning. I'm actually going to engage in Forums now, and start a monthly quest with my guild (for the first time). So, Adventurers, I'm coming out of my hole. I'll talk to you on Sunday. See you all in the squared circle. 

 

(Insert Sad+Happy emoji here, if there is such a thing)

[Xena]

Maybe the quests you are setting up for yourself aren't really things that you want to do. You definitely don't sound derailed for good. You sound to me like you are in a low spot and shouldn't be too hard on yourself.

 

What kind of kickin' skillz are you looking to get?

[CallunaTook]

My initial goals when I started out were to get back into a regular habit of doing some type of exercise, which requires finding a new exercise that I enjoy, and to be able to do a push-up without cheating. (Not getting very close at either of those goals, but I was doing ok at the beginning). Plus stick reliably to a healthy eating plan, which I have done (mostly).   Basically, I guess it was a nebulous goal of "feel healthier." So now I do, and I'm not sure what I'd like to do as the next step.

 

I used to be a yoga and dance instructor, but quit both due to acquiring interfering joint problems. I was hoping that if I ate healthy and lost weight, the health issues may go away, and I could potentially go back to doing those activities again. They have improved, but not enough to go back to doing what I used to do, at the same intensity - I still have lingering pain with one or two very important joints that may or may not ever resolve, and the extreme movements in yoga and dance seem to contribute to the problem. So I need to find something else. 

 

I am thinking I might like to get into more outdoor recreation type stuff, like whitewater kayakking, or rock climbing, or backpacking, or something like that... but have not.  I would really like to enjoy strength training because it is so good for you (and because NerdFitness is so good at teaching it), but I don't.  I would really like to BE strong, but strength training is very boring to me. I would prefer something that I can sustain long-term and enjoy, that I could do alone if I need to or want to. Not sure what that would be. I guess I just need to experiment until I find the next thing. The start up cost for some of these things is discouraging if I'm not sure whether I'll stick with it, but I guess I will need to get over that. 

 

I do have some pretty clear non-health related goals (speak French, get better at some of my other hobbies), but it is the exercise one that I am having the most trouble with.