Red Panda respawn: Project FireFox

[RedPanda]

The respawn post came at an excellent time for me, and I am glad to have a reason to get my game back on!

 

This Panda is a third year slightly non-traditional PhD student. I started my program when I was 28, and when I began I was in excellent shape - eating paleo, cooking delicious meals from scratch, walking all the time, working out every day, and feeling super-healthy with oodles of energy. I knew that I had become a big unhappy blob back in college but I thought I had left that well behind me. Being fit felt so good that I (naively) assumed I would easily continue being awesome when I went back to school.

 

But then school started, and I've been moving backwards ever since. All my willpower has been getting used up on school and research, so when I get home each night I've been caving to the temptation to laze on the couch reading books or playing video games while eating restaurant food or pre-cooked meals. I used to love running, but I've been fighting a flare-up of plantar fasciitis for the past five or six months that has knocked that option out entirely. And this past February I gained a new boyfriend - he is a wonderful human being, but he has a serious addiction to fast food and overindulgence, and sometimes the temptation is just too much to resist. 

 

Right now I have ~170 pounds on my 5'2 frame, and that is just too much weight for a little Red Panda to carry around! I have a closet full of clothes that don't fit, and I want to be able to wear them again. I want to run again, and get back into ranging throughout all the beautiful rolling hills and mountain trails here in central Pennsylvania. I want to learn to snowboard, and take up kickboxing. I want to kayak and snowshoe and go for long walks just for fun. And I want to have a healthy body to keep my brain going when school seems overwhelming.

 

This Panda is ready for a reboot. A renewal. A respawn! So I'm ready to leave my setbacks behind me and get on with getting in shape. RedPanda is aiming to level up to being a bad-ass Fire Fox. Back to cooking meals from scratch, cutting out grains and sugar, and working out for at least 10 minutes a day.

 

And - go!

[Randa Rooskie]

 

Go, Panda, go!

 

Sounds like you know what you want and how to get there!  Here's to cheering you on as you respawn!

[Ocelot]

Perfect goals - measureable and achievable and capable of building into something awesome, so good work and keep going!