Starting a new life

[HappyDragon]

Greetings everyone!

 

In my previous life I was a 35+ year old male nerd, who struggled with gradual weight gain, a distinct lack of happiness, and dealing with many problems by procrastination. That ends now.

 

I have managed to lose weight several times before, mostly by cutting down on the obviously bad stuff like candy, crisps and too large servings. Unfortunately, I have then regained it and a bit more by going back to the bad stuff, when times got tough or I got bored.

 

Here are some of the things that will make a difference this time:

1. I managed to quit World of Warcraft two months ago (and not replace it with any similar game). It is an amazing game but it was all too tempting to escape into Azeroth instead of doing anything with my real life, and it really started to feel that the game simply was designed to be played in an unhealthy way. I think I had around 3000 hours played, maybe more.
2. I see that I need to make bigger "sacrifices" - better prioritizations, such as cutting down on beer. A few beers here and there, especially tempting together with WoW, added up to a lot of calories.
3. I recognize that I need to focus more on mindset and mental well-being, in order to successfully lose weight and stay that way. The NF articles that get emailed regularly as well as the NF Academy mindset module has already helped a bit - such as avoiding the word "try" in this post.

 

A longish term goal (1 year?) is to lose 15 kg fat (33 pounds), and be fit enough to do body weight pull ups.

 

For a start however, I am focusing on the following things:

1. Quitting drinking beer and other alcoholic or sugary beverages, preferably completely. I have made a start by not touching a drop of alcohol the last 10 days.
2. Fixing my sleep. Going to sleep earlier and getting up an hour earlier than usual. My work hours are flexible which has allowed me to slip in this regard. Made decent progress the last few days.
3. Getting back to some (any!) creative activity regularly. Working a little on learning the piano again, but drawing and cooking are also things I want to do more of.
4. Walking 10 minutes extra every day.

 

At the moment it feels very promising, but I know all too well how easy it is to falter after a few months. Participating in this community should help with accountability.

 

If you got this far, thanks for reading! Good luck with your own goals, and let's make 2017 a far better year than 2016.

[chemgeek]

May I recommend seeing a pro on the mindset stuff? Just, from my experience, if you find that you're engaging in unhealthy behaviors to take your mind off things, generally you could benefit from speaking with a pro. Just... my teen years would've been a lot less made of suck if I'd gotten help from a pro earlier, but I didn't. 

[HappyDragon]

Definitely something to consider, thanks for the suggestion! At the moment I feel full of positive energy and am happy with the progress the last two weeks, but I'll keep in mind the option to seek pro assistance, especially if I feel I'm slipping back into unhealthy territory.

[kevlar_from_kanada]

Welcome Dragon,

 

I really connected with some of your goals.  They are either current goals or ones I have had in the past.  I don't play WoW, but I am totally into this game called football manager, which is a complete waste of my time.  I figure since you used the term crisps you are British and will know it.  Maybe I should just delete it from my computer and Ipad???

 

I can also get out of whack with my sleep quite easily.  Just as a heads up, I quit drinking in my early 20s because it was causing problems for me.  If you ever want to chat about that let me know.

 

Cheers

[HappyDragon]

Thank you Kevlar!

 

I'm actually from Sweden. I learned the word crisps from some British people that I played WoW with

 

I haven't tried football manager - not much into sports games at all. I can't say if you should quit it or not, but I guess you could ask yourself if it feels wrong to play it, and if it is something that your future level 50 self would do? It might also be something to deal with, but of lower priority than some of your other goals. Myself, I have really tried to focus this time on the advice from NF and other sources to not try to do too much at the same time, but instead build long term changes. Therefore, I start with the above goals.

 

My problem with WoW was that there is always something to do in the game, some way to further your character(s) or try new stuff. If you don't play as much as your friends, you get behind, especially at the start of new expansions and patches. I started to feel like it was too time consuming for me many months ago, but it was hard to abandon the friends that played.

 

Regarding drinking, I feel WoW was a major source of temptation to have a beer or two in front of the computer a bit too often. It didn't help that several of the people I played with enjoyed late Friday and Saturday nights in the game along with beer. With that stuff gone, there is much less temptation. I also feel really motivated to get in shape now, so I think it will go well.