Myself, pt. 2

So, I guess I've never commented on this in this blog, so now is probably a good time to do so, while I'm in the midst of this rapid change.

About a month ago I decided I didn't like being fat anymore, so I decided to go on a real diet for the first time in my life. This sparked from two things: 1) I stopped eating fast food in order to save for San Francisco and realized I was dropping weight because of it; 2) I looked at my drivers license... I weighed 205 during my senior year when the photo was taken, and I had jumped to 243 when I pulled it out and looked at it a month ago. I think another motivation was that I realized I need to learn to like myself on my own, and not gain my strength from an outside source. I began to realize how weak I was, and now I'm trying to do something about that. Its part of the whole whiny, emo post I put up last month about realizing how I dislike myself.

So, my solution? Dance Dance Revolution, as a matter of fact. It's a game I used to play in high school all the time. Maybe because it's a rhythm game, or because it was still relatively new at the time, but DDR was all the rage at band geek parties back in the day, and I had become pretty good at it by the time I stopped playing at the end of high school. I got the idea when I went lasertagging and decided on a whim to play a round on the machine they had set up in their lobby. I did alright for not having played in years, but I wanted to practice and get good at it again. I went home and found my sister's pad (which they never use) and noticed it had a usb connector on it. I went online and downloaded StepMania, which is an open source version of DDR, completely free, which lets you to create your own levels and download custom song packs (as well as all of the official Konami DDR packs) from the internet. So far I've downloaded close to 700 songs, playing them on random whenever I play.

So now, a month later, and after playing DDR for minimum an hour per day and completely swearing off fast food all together (which has been absolutely KILLING me,) I am 22 pounds lighter and a hell of a lot better at DDR than I ever was, even back in high school. I'm still not anywhere near as good as those kids who play all day in arcade rooms and blow everyone away, but for a big fat guy I think I can impress a few people. Hopefully, though, I will one day work up to being as good as one of those skinny, sweat covered, arcade stalking Asian kids.

It been a really interesting experience- I know I'm probably always going to be an awkwardly built fat guy, but this is the first time I've ever seen such rapid weight loss in me, and the first time I've ever actively tried to take care of myself. I bought a piece of fruit over a churro at Magic Mountain this past Monday! If present-me went back in time and told past-me that I would one day find myself at a theme park turning down something fried for an apple, past-me would laugh and laugh and laugh.

This has also been the first time where I've had any kind of consistent exercise routine. Its both rewarded and stress relieving- often times I find that the endorphin rush I feel at the end of exercising helps rid myself of the stress brought on by my drama filled life. I'm also finding myself sleeping better and having less problems with allergies and my skin ailments. I'm not sure if this is directly related, or maybe just a result of having a better diet, but I'm liking it. Hopefully I can keep this up for a while. I'd like to get back down to 205; a lofty goal, I know, but incentive for me not to stop for a while.

Now if I can work on being a better person, or figuring out my place in the universe, that would really be something. One thing at a time, I suppose. Now, enough writing! I need to get my hour of DDR in for the day...