Reassessment

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Over the last week or so, I’ve reflected a lot about goals and accomplishment.

At some point this week, I’d hoped to have lost 30 pounds in 2011, which is 60 pounds or so (as I stopped minding the number in the last fortnight of pregnancy) overall since my highest pregnancy weight. As noted in the prior sentence, I’m going to also start listing the pregnancy starting weight moving forward. Some women begin their weight loss number from a big event or tippy-top highest-of-high weight (for me, the pregnancy high weight). Some women simply list their recent losses from their latest plateau (for me, my exergaming campaign). I had been doing the latter, but it was confusing a bunch of folks. So, from now on, I’ll also mention the 30 (or so) pregnancy pounds that were lost, differentiating them from the additional weight lost during this exergaming campaign.

The main reason for this week’s arbitrary goal has been seeing the aim of wearing a specific swimsuit. Without getting into it too much, I’d assumed that I’d look a certain way in the suit if I weighed a certain weight. Well, as with many prior assumptions, I was wrong. Point in fact, I look great in the bathing suit in question right now and I’m three pounds short of this week’s goal weight.

So, Dear Reader, as I know some of you want to know, here's the 8.5ish month weight loss progress report. I’ve lost 27 pounds thus far in 2011 and 57 or so overall since my high pregnancy weight. As mentioned in other posts, weight loss itself is not my only aim. I've gone much farther in all other goal categories than I'd ever expected by this point, or, in some cases, ever.

I could have made my weight loss goal and then some if I’d changed my eating by crash dieting, gone on a liquid fast (aka cleanse) or some such. I contemplated a number of those options, but at the beginning of the campaign, I’d committed to losing the weight through exergaming and other activities. If I was to radically change my eating, I wouldn’t be able to work out as I have been. So I made the conscious decision to continue eating healthily. I’m satisfied with that choice.

While the weight loss has slowed down significantly, I know that my body is becoming more muscle and less fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, I’ve been tightening up, slimming down and fitting into smaller clothing.

Over the last couple of weeks, my weight loss seems to have bumped down from its plateau somewhat, due to Zumba Fitness and running. I really think this combo is killer for the metabolism.

So for now, I’ve reassessed, and have moved the 30 pound goal to sometime in September, which will still keep me on track to losing 40+ pounds by the end of 2011.

Where are you in your yearlong goals? What about the shorter term ones?

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Check back tomorrow for our fabulous guest blogger, successful erotic romance novelist Shoshanna Evers!

Reflection on Video Games and a 10K

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When I embarked on this exergaming campaign at the end of 2010, I had two goals

1)      To find out if a person (me) actually could lose weight by using video games; and

2)      To lose weight.

As I’ve discussed, I really did have quite a bit of skepticism that one could actually, really, honest to goodness lose weight using video games. It didn’t equate for me at all. I honestly thought it was a bunch of marketing phooey.  Since then, I’ve learned better.

I now know that video games make working out a lot of fun, and that one (me) can lose weight by using them. Thus far, I’ve lost 25+ pounds, with my next weight goal coming up in the next couple of weeks. As we hear through the ECA’s Gamers for Health initiative, video games help hundreds of thousands of you lose weight too. They’re that good of a catalyst.

As I’ve discussed, exergames also act as a gateway for many of us, getting us to try other activities, like running as I did. Each season offers a different set of challenges and opportunities for active play inside and outside one’s house.

As the year has progressed, and I’ve gotten thinner, lighter and more fit, the number and breadth of my goals has multiplied. Each week seems to bring a new goal, and each few weeks seem to open up more goals being achieved.

In the last seven days alone I ran a 6.2 mile race – yes, that’s how long a 10K is – and fit into a size smaller jeans. Earlier this year it would not have been possible. Simply *not* *possible*.  Before last week, 6.2 miles was for crazy-insane DISTANCE RUNNER people to run (in my lay person’s estimation); it was not a distance that a *normal* jogger would do (when I did jog, as I considered myself). Now I’m looking forward to running other 10K races THIS FALL and wondering how long it will take me to scale up to run a half marathon. Um, yes. I *did* just write that.

As I just mentioned, I also fit into a size smaller Leavis 501s. Now, for me, this particular size jeans is important, because it was the size I used to steal from boyfriends in college, my 20s, my 30s and now from my husband. They may be a bit snug, but I can fit into them and button them all the way up. A few weeks ago, I couldn’t pull them up one leg all the way. So Dear Husband better either buy more jeans or watch out, as they’re going to start migrating over to me. Perhaps I’ll simply buy a couple of pairs for myself. Hm. We’ll see.

So would any of this be possible without exergames, as a friend recently asked? My early August assessment is, probably not. I still get up off the bed, couch, chair or floor to Zumba and step, which make up the bulk of my weekly workouts.  All of the other fitness and goal achievement flows from it.

How is your workout routine going in this steamy month?

Related articles

• "Video Gamers": New Book on Video Game Players and Culture (prfire.co.uk)
• Paging Dr. Mario: Are video games a health scourge or saviour? (life.nationalpost.com)

Welcome Guest Blogger: Christina Bost Seaton!

I am so flattered that Jenn asked me to provide a guest post for Losing Gamer about me and the book that I co-authored with Cordell Parvin, Say Ciao To Chow Mein: Conquering Career Burnout.

Cordell and I met my very first day of my very first job, when I was participating in first-year orientation at the firm’s headquarters, and he emerged from his office to find out where his secretary had gone (she was helping me get the printer set up on my computer!)  We bonded over our shared interests in books like Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and he answered my questions about what I needed to do to succeed now that I was a part of BigLaw.

Several months and many email and phone conversations later, Cordell asked me if I would be willing to help him with a parable book he was writing about Tony Caruso, a fictional junior associate at a BigLaw firm who was feeling overwhelmed by the demands of his job.  Two years later, Say Ciao To Chow Mein: Conquering Career Burnout was published and I was thrilled to say that I was the co-author.  I love that the book reads like a story, but provides practical how-to techniques (such as using SMART Goals) for taking control over your career and your personal life. 

Like all of you, I am juggling a host of family and work-related responsibilities.  I am a busy litigation attorney trying to do great work for my clients.  I am a senior associate who would like to be elevated to partner, who is working on building a book of business.  I am also the wife of busy tax attorney and musician.  I am daughter helping her father with his new business and her mother with her business.  I am a granddaughter, a friend, and a volunteer.  Trying to fulfill these roles, and make everyone happy all the time, is—as you might imagine—quite exhausting.  Sometimes I feel like there is no time left for me!

Many people talk about having balance in your work and life.  Naysayers, on the other hand, say we can’t have it all. 

I think that we can have it all, but not all at the same time.  I think that what we really want in our lives is control, not balance.

In the beginning of my career, I felt the need to establish myself at work.  I put in long hours at the office, working late into the night (and early morning!) and many weekends to prove my value to the firm.  During one particularly awful time, I worked over 700 hours in a two month period.  At some point, I realized that there was no way I could maintain our home in the way that I desired, so I hired a fantastic cleaning lady to come every two weeks.

While some parts of that time were really difficult, I wouldn’t change that decision at all.  I think that new employees should treat their work like deposits into a bank.  Over time those deposits will accrue interest—here, goodwill—that can be withdrawn.  For instance, after a year as an employee, once I had proven myself as a hard worker, I joined the New York Junior League.  Because I had established a reputation as someone who worked hard, my co-workers knew that they could trust my judgment when I told them that it was important for me to leave work early twice a month to volunteer.

As my career advanced, however, I realized that I wasn’t taking enough care of myself.  I thought that if I couldn’t take care of myself, how would I be able to take care of the future children that I ultimately hope to have some day?  I didn’t want to be a tired zombie who never went to bed before two or three in the morning.  I was sick and tired of feeling, well, sick and tired.  I realized that I would never have any time for myself if I didn’t treat myself like a priority too. 

So, I followed what I preached in Say Ciao To Chow Mein: Conquering Career Burnout.  I wrote out a list of personal goals that were Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.  I promised myself that I would get 7 hours of sleep at least five nights a week.  I made it my goal to go to the gym at least three times a week.  And each and every day, when I woke up, I wrote down how many hours I had slept, and I made a note in my blackberry each time I went to the gym.  I made the conscious decision to make myself a priority.  I continued to bill approximately the same hours at my job, but I changed my schedule so that I would leave work at a regular time, go to the gym, and log back on and resume working from home.  This required me to be more efficient—less time spent on Facebook!

Six months later, I found myself going to the gym more than three times a week.  I found that my sleep schedule had somewhat readjusted, so that it was a bit easier for me to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier.  I found that I wasn’t craving unhealthy food as much since I was finally getting enough sleep.  I found that I was actually more efficient when I was working because I wasn’t so tired.

After a year, I decided to take the plunge and hire a personal trainer.  Now, when I look in the mirror, I see that I am the most fit I’ve been since high school, and I wonder why it took me so long to realize that I could look like that again.  I feel powerful and more confident.

Working out hasn’t been a magical panacea—I still get stressed out by work sometimes, and I still feel like there isn’t enough time for me sometimes.  But now when I am work and really stressed out, I start to crave the time when I can go home and run on the elliptical, because that will relieve my stress better than anything else (even Twix)!  More importantly, I know that I have a realistic plan for changing my behaviors for the better.

I am still not balanced.  I spend the vast majority of my time working, but I have a business and personal development plan, and I know that the work I’m doing is helping me move closer and closer to my goals.  I am okay with not being balanced though; I have control over my life and the direction in which I’m going.  Isn’t control what we’re really looking for—not balance?