From Counting Games to Counting Calories

I've gained a lot weight over the past several years and despite my efforts with using video games to help, I have not seen much progress. This is because I have been struggling to commit to these "exercise" games. I really want something like Just Dance to just work but since that game doesn't really teach you how to dance, it's somewhat discouraging to spasm, twitch, and vibrate in front of the screen trying to mimic these professional dancers - even though just merely doing those crazy things is, in itself, a great form of exercise. I have a brief stint with non-gaming yoga programs, thanks to Amazon Prime, and these are easy on my aging body and quite effective. But Amazon got greedy and introduced commercials to their video offerings recently where you have to pay extra money to go commercial free: I stopped doing yoga because the commercials would interrupt the video in the middle of a freaking yoga pose. Just absolutely nasty! And no, I am not going to tell Amazon that it's okay to add this sudden tier of subscription just because they are greedy. The bad thing here is, of course, a lot of people probably did pay the extra cash - the same happened earlier in the video gaming world with the PlayStation Network and eventually, Nintendo's online access. If a majority of Amazon Prime users were more like Personal Computer gamers, Amazon would have cancelled the new subscription tier the same way that Microsoft cancelled paid X-Box Live subscription on the PC and made the service free.

This lady's yoga + HIIT fusion will kick your arse but it felt so good!

Losing weight shouldn't be hard, right? I mean, there is always Ozempic? Everyone uses it, I mean, all the celebrities and television hosts do, because they are rolling in the dough. But the whole concept of losing weight isn't that difficult to figure out. I remember when I was in my early 20s - I can pretty much eat everything and I wouldn't gain a single pound. But for some of us, as we grow older, our metabolism changes, so one cannot eat as much anymore. Basically, the less you eat, the less you gain. I have used this concept sometime last year where I would be on a liquid diet during the day and only eat regular food at night. I lost about 10 pounds doing just that. The stress of my long distance move though resulted in me quitting the habit while regaining some of those pounds back, and I have been wanting to get back into a diet, but the temptation of food is not something that is easily controlled (thus the effortlessness of Ozempic). Well, since late July, I started using one of those free calorie counter apps called MyNetDiary so that I can implement a more scientific approach to my weight loss, and I am happy to tell you that I have lost 14 pounds ever since and I'm still losing weight every single week!

I usually consume a couple of protein bars to hold me over in the AM and go a little crazy at dinner time.

Oprah may be convinced that the future of battling obesity relies on appetite control drugs, but I haven't given up on human determination and spirit. If the drug is free for everyone so that we can combat food waste, I think that could be a good thing for humanity but for now, it's really something that can be enjoyed by the privileged class. Meanwhile, on regular people land, we have to find our own ways to success. Sure, the first two weeks of watching, calculating, and logging everything that I eat was not pleasant - nothing challenging ever is until it becomes a norm - and I remember those hungry, hungry nights violently craving for cookies but eventually, my brain made sense of it all. I soon discovered how unhealthy my eating has been and that realistically, I shouldn't even be eating the amount of food I did before. Of course, the key here is to make sure that I am still eating healthy, and the app, even at its most basic free to use function, does help with that. I want to implement an exercise routine into all this as well to further enhance my journey into healthier living. I have a lot of titles in my Game Library and I want to be able to enjoy them for a bit. I may no longer be streaming, but at least I'm down with continually slimming.

Left: February 2024, Right: Today