#gratitudeNow: This VR thing is working out

So for my birthday last month, I got an awesome present, an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. It’s amazing, and I’m quite taken with it.

Besides being fun, it’s actually a dorky way to get some exercise in, too.

I’ve started this morning routine, where I spend about 35-45 minutes doing two fitness games.

The first is called Beat Saber. You use these glowing light sabers to hack and slash little block in time to music, while you duck and dodge obstacles. It’s hard, and I love it!

(Yeah, Mission 4A is kicking my ass. I’ll get it eventually!)

The second one, Echo VR I love even more. It’s a zero gravity e-sport. You are in this robot body that has thrusters in the wrists, and a main propulsion unit on the back. It’s very Iron Man like. You can float, flip, and glide through this sort of space station which has an arena in it. In the arena, you play a sort of soccer-like game chasing a disc (think TRON) around, and trying to throw it in the other team’s goal. (Each team has three players.).

So far, I mostly play it with AI teammates against AI opponents. But I’d love to get together with some friends to play it regularly. I’ve also found I’m something of a bruiser. I enjoy floating up to my opponents, grabbing onto them and punching them in the head.

This morning, that behavior, plus a sudden quick save throw got me a win!

It’s fun, but it’s also really exercise, that I look forward to doing.

And it’s totally working. I’m losing weight, actively look forward to my time in virtual space each morning, and seeking out the exercise. Yay!

#gratitudeNow: Ring in those good habits

As I write this, i’m getting ready to go to the gym to go swimming. For Christmas this year Missy got me an Apple Watch. I’ve been using one of its applications, that tracks movement, standing, and exercise as rings.

Each day the rings start out empty and you fill them as you go. Workouts are an implicit thing, You tell the watch what you’re about to do and it tracks it with extra detail.

This really works for me. For one thing, the data gets shared with another application I use, Lose It. It makes it so easy to really see the benefit and interrelated nature of my choices. It’s also a sort of gamification of being healthy. I know that the swim I do a few days ago can allow me to eat an ice cream sandwich a few days later. Or conversely, see how I feel and how my weight fluctuates based on the amount of exercise I get. It makes me able to stand back a few feet from individual choices and see how they knit together.

All of which combined, help me be more fully present in both what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’m really excited to grab a quick shower, get dressed, & get to my gym. I like those closed green rings. I like what they do to and for me.

#365Gratitude Day 364:Penguin Advice

"The miracle isn't that I finished.  The miracle is that I had the Courage to Start.  -John J. Bingham."

This is my favorite fridge magnet.  It's a quote by John Bingham, the runner also known as "The Penguin."

John used to be morbidly obese, a smoker, and in a lot of trouble health-wise.  He took up running, no matter that he was (and is) a very slow runner, and it changed his whole life.

He's called The Penguin because while in his head he feels like he looks like a gazelle when he runs, the reality is more that he looks like a waddling penguin.

John doesn't take himself too seriously.  He's great like that.

Anyhow, this magnet is a famous quote of his, and I find it inspiring in my life, over and over.

I have a lot of stuff going on in my life.  I have a demanding job, a rich and varied home life with a big polyamorous family, a podcast, a side business, the books I write, and just my life in general.

Sometimes it sounds exhausting when I read the list aloud to others.  But you know what?  It's great.  I love that I'm ambitious in my life, that I'm always moving towards more.

#365Gratitude 280: Sometimes when you work out you don't give a %#!£

Caution: This one's a little gross.* 

There's this lesson every long distance walker/runner learns early on. Go to the bathroom and get empty before you go.  

The consequences of not doing so can be disastrous. 

There's a saying about scuba divers: there are two kinds. Those who have  already thrown up on the boat, and those who have yet to do so .

Running has something similar. Feel free to use your imagination.  

Anyhow, this morning I was about 1.something miles into my usual out-and-back workout when I realized that I might have a problem.  

As I commented to Squee & Moliére on the phone, "there go any running intervals for today." 

It was still a good workout. Sure, I've worked harder before. And will in the future. Today, I didn't give a crap** that my workout was suboptimal.  

There's no place like home

 * Hey, you read this of your own free will, buddy

** Well, until I got home, thank goodness

#365Gratitude Day 271:Conference Crawl

Actually, it wasn't a crawl at all.

This morning I woke up, remembered that working out is a habit again, and then linked up with my morning walk crew.  I got on the phone (featuring my lovely boycat Yang on the lock screen) with my girlfriend Squee, and my bestie Moliére.

We shared our routine.  We listened to Squee get the Squeelets off to school, listened to Moliére go through and finish his workout and return to his meow-purring room-mate Figaro, and listened to me as I pushed myself to go a little further, and a little faster.  

On the way home I remarked to them both that I was taking the Really Big Hill™ by my house a lot easier today than I did yesterday, and that I really was powering up it, without sounding like a wheezing camel in a cuisinart, or whatever.  

So, after I crested the hill, and was in the last half mile or so back to the house, I actually broke out in a run for a bit.  At one point I was doing a 9:30 mile.  Now, it's not like I did it for 9 minutes, I did it for about 2 minutes.  But, I wanted to do it, and I did it. 

Back when I was first learning to run, I felt this way.  I remember it.  Brother told me what it was even.  It's when you start to progress and want to burst through to the next level.  Tomorrow, I'm going swimming, and while I'm excited to cross-train, I'm just the tiniest bit disappointed.  Because I'm excited to go out again, and see how much more I want to and do actually run.

I feel myself actively "on the grow" again.

I love having Squee and Moliére to share it with.  It's connecting, supporting, and enhancing.  I love them and the way they help me.