After a 5-month hiatus...

[cara0017]

Hello everybody,

I can hardly believe it's been five months since I last posted on this board. I guess that's what they call "falling off the wagon", although until this morning, I was still in denial. Then I stepped on the scale and, to my dismay, I had gained back most of the weight I had lost this summer. You cannot imagine how disgusted I was with myself. All my hard work, down the drain.

I guess I should start by explaining what happened. After all, I was such an addict of DDR and of this board. I'd log on two or three times a day ; reading about your ups and downs, finding motivation in your stories. It got me from doing a bare 15 minutes of DDR to a good hour every day. And in a few months, I had lost 20 pounds... For the first time, I felt beautiful....

Then life threw me a curve ball... several in fact.. and I'm afraid I didn't handle it very well. My grandfather passed away at the end of the summer. While I was dealing with the grief, one of my best friends was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. She passed away soon after. A month later, one of my uncles died of a heart attack. One death is hard enough to deal with, but three was just too much for me. I fell into a depression and lost interest in everything. It's taken me a while, but I've made my peace with what happened and I'm ready to reclaim the life I had before.

So here I am. I've dusted my Cobalt, plugged in my PS2 and I'm ready to lose the pounds.. again! Only, I know I will not be able to do it without you guys. Your support helped me so much this summer, I hope you will forgive my five-month hiatus and welcome me back to the board.

And this time, I promise, I'll stick to it.

Cheers!
-Cara

[kikome]

My deepest sympathy to your loss. I lost my grandmother when I was 12. I only saw her twice. I still remember I hid in the dark bathroom crying. I can't picture what you went through.

Welcome back!!!

I'm new to DDR, started playing in Nov 2006. The first time I saw a good ddr player was 2001, during my lunch hour, in a mall in east Toronto. I was making $8.00 per hour doing a $20.00 worth job. It was the hardest time in my life. Then I got pregnant. I didn't have time for myself till my little one goes to daycare and I changed to a less demanding job. That's when I started playing ddr. I couldn't believe I waited 5 years to play the game I like. Actually I can't really say "I waited". Just too busy to take care of myself.

I wish I could lose some weight on DDR. I don't know how you guys do it. I---just----can't-----drop---these----pounds!!!

[BIG ATHENS]

hey kikome i cant lose the pounds either, but the inches are going down. i gues its the other exercise i do adding muscle. at least i hope so.

[kikome]

Thanks BIG ATHEN.

My previous post in this thread is not 100% true. I lost 10 pounds before Christmas, due to self-hatred-induced -----punitive-low-calorie-diet. I didn't gain them back, thanks to DDR, and couldn't lose any more either. Now matter how hard I tried.

I was motivated again after seeing a Salsa dancer who reminds me of my younger days. So I started dieting at the end of February. One morning, after 3 weeks of veggie-fruit-lean-protein diet and losing 8 pounds, I couldn't eat my 'healthy' breakfast. It's like I tell my body to start a diet and my body tells me when to stop.

Here's what I learned from my little diet. To lose weight by exercise and diet, you need to:

1) Make sure you're happy

Which means your bills are paid, kids doing good at school, husband is not dating other woman---just kidding, parents are healthy, etc. Because diet and exercise are stress you put on your body, you can't deal with a lot of stress at a time.

2) Make sure you hate yourself

More accurately, you don't like the body you have, so you want to change it. You'll have more will power if you dislike your body to the point you 'hate' yourself. That's what motivated me for both 'sessions' of diet. Maybe that's why psychologists said dieters and anorexics have 'low self-esteem'. Well, I don't think it's gonna hurt you if you only hate yourself for a short period of time, just long enough to make your diet going.

What worked for me may not work for you. I'm happy with the result but not the way I did it. And I know how close I was to eating disorders.

I'm currently doing a bit weight lift, for firmer arms in the summer, and jazz dancer's stretch, to improve my posture. I just start playing 8-9 footer and can only last an hour. I finished most 8-footers and a few 9-footer in DDR extreme arcade, and a few 9-footer I could manage to get a "D" on ITG2. It'll take a while for me to get to next level.

Most of my friends are having kids and dealing with bills. They don't have time for games. I'll keep my eyes on them and push them to my dance pads whenever they come over.

[BIG ATHENS]

i have been a slacker and havent played for a month a bet my skills have diminished substantially
ps i like the big words

[legend of croft]

i guess i'm with you on this one (only a few months later) but i dusted off my flux pad tonight and gave it a go. i forgot how much i loved playing this game and how good it was for me to play.