Day 17: Exercise

#wowscreenshotaday

Zombie gnomes, spirit wolves, and elementals: all helping me--what more could a girl ask for?

I was so...proud of myself? No, pride isn't the right word. Just --feeling that sense that 'nothing succeeds like success" kind of feeling, that I accomplished something when I wasn't staring so hard at "it." A few years ago, I gained weight due to stresses at my job, bad life habits, taking care of everyone and everything else but myself. Then I started playing WoW when the big life project was completed, and I noticed, slowly, surely, over time, weight started falling off of me. So much so I had to buy new clothes, people noticed and praised how good I looked, and I thought to myself, "Never again." I even have a post about it: Work It.

Here was my advice:
*When you are waiting, waiting, waiting, get off your tail and dance like a Night Elf, male or female. Both are fun and sweaty dances. Did you think I was kidding when I said that? Top Ten Things to Do While Waiting in Queue.

*Get your RL drudgery done FAST so you can play

*When snacking, eat like a gnome. Lots of fresh apples, carrots, etc. Drink plenty of water. Don't touch the mana cakes.

*Walk everywhere you can, like a lower-level toon. No level 20/40/60 speed mounts for you. Hoof it.

It's tough to look at a Draenei girl's ideal form and not feel either completely hopeless or inspired. The superhero over-articulated and idealized artistic form would look weird and maybe even kind of horrifying if it existed in the real world. Mat's human will never have a tail, hooves or horns. (She may have invisible horns when she's feeling mean, but that's another story.) Besides, she couldn't find shoes for those big hooves, and the nearest blacksmith is in the next town. But, she does have some height and the smile going for her--that's a start.

And she can rock it like a Night Elf.

Well "never" is a short time.

I leveled healers and a tank, and no longer did I have to wait in queues. Slowly, sinisterly, waiting for queues became more important than getting off my ass to do something around the house, to use that nervous energy to move. There were more things to do in-game, more dailies, more coins, more more more more more and my spectrum of 'process addiction' tilted toward the end of unhealthy. Leaving Azeroth became more difficult, and the scale, and tight pants, proved it: but tight pants can be silenced by sweat pants, all soft and quiet, who don't judge, and there there Matty, it's okay - that wine you gave up? And beer? Yeah, giving that up was a huge help in weight loss, and its return has been a huge factor in being, well, huge. It's funny, too, because if I chart the life-stresses there is a causal effect for weight gain too. Yesterday CD Rogue and I were at a thing, and he got an unexpected low sugar. Not wanting him to pass out (go figure, huh?) I ran to find a vending machine located up several flights of steps. Both panicking to reach it in time, I hustled, and it made me short of breath. NOOOOOOoooooOOO....this is NOT who I am! This is NOT my level of health! But apparently it was. I made it and returned in time with a few snacks, but he was out of sorts the rest of the day, so no walk, (yes I could go by myself) and kind of left me in a funk.

Unlike sweatpants, many of you are going to judge me fiercly for what I am about to tell you, and I am stealing myself against the criticism now, but until you walk a mile in my red Tom's shoes, /shrug. My friend Turk helped me a lot with the final Wrathion quest, and by a lot I mean A LOT - he gave my restoration spec a huge makeover and put the training wheels on my bike, so to speak. I want to thank him for his time, expertise, and assistance. My justification in his level of help comes down to emotionally, in game, was ready to move on. In my evil heart there are things I need to do in the real world, and constantly re-examine why I spend time in Azeroth is getting to be too much.

Case in point: Momokawa was trying to open the big Gokk clam last night. She was on her third try, and about halfway through its health. Got a whisper did I want to go heal Meagera. Sure. But. Sure. Okay. Took Zep, three wipes later, (not my fault: there's not I in fault), and that's that. Would I have loved to swoop in there, heal all the mess, do all the things, perfectly and wonderfully? Sure. She had no flasks on her, no food, no potions, and apparently no one else did either. I saw one of the tanks advertising in trade chat this morning for a healer for a raid spot, three nights a week for four hours a night. There was no way in hell I would venture into that territory.

No thanks.

No. Thanks.

I'm hunting spirit bears and big clams. And -- that shaman--takes my breath away in her enhancement beauty. Seriously: how can you not love that girl? Her hero helped her get her that cloak, and she will wear it well.


PS I have a training dummy of my own in the garage, from my tae kwon do days. Couple of round-house kicks to that thing relieve quite a bit of stress, too....