Life Update: 6-11-2022

Things have been busy. I’ve had to deal with disability stuff, a new love interest, and starting a new workout routine. I’ve found time in between all that to play a new game, try and watch a new tv show or two, read a book or two, and watch a few movies. So, lets get into all that and then I will talk about my new workout routine.

I started playing Stardew Valley. A friend of mine got it for me as part of my birthday gifts. I love the game a lot. I haven’t gotten super far into it yet. Only in year 2, but, so far I am really enjoying building up my farm.

I read Odd Thomas and I have to say the movie is very very close to the book. I also read Killing Floor which is the first of the Jack Reacher series. I love the tv show so I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and watching it as well. I’ve also been reading a lot of fan fiction. I’ll have to start posting all that on here again as reading recommendations. If I can find the time.

The movies were nothing special and I think I actually wrote a review for one of them after I watched it so I will skip those. The shows I tried to watch were October Faction and I stopped about three episodes in… the writing was painful but it was nice seeing the lady who played Cam in BONES again. I also watched Season 5 of Van Helsing and was massively disappointed by it. I’ll do a separate post about that once I have done a complete re-watching from Season 1 to 5 again to get everything I want to say about the show fresh in my mind.

Now on to the more personal stuff. The disability things look promising so far, but, I have to hear back from them to know for sure so I am keeping myself busy so I don’t think about it. My love interest is seriously just starting. I am hoping that it will keep going well, but, I don’t want to count chickens before they are hatched.

My new workout routine is awesome. Okay, for those you who don’t know. I am overweight (350-360 pounds or about 25 stone). I have issues with my feet and ankles as well as my lower back. Last year I dislocated my left shoulder (while sleeping) and sprained the right while trying to recover from the dislocation. I have issues with my hands as well and most recently I sprained my knee. So, typical workout routines like walking, lifting weights, yoga are not ideal or actually possible for me to do.

I did some research on low impact workouts besides swimming (I only have access to a pool for about 3 months a year) and discovered VR options. I bought a PSVR headset for my PS4 since I already had the camera and thanks to my friend Georgia I also had the PS Move controllers. There is a game called Beat Saber that is on console as well as PC. It is awesome! It is a rhythm game that uses light sabers to hit blocks to the beats in a song. It can be quite a workout. So far I have been doing it five times a week. Today I played for around 50 minutes with less than 30 seconds between songs. I could have most likely gone longer than that but my feet start to hurt really really bad after a while even if I try to work in leg movements into the workout to shift off them once in a while. I also start dripping sweat so much that it can get into my eyes. I need to start remembering to put a sweat band on to help with that under the headset. Since I’m not trying to be the best ever Beat Saber player I am looking ahead to adding weights to my arms and legs eventually to take the intensity up a notch since I would have to use more force and control in my movements. I’ll only do that once I can get most of the songs done in hard or expert mode. So this is months and months off from now. At the moment I can only do one song on hard and most of the rest on normal.

I am also looking to get a few other VR titles. Fruit Ninja, Racket Fury, and Super Hot VR to change up the workout routines a little bit. For fun I am looking to get Borderlands 2 VR and PlayStation Worlds. Before I get Borderlands I’ll need to save up for a PS AIM controller.

What is so great about the PSVR is that you can actually us it on PC as well. There is a program out there that you can buy, I forget the name at the moment, that allows you to use the headset for Steam titles. If I can get it and the PC version of Beat Saber I might just be able to expand my fun workout music selection! There are mods to allow you to get custom saber skins, music tracks, and more! These aren’t allowed on the console edition… at least not the PlayStation one.

Anyway, that is what I have been up to. I am starting to see progress in my workout as I am able to go a little longer, react a little faster, etc. I can’t wait to see what I look like by this time next year. Maybe I’ll lose the weight I have been fighting for years. I want to get down to 200 and see what I look and feel like. Oh! I am also planning to get a resistance band system so that I can do strength training. But, that looks like it’ll have to wait until the end of the year if not the beginning of next year since it will cost me a minimum of $80 to get the starter set. With Summer starting the monthly bills are going to go up quite a bit.