Emi inspired running/workout

[Babli]

Another week, another mixes. Since I use all of them only once, I hope that others find them useful too.
I am still undecided if I should make mix for day 3, since its just running, no walking.

Just take Moonsorrow's Jotunheim, it's about 21 minutes long and i find that song SO empowering.

Song is great, but it really ends at 16th minute after which its just silent noises of nature.

I´ll probably take this for third day

But thanks for tip. Sound of band is awesome, I´ll look into them for sure. Not just for running.

[ZXRN]

I tend to agree with gRaViJa. I've only just finished the first week of the Couch to 5K with Emi program, so I'm not sure how it's going to be once I get further along, but for now I'm still kind of riding the KS high and it's easy for me to imagine Emi there with me as I run, encouraging me to keep going. It sounds a little silly, but it works for me right now. Also, the thought of all the others in this thread and on Fitocracy gives me an "audience" that I think of whenever I consider giving up. Having said that, I'm by nature an introvert, so I often prefer being alone.

There's also the fact that I just feel better in general. Like Hisao says in Emi's path, getting out and running makes me feel like I've done one worthwhile thing with my day, even if I don't get anything else accomplished. Since changing my eating habits and getting out to run, I've already lost some weight, and I notice that I just feel healthier. After lugging around so much flab for so long, knowing that keeping this up is going to improve my appearance and how comfortable I feel in my body is also a good motivator to get out there every other morning.

haha same reasons why I'm still jogging today and also the reason why this thread is my most favorite of all.

how do you guys go through with this without someone like Emi to help push you haha

I find myself wanting to do this, but thinking about having to do it alone as opposed to with a partner

Well, as mysterycyle also did, I also imagine Emi sometimes to keep meh going. Other than that, get a running buddy! It really helps, and you won't feel embarrassed at all coz you got someone running with you. Oh yeah, as Althamus also said, this forum keeps me going too. Feels nice to share the accomplishments you've done so far and no one's bragging. (unlike some guy i know...)


edit: @Althamus: thanks for the google tips. I found the distance thing and it helped a lot. Kinda sad that I couldn't go 1km within 3 min. 4 min. was my fastest for that...sad. lol. Also thanks for the fitocracy thing, I finally registered.

[Havain]

Today was my first day that I would be running, and indeed like a lot of you I imagined Emi just running next to me and supporting me, it helped! What also helped was the fact that I ran while listening to the KS soundtrack, keeps me thinking about it and gives me something to do while running I used the couch to 5k with Emi schedule to get in shape, since right now the only shape I'm in is a circle ( Badum tsh ), followed the instructions about stretching and felt amazing after running, like really doing something instead of sitting on my ass all day.

I also worked on the food I eat every day, no more sugars (chocolate, potato chips, cookies), drink milk in the morning, water rest of the day and eat pasta for dinner. It feels good keeping my body clean, but it's hard to not give in to the temptation of a cookie. Another thing, sleeping 8 hours a day is long, I'll give it a try, but since I have to wake up at 5.30 am for work I will have to sleep at 9.30 pm. Any suggestions?

[Megumeru]

I just learned today that your mental state affects greatly to how much you can run.

I can usually run up to 21 minute tops--this is week 4. Not too hard, yes can get pretty exhausting on the five minute run and the latter 3 + 5 but I can get it done nonetheless. Today was such a bad day with a crazy dumbass drivers, a broken iPod, and an exam I spent a night studying only to find that it was cancelled. I kept these rotating in my head and what do you know...

I couldn't even run pass 16 minute before I copped out.


That, and scumbag stomach. Should've not had that chili for lunch...

[completesky]

Won a BJJ comp over the weekend thanks to the cardio I gained from this program.

Thanks KS!

[BionicKraken]

Third day out running and I was finally able to run all 8 'cycles' without waiting longer in-between. I'm already making progress. Feels good!

[gRaViJa]

good job, BionicKraken!

@completesky congrats! But what is a BJJ (for us non english-as-mother-language-speakers ^^)?

[Enemy |]

I googled and got Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
But I really think if you practice Jiu-Jitsu it's not a couple of runs a week that's gonna get you better at it

[gRaViJa]

Another week, another mixes. Since I use all of them only once, I hope that others find them useful too.
I am still undecided if I should make mix for day 3, since its just running, no walking.

Just take Moonsorrow's Jotunheim, it's about 21 minutes long and i find that song SO empowering.

Song is great, but it really ends at 16th minute after which its just silent noises of nature.

I´ll probably take this for third day

But thanks for tip. Sound of band is awesome, I´ll look into them for sure. Not just for running.

Oh yeah, you should paste Kaiku right behind it, it's kinda 1 song ^^ band is awesome indeed, some other great song by them are Kaiku, Haaska and Tuulen Tytar

@Enemy, i first even read BJ lol xD

[Akros]

W5D1 complete, ran a lot today and didn't get tired at all, no pain, no nothing, just the runner's high and a lot of personal gratification

[ZXRN]

W5D1 complete, ran a lot today and didn't get tired at all, no pain, no nothing, just the runner's high and a lot of personal gratification

ooo damn, gotta get my game on. Feels like everybody here is beating me. Any other way to not feel tired quickly?

I actually wanna finish week 3 already so I can run longer at week 4! (why do I feel so excited abt this...)

[Akros]

W5D1 complete, ran a lot today and didn't get tired at all, no pain, no nothing, just the runner's high and a lot of personal gratification

ooo damn, gotta get my game on. Feels like everybody here is beating me. Any other way to not feel tired quickly?

I actually wanna finish week 3 already so I can run longer at week 4! (why do I feel so excited abt this...)

try to pick up the proper pace for you for both the running and walking parts, strech, and if you are enjoying it I guess you are feeling the runner's high, it's just that you don't know it's that, and want to keep going day after day.
mysterycicle and BionicKraken just started too, so don't feel like that, besides this ain't a competition

[Althamus]

ooo damn, gotta get my game on. Feels like everybody here is beating me. Any other way to not feel tired quickly?

Make sure you fuel up proeprly. A lot of people overlook it, but eating the right foods, and partiocualrly eating something before you go out to give you energy while you run will really help. It makes a collossal difference to me having something like a piece of fruit or something 20-30 mins before I go out to exercise as it'll be just entering my blood stream as I start exercising.

And don't worry ^_^ We've got the rest of our lives to have the benefit from the exercise, there's no rush or race (despite what Emi'd say ).

[Gandara]

Hey guys. Relatively new to the forums. I figured I'd post this here because... well, I'd rather not make a new topic, and this seemed to be the most fitting place to post it.

As I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences, my time with this game brought about many revelations. I'm very happy to have taken part in the story, and now that it's over I turn to myself to see what needs to be done. Katawa Shoujo came into my life at a strange time, but a perfect time. Because of its nudge, I've finally made the decision to make some major changes in my life - namely, my health.

I have been slow-rolling myself into a diet for about six months (slowly cutting back on things like soda, candy and fast food) as the many times in the past I attempted to go cold-turkey I fell on my face and relapsed almost instantly. Now that I'm finally prepared to take the first real step, I've done so. My official diet began on May 17th, not coincidentally the same day I finished Emi's path.

I've also begun my workout routine. So far, it involves low-impact fitness (walking, light jogging), and I'll be adding swimming as well in the next week. I live relatively close to work (about 1.5 miles away) so I've been walking to and from work when I can. I also take frequent evening walks, and do a little jogging to get the heart pumping, though I cannot jog very far at all right now.

I'll post a few statistics about myself and my goals:

Age: 25
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 373 lbs.

First weigh-in: Saturday, May 17th, 2012
Weekly weigh-ins: every Saturday

Overall Goals:

1) Massive weight loss
Target weight: 220 lbs. (maybe lower)

2) Health
Improved health through nutrition
Increased stamina

3) Activity
Regular exercise
Increased muscle & joint strength

Dietary Goals:

Calories: 2000 or less per day
NO Soda
NO Sweets
NO Fast food

Fruits & Vegetables - at least 5 servings per day
Water - as much as I can possibly drink

Exercise Goals:

1) Walk to and from work every day, weather & scheduling permitting (I sometimes work at other locations so I must bring my car on those days, typically less than 1 day a week though)

2) Walk / jog in the evenings at least 5 times a week

3) Go swimming twice a week

- - -

To those of you who saw my weight and went, "Holy shit!" - I understand completely. I'm grossly overweight right now. BUT there is a glimmer of good news! As I said I've slow-rolled my diet into effect:

- Over the past six months I slowly cut back on soda, going from three 20-oz bottles plus X cans at home a day, to two bottles, to one, to one diet, and now ultimately to zero.

- I cut back on sweets. I work in a kitchen, so desserts are plentiful and often tasty. I went from eating one dessert a day with my lunch, to a couple a week, to one a week, to one a month, now to zero. I also cut back significantly on buying sweets at the grocery store, like cookies, candy, etc.

- Fast food I haven't been so vigilant on, but thankfully I was forced to cut back gradually by another means entirely - I'm very broke. The prospect of paying $10 for a meal at McDonald's got much less appealing when my bank account had barely that much in it. Regardless, I've now cut the cord entirely.

Before I took these measures, I weighed over 400 lbs. - over the six months in which I cut back, I lost about 27 lbs., and that's with no exercise or strict dieting in place. Know that it IS POSSIBLE to do this!

If you guys have any suggestions for me I'd greatly appreciate them. Part of the reason I'm posting this in the first place is simply accountability - I hope that if things start to go poorly I can regain motivation by my commitments to my friends and family, and now to this big group of anonymous Katawa Shoujo nerds.

I'd be happy to post my weekly weigh-in results, as well as give any encouragement or advice to anyone else that I can. Thanks!

And, of course, a huge thank-you to 4LS for their astounding game. It wasn't the only thing impacting my life when I played it, but it certainly drove a proverbial nail into the coffin of my old self.

tl;dr - I'm fat, but I'm working on it.

[Sk3tch]

Day 1 down.

Well i guess it's a start.

I actually was surprised by how out of shape i was. I figured 8 reps of 1 min jog then 1 1/2 walk would be cake (it was probably all i the cake i eat that made it so hard ). After 3 minutes i regretted the decision to go running at all.
Though i am proud to say that i did the whole 8 reps without fudging on the time and walk. So i would call that a personal victory. Only 17 2/3 weeks left.