Today I tried jogging in place while doing Beat Saber. Nothing too crazy - just keeping my legs moving. I have an anti-fatigue mat that keeps me in place. My average heart rate went up 10 bpm as well as my peak (from BS without jogging), so it seems to be a worthwhile addition as long as you're careful!

It's been a long time since I've updated (about four years!). It feels like a lot has happened since then! I've been living with my girlfriend for several years now, so the days of just fixing a meal for myself to last all week is all but over. We also moved into a smaller apartment, so I had to get rid of my stationary bike that I had at home. Still, I've tried to keep and adapt my routine and continue keeping my weight down. My body really wants to live around 185-190, so anything higher that that usually is a sign that I need to slim back down.

Since I got rid of the stationary bike, I would go to the gym in our apartment complex and use the elliptical. This was fine until COVID hit and we didn't leave the apartment. I tried to supplement my exercise with VR - specifically Beat Saber - which was better than nothing. Still, I was having some health issues (turns out I have ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune disorder) and general mental issues from the stress of COVID times and gave up exercising for a while. When I finally got vaccinated and started working again last year, I noticed I didn't fit into any of my dress pants. Got the batteries replaced in the scale and realized I was back to 201 lbs! Yikes! So I started shredding again.

Currently I'm doing HIIT on the elliptical every other day at the gym. I think I'm on 30/60 but will be ramping up the difficulty soon. On off days I'm doing 30 minutes of Beat Saber at home (a specific playlist at 120% speed that is designed for exercise) and doing stretches. Right now I have less of an emphasis on muscle building and more on stretches and core building for pain management and strengthening my spine. Last year I was able to get to 190 lbs before I went out of town for a gig. I was able to maintain 190 lbs throughout the end of last year/beginning of this year when once again I avoided the gym due to Omicron. A few weeks ago my girlfriend had a similar "omg" moment of gaining COVID weight, so we've both been trying to shred again. The last month I've gone from 190 to 184 with the hopes of getting to 175 and then going from there!

As for diet, I still don't eat breakfast. Lunch consists of either fish fillets, a chicken patty, or a turkey burger with a 35 calorie tortilla and a half can of peas, corn, or green beans. Somewhat boring, but consistent. We've been doing meal deliveries for dinner since COVID and did Blue Apron for a long time. Now we do EveryPlate. It's pretty convenient since the calories and nutrition are listed for each meal. Each week I just choose the low calorie options (try to stay less than 750 calories). For a midnight snack I'll do greek yogurt mixed with PBFit (70 calorie peanut butter mix) or a small bowl of cereal. Sometimes I'll have a bourbon neat but try to keep it to one unless it's the weekend.

As for supplements, I'm currently doing Vitamin D, Fish Oil, and Turmeric. The turmeric is specific to my inflammation issues. I haven't added protein shakes back in yet, but I may if I start trying to balance weight loss with muscle toning/weight lifting.

Despite always having fluctuations in my weight, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've kept the lifestyle changes and focus on health for nearly 10 years now. I feel that's the hardest part of diet and exercise - it's easier to do it for a few months for a temporary gain, but the truth is it's something you have to maintain for your whole life. I'm about to turn 38 and it's much more of an uphill battle now then when I was 28, but such is life! I'm glad I've kept this little diary of sorts, as I can go back and look at things I may have forgotten about! I started this as sharing stuff I was learning with others, but it turns out I was also sharing stuff I was learning with my future self!

Well, nevermind. Legendary gear has been removed.

We're on shard: Waverider_US_EAST

It's a classic WoW circa-2005 style MMO with pretty good VR mechanics for combat, climbing, flying/gliding, cooking, etc. We're playing nightly 9-11 p.m. EST. Make sure you hop in Discord when you jump in and make sure you get added to the guild in-game!

Join Zenith's Discord to learn more!

On a second watch - after my obsessive hype died down - I can see more of what others were disappointed with.  I’m rather easy to please when it comes to film, and I still enjoyed many aspects of it.  My question, however, is:  what did you love, what did you hate?

Loved:

-The modal stuff and the concept of humans creating programs within the Matrix as well as programs finding "bodies" outside the Matrix.
-Neo & Trinity having amnesia and living as bluepills again.
-The possibility that the original trilogy was going to be retconned as just existing in this crazy dude's head. Obviously it would have sucked if that turned out to be true, but I liked them toying with our expectations there.
-Upgrading parts of the Matrix to make it make sense (no phone booths - mirrors instead).
-The first half when things got crazy and then got reset. Wanted more of that.

Hated:

-Combat was downgraded. Bad editing in many fight scenes.
-Way too many direct flashes of the original trilogy. The meta "Matrix games" should have used UE5 CG of the original movies instead of actual footage, and I didn't need the "remember this" flashes.
-Smith was just...around? He really didn't seem to serve a purpose other than "Hey, it's Smith! He's still around too!"
-Merv's rant was...a lot.
-I was fine with NPH, but I was not fine with the weird effect they were using for his monologuing. Big bullet time downgrade.
-Meta stuff was a double edged sword. At times it seemed the story suffered to push the symbolism instead. "Warner Bros wants us to make a fourth Matrix and people are just gonna want action!" K...we get it...
-The Morpheus program was an interesting idea, but not sure why he was supposed to be half Morpheus/half Smith, and it was weird how some people just embraced him as the "real Morpheus".
-Movie devolved into a standard rescue mission once Neo was freed. No more twists and turns.
-60 year time jump seemed unnecessary. I guess they needed it to explain IO.
-No mention of Tbone and the Furious Angels, the true heroes after Neo was gone.
-Morpheus' fate was rewritten, though I don't think a reference to an assassin made of flies would have gone over well...lol.
-"I still know kung fu" (cringe)
-Honestly, maybe the ending. I sort of feel like they should have jumped off that building and never be seen again unless they make another movie and then that could be misdirect. They were both freed from Machine City, so they could die in peace without fear of the Machines just reviving them and throwing them back in.
-Fans of the original trilogy were put in a BAD light here. I don't know that it was intentional, but Jude came across as the voice of the fans - annoyingly bringing up both the action elements and the philosophical elements of the original trilogy as well as trying to force a Neo/Trinity romance again. I get that he was symbolic for the fans' expectations, but it came across as derogatory towards anyone who enjoyed the original trilogy.
-It really, really felt like Lana does not want there to be a Matrix video game

Updated the original post. Changes:

-Supersampling is now going through Oculus settings and the render resolution first to optimize performance. Instead of setting OTT settings to 1.4-1.7, you'll be looking at 1.0-1.2 while setting the render resolution to 1.5 in Oculus' app settings.
-Added SteamVR settings that are required to get good performance for SteamVR games and apps.

^bump