What are your non-gaming resolutions for 2016?

We got the gaming resolutions, let's talk about the non-gaming resolutions!

My resolution seems pretty simple: Get healthy. Of course, a resolution like that gets you nowhere quick, so it's split into other, smaller goals:
1. Get my weight back down to 180lb. In the middle of this year I got into an accident and busted up my knee, which had me laid up for a bit and caused my weight to balloon. Then, I got sad I gained weight and when I get sad I get a 'screw it' attitude and didn't bother to moderate what I ate, which made things worse. So now I'm trying to work from 215 back down to 180, and I'll set a new goal from there.
2. Cut the worst stuff food wise out of my life. Mainly for me, that's sugar. No more non-diet drinks, candy and baked goods will be a rarity, and so on. Also I need to cut out as much take out food as possible... most of it is terrible calorie wise. Being lazy abotu cooking is a bane of mine.
3. Fix my teeth. Now I don't have teeth like a meth head or anything, but I've been unable to go to the dentist since I was 16, mainly for financial reasons. My wisdom teeth are starting to grow it (late bloomer), and they obviously are trying to mess things up because they don't fit in my small mouth. Recently, one of the wisdom teeth broke and caused an open wound in my gums, so that wasn't fun. Oh, and a couple years ago I had a super bad tooth infection from a cavity and that was really horrible, but I couldn't go to the dentist because, you guessed it, money. I'll be changing that for 2016 though, as I'll finally have a well-paying enough job to pay for dentist bills.

That's about it. What are your goals for 2016?

Hopefully pass the first year of college. I just can't bring myself to learn anything or do anything for that matter, I just wanna lay in bed all day and waste my life away.
Worst thing is that I used to learn all the quantity of information I need for this semester's exams in 1-2 weeks top back when I was in high-school, now I would drag it on for months.

I'll try to get my driver's license, which I won't use since I don't have money for a car, and even if I had a car I wouldn't have money for gas.

I hope the next year won't be as boring/empty/sad as this one.

Happy new year.

gaiges, i'm also currently at 215 and hoping to get to 180 (when i left college i was 175). let's keep each other in check!

Goal 1 - Physical) Get my weight back down to 180. Also I bailed on my sister's plan to run a half marathon in January. Would have been my second. Want to run another one in its place by the end of the year. I'd also like to do the LA Marathon Crash (where you get up at 4am and bike the marathon course before the race, but after the streets have been cleared). I've done it before, but it was super fun.

Goal 2 - Writing) By the end of May, I need to have completed at least one more feature and another pilot. I've been sitting in my cush editorial job for 3 years in June. It's time to take a leap of faith and try to get in a writer's room.

Goal 3 - Media Consumption) 25 books. 10 seasons of TV. 60 movies. 60-75 scripts. All previously unseen - this does not include rewatching/ reading.

I'm sure there are others, but these are the most important.

Don't have much, mostly cause I'm really bad at keeping to them. So pretty much just improve my art amd try to get to a level where I could be happy with the things I do. Could add my weight to it, but that'll never happen, I'm probably over a 100 kg (220 pounds or so) now, but that won't be getting better any time soon.

Getting a job would be great, I'll be in Japan for most of January but once I get back I'm going to get to job searching right away since I just finished Year 12. If I get accepted into an actual course then I'll do it part time while doing my course. However if due to my low scores no one will take me but the higher forms of TAFE then I'll just do a whole year of full time work first and then head into school, having to defer up from TAFE alreaddy puts me a year behind so I might as well make some money first.

*I also need to lose some weight. I'm up to 85 kg (~187 pounds), I'd really like to get down to 78 kg (172 pounds) again. I've been drinking an obscene amount of Pepsi and gotten really addicted to sugar. Always have some chocolate or donuts at home :(

*Get a job. I've been unemployed for most of 2015 and don't have a lot of money left.

*Manage my depressions better. It's not healthy lying in bed for 12 hours a day and playing video games for the remaining 12.

gaiges, i'm also currently at 215 and hoping to get to 180 (when i left college i was 175). let's keep each other in check!

Goal 1 - Physical) Get my weight back down to 180. Also I bailed on my sister's plan to run a half marathon in January. Would have been my second. Want to run another one in its place by the end of the year. I'd also like to do the LA Marathon Crash (where you get up at 4am and bike the marathon course before the race, but after the streets have been cleared). I've done it before, but it was super fun.

Goal 2 - Writing) By the end of May, I need to have completed at least one more feature and another pilot. I've been sitting in my cush editorial job for 3 years in June. It's time to take a leap of faith and try to get in a writer's room.

Goal 3 - Media Consumption) 25 books. 10 seasons of TV. 60 movies. 60-75 scripts. All previously unseen - this does not include rewatching/ reading.

I'm sure there are others, but these are the most important.

Heck yeah, we can do it!

No more non-diet drinks

Believe it or not, the sugar substitutes in diet drinks make them worse for you than regular soft drinks (the same goes for most reduced fat/sugar/etc food products FYI). If you can move to drinking only water, then you will cut out a lot of hidden calories...

My non-gaming resolution is weight-related as well, so maybe we should all start some kind of group chat to support each other?

Kind of weight related here, although I already started on this project last year.

First of all I need to drop off another 10kg on top of the 10 I lost last year. That would bring me down to 90kg (180lbs)

Secondly, I started cycling last year (managed 1500km) - this year I want to reach 5.000km.

No more non-diet drinks

Believe it or not, the sugar substitutes in diet drinks make them worse for you than regular soft drinks (the same goes for most reduced fat/sugar/etc food products FYI). If you can move to drinking only water, then you will cut out a lot of hidden calories...

My non-gaming resolution is weight-related as well, so maybe we should all start some kind of group chat to support each other?

Ehhhh, the verdict's still out on that, really. Lots of studies are starting to come out say that the sugar subs. aren't inherently bad for you, as long as you drink/use in moderation. The problem comes about when people overdrink diet/zero cal. soda, because even if it has no calories, it's still not great for you in other ways... and people tend to overdrink A LOT because it's suddenly 'okay'. Diet soda really doesn't have many (or any) calories, there aren't hidden calories in that stuff, but there are other potential risks for putting what is essentially 'not water' into your body.

So yeah, more water for the win. :D

A group chat would be fun! We should do that somewhere. IRC? Skype? Somewhere else I'm not thinking of?

Ehhhh, the verdict's still out on that, really. Lots of studies are starting to come out say that the sugar subs. aren't inherently bad for you, as long as you drink/use in moderation. The problem comes about when people overdrink diet/zero cal. soda, because even if it has no calories, it's still not great for you in other ways... and people tend to overdrink A LOT because it's suddenly 'okay'. Diet soda really doesn't have many (or any) calories, there aren't hidden calories in that stuff, but there are other potential risks for putting what is essentially 'not water' into your body.

So yeah, more water for the win. :D

A group chat would be fun! We should do that somewhere. IRC? Skype? Somewhere else I'm not thinking of?

Yeah, it's not so much the sugar substitutes in them as it is all the other crap, like they're still terrible for your teeth because of how acidic they are.

Several years ago I had to start drinking more water because of a medication I was on (risk of kidney stones is a good motivator for that). That got me in the habit of keeping a full glass of water or water bottle next to me at all times, and eventually that became all I drank, even all this time later when I don't have to. Before that I basically never drank plain water, and now I only have a glass or two of anything that isn't water once or twice a week. Just always having it there next to you and refilling it whenever it's empty/whenever you get up can get you to adjust pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, I will continue my quest to not lose weight. I reached a new low last year which was ten pounds below my original "if I reach this point it's maybe time to start freaking out" point, but I made it partway back.

in college i started carrying around a 32 oz nalgene bottle, and have had some version of that ever since. i try to drink minimum 2 full bottles a day, but usually way more.

i'm trying to ditch soda completely. my office has perrier, but i still crave that dr. pepper. and i don't know how to do chipotle without a large mr pibb. hahaha.

Yeah, it's not so much the sugar substitutes in them as it is all the other crap, like they're still terrible for your teeth because of how acidic they are.

Several years ago I had to start drinking more water because of a medication I was on (risk of kidney stones is a good motivator for that). That got me in the habit of keeping a full glass of water or water bottle next to me at all times, and eventually that became all I drank, even all this time later when I don't have to. Before that I basically never drank plain water, and now I only have a glass or two of anything that isn't water once or twice a week. Just always having it there next to you and refilling it whenever it's empty/whenever you get up can get you to adjust pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, I will continue my quest to not lose weight. I reached a new low last year which was ten pounds below my original "if I reach this point it's maybe time to start freaking out" point, but I made it partway back.

Yes, that's a far better way to put it lol. I had a lot of trouble trying to express that xD I assume I'll stop drinking like 90% of my diet soda drinking (which really isn't too much) this month, when it stops essentially being free :p Water is free (at work), after all, and I'm a cheap cheap person.

Yeah, it's not so much the sugar substitutes in them as it is all the other crap, like they're still terrible for your teeth because of how acidic they are.

Several years ago I had to start drinking more water because of a medication I was on (risk of kidney stones is a good motivator for that). That got me in the habit of keeping a full glass of water or water bottle next to me at all times, and eventually that became all I drank, even all this time later when I don't have to. Before that I basically never drank plain water, and now I only have a glass or two of anything that isn't water once or twice a week. Just always having it there next to you and refilling it whenever it's empty/whenever you get up can get you to adjust pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, I will continue my quest to not lose weight. I reached a new low last year which was ten pounds below my original "if I reach this point it's maybe time to start freaking out" point, but I made it partway back.

We can all agree that water is better - and I'm a hypocrite anyway because I have a monster energy drink habit that I just can't seem to kick!

Something on mobile might be good for a group chat because we can keep each other in check on the fly. IRC would be fine as well if people aren't comfortable giving out numbers/fb names/etc.

Oh yeah, FB Messenger is a good one, I always forget about that (and I'm fine sharing my FB info). I'm fine with sharing phone numbers, but group texts tend to get majorly messed up on my phone (something about an error with T-Mobile) so I have those disabled, though.

I'm personally fine with FB or IRC :D (I use IRCCloud on my phone and it works pretty darn well, although I haven't figured out push notifications quite yet... Just too lazy to look up why it isn't working because the only IRC chat I'm in isn't terribly active).

Yall might want to check out https://habitica.com/static/front

I've been using it for probably 2 years as a to-do list and to help me improve positive habits and decrease negative ones. It's fun and has been incredibly helpful. I began using it as a way to help with time management on work tasks.

You can join a "party" with other people and do quests together where accomplishing goals or knocking things off a to-do list damages enemies. If you are in a party, then you NOT working toward goals hurts everyone, so it gives you some social responsibility and motivation to get things done. Or you can just use it yourself with no party, and it's still neat!

Yall might want to check out https://habitica.com/static/front

I've been using it for probably 2 years as a to-do list and to help me improve positive habits and decrease negative ones. It's fun and has been incredibly helpful. I began using it as a way to help with time management on work tasks.

You can join a "party" with other people and do quests together where accomplishing goals or knocking things off a to-do list damages enemies. If you are in a party, then you NOT working toward goals hurts everyone, so it gives you some social responsibility and motivation to get things done. Or you can just use it yourself with no party, and it's still neat!

thats cool. i downloaded this a few weeks ago, but didn't spend the time to learn the interface. i was using Quest as my to-do list app (which is pretty cool), but between Evernote and my excel spreadsheet, Quest was a redundant part of my system.

doing a party sounds cool.

I just finished arranging to go back to school for an electrician apprenticeship, so the next five months of my life are basically going to be devoted to that, and then getting a job in said field.
Losing weight seems to be more of standard goal, but when life is pulling you in different directions, it's hard to take the time for yourself to exercise (at least, that's what I've found it my case). I would rather lose weight by eating well AND exercising then going on some freak diet.
On a side note, I have heard nothing but bad things about the stuff in diet colas (not that I've heard great things about what's in regular colas...). If it's a choice between diet coke or coke zero, for example, I'd go with coke zero.

Yall might want to check out https://habitica.com/static/front

I've been using it for probably 2 years as a to-do list and to help me improve positive habits and decrease negative ones. It's fun and has been incredibly helpful. I began using it as a way to help with time management on work tasks.

You can join a "party" with other people and do quests together where accomplishing goals or knocking things off a to-do list damages enemies. If you are in a party, then you NOT working toward goals hurts everyone, so it gives you some social responsibility and motivation to get things done. Or you can just use it yourself with no party, and it's still neat!

Woah, that's pretty neat! I'll spend some time tinkering with it over the weekend, thank you :D

Eat healthier is definitely the main goal of 2016 for me. The last few months have pretty much been an overlong bout of laziness/depressive mood that led to a lot of fast food and take out. I'm by no means in a bad spot weight wise (~170 lbs and ~15% body fat), but if I don't start eating better then it'll likely get out of hand in a couple years. My plan of action is to do a lot more meal planning in advance so I have an actual grocery list come shopping time. So far it's sort of working, although I did backslide today with a trip to Whataburger.

Somewhat related to the above, I'd also really like to get my 1-mile run back under 9 minutes, ideally under 8 minutes. Sometime last summer I could do a 5-mile run in just under 45 minutes (~9min/mile), but now I'm barely hitting 2.5 miles in 30 (~12min/mile). Again, too much fast food kind of screwed it all up, although I did take a break from running around Halloween too.

Also actually use my insurance coverage to go get a check-up. I haven't been to a doctor since college really, and that was 2012. Similarly, I'm in need of new glasses (major scratches on my current lenses and thinking about contacts) and I really should get my teeth cleaned because I'm like 80% sure I've got a couple cavities. Basically, all those adult things people do to make sure everything runs smoothly and efficiently.

As for a non-health goal, I would like to take a chunk out of my reading backlog for once instead of seeing it go up every year. Right now, I think I've got about 60 books I've bought but haven't read, with some of those books being collections and thus like 3~10 books each. Same goes for my game collection, but that's for another topic I think.

Interestingly enough, I already had an account with that Habitica site @_@

Well, what I'll probably do is clear my character out and try and make a HLTB party to help us motivate each other to make healthier habits in the new year. I'll make a new thread when I do so :D

Stop smoking cigarette and lose some weight. Man that's hard. I love to eat and I love smoking haha. I'll get myself to the gym and try to stop smoking in parralel, it works some time ago and when I stopped the gym, all the vice came back :(.

:::bump:::

i know a while back we were talking about doing some sort of health/ fitness support group. thought i would throw this on here:

i start a 6 wk crossfit "challenge" a week from today. i got a deal with a new crossfit place in my area where it's a discounted price, but you have to commit to 3 times a week, and following their super strict paleo-type diet for 6 weeks. you also agree to take before and after pics. needed something to jump start me into losing some weight (and getting ready for the half i'm running in oct) since i'm leaving my job in three weeks and will finally not be sitting behind a desk 10 hours a day. i'll let you all know how it goes. i've never done crossfit before.

Mike, how is it going with the cross-fit? I can vouch for the paleo-type diet, once you've been off sugar and sweets for a while you can actually start enjoying non-junk food.

My resolution for the year - to read/listen to 50 books. I'm not sure exactly how many I've done so far - I used goodreads to keep track... for about a week. Should be doable to average one a week though.