FFVIII – Part 83: Draw to a Close

Summary: Final thoughts on Final Fantasy VIII.

FFVIII – Part 82: I Will Follow You into the Dark

Summary: The end. Adrenaline, terror, joy, tragedy, friendship, beauty, love, wonder. Connection. The circle closes. I’m a mess.

FFVIII – Part 81: Ultimate Victory

Summary: YESSSSSS! Unlocked my limit breaks, adjusted my party. A nail-biting victory over Ultimecia. I’m barely coherent, though I provide some after-the-fact translation for the panicked keyboard smashes.

FFVIII – Part 80: Ultimate Failure

Summary: I fight Ultimecia. A lot. It doesn’t go well. Progress coupled with the abyss of frustration and defeat.

FFVIII – Part 79: Unsealing Power

Summary: Continuing my exploration of Ultimecia Castle. Clearing out many of the bosses to unlock my sealed power, with one mini-boss I haven’t found left. Oh, and one terrifying chapel-dweller.

FFVIII – Part 78: Gallery Hours

Summary: The first session exploring Ultimecia Castle. Special focus on the art gallery puzzle.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 12/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 119.  Tomorrow will be Day 120.

FFVIII – Part 77: World on Lockdown

Summary: Short session where I set foot into Ultimecia Castle, savor the music, and then unsuccessfully try exploring this new time-compressed world.

FFVIII – Part 76: Succession of Witches

Summary: Killed Adel (after a few tries) and then experienced the surreal trip that is time compression. Fought of sorceresses from across time. Arrived at a floating Castlevania.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 11/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 118.  Tomorrow will be Day 119.

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Weight: 244.4 (-7.6 lbs from start of project)

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 10/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 117.  Tomorrow will be Day 118.

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Weight: 245.6 (-6.4 lbs from start of project)

FFVIII – Part 75: Greatest Interdimensional Hero

Summary: Exploration of Tears’ Point, then the L. Pandora. Rescued Ellone from Seifer with the help of some old friends in Fujin and Raijin, and ultimately an even older friend. Polka dot pants and all.

Wildstar - Level 17: Alpha Sanctum

Summary: Trying out a slightly new leveling strategy.  Alpha Sanctum expedition.  Galeras leveling.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 9/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 116.  Tomorrow will be Day 117.

FFVIII – Part 74: President Loire

Summary: Met with the delightful government of Esthar. Backstory on the Laguna trio and Ellone. Odine briefs us on next steps.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 8/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying/adapting Day 115.  Tomorrow will be Day 116.

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I really disliked having to adapt my eating today.  Made things much harder and amplified the temptation to binge.  Proud that I decided not to binge.  The toughest part was the trip home from work.  Strong temptation to get chicken nuggets or some kind of fast food and just say "screw it."  Resisted it, got home, had some crackers, and was back on track.

Looking forward to pure copying tomorrow.

FFVIII – Part 73: Though It Bring Tragedy

Summary: Broke Rinoa out of confinement. Regrouped at Edea’s. Squall and Rinoa relationship development. (Some) Edea backstory. A session both joyful and forboding.

Wildstar - Level 16: Needlefern Grove

Summary: The Outpost M-13 expedition.  Finished up in Celestion.  Saw the Exile capital, Thayd.  Housing!

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 7/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 114.  Tomorrow will be Day 115.  I'll have to adapt to two cases:

1) Going out to lunch with someone at a place to be determined (not Chipotle), so will try to order something that feels around 890 cal.

2) The vegetables, hummus, and Dumdum I ate on Day 115 were lying around my workplace at the time, leftover from some event.  Instead, I'll bring in some pretzels to snack on in the afternoon.

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Weight: 246.6 (-5.4 lbs from start of project)

FFVIII – Part 72: Whistleblower

Summary: Some chocobo forest progress. Met a shadowy figure in the water and travelled to Dollet.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 6/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 113.  Tomorrow will be Day 114.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 5/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 77.  End of the first Redux week.  I plateaued in the weeks that followed Day 77, so starting tomorrow, we skip ahead!  To Day 113.

Weight: 247.0 (-5.0 lbs from start of project)

FFVIII – Part 71: Open Hand

Summary: Some world wandering leads us to the Shumi Village.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 4/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 76.  Tomorrow will be Day 77.

Weight: 247.8 (-4.2 lbs from start of project)

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 3/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 75.  Tomorrow will be Day 76.

Weight: 247.8 (-4.2 lbs from start of project)

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 2/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 74.  Tomorrow will be Day 75.

Weight: 250.8 (-1.2 lbs from start of project)

FFVIII – Part 70: Mustache of Glory

Summary: Reunion on the Ragnarok. Met an old friend in the Esthar desert.

FFVIII – Part 69: Love in the Time of Shoggoths

Summary: Cleared monsters off the Ragnarok. Significant relationship development between Squall and Rinoa, with some back-and-forth thoughts on how one-sided it may or may not be. And by “Rinoa” I mean “Sorceress Rinoa” WTFFFFFFF

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux: Day 1/33

Project Redux is my attempt to get back on track by copying my eating and exercise from five successful weeks in late 2015.

Today, copying Day 73.  Tomorrow will be Day 74. 

Weight: 252.0 lbs

FFVIII – Part 68: Out of Gas

Summary: The early terror of the Lunar Cry and our first look at Ultimecia gives way to a quiet beauty. Rinoa saved. Had a kind of poetry to it, sir.

Coldrun Fitness - Project Redux

I've been struggling.  More than that - in a kind of free-fall.  Keep trying out new things, giving up, trying out other new things, giving up.  Haven't weighed in of late due to overwhelming feelings of shame and helplessness.  Best guess: 251-252 lbs.

Going to try something old.

I've succeeded before.  There were five weeks in late 2015, between October through early December, where I successfully navigated from the low 250s to the high 230s.  They weren't consecutive weeks, but among those few months there were five notably successful weeks.

I'm going to copy those five weeks starting tomorrow.  I'll eat exactly what I ate on those days/weeks.  Use my best self as the role model.

This will be a unique attempt in Coldrun Gaming history in that it's limited.  Tomorrow won't be day 1/infinity; it will be day 1/33.

First up for tomorrow: day 72.

FFVIII – Part 67: Cry Havoc

Summary: A light-hearted and fun romp through space. Then not. The Lunar Cry begins.
TW: minor nightmare fuel/body horror

FFVIII – Part 66: The Pandora Opens

Summary: Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis launch off into space. A huge monolith that the Galbadians dug up flies over Esthar. Zell, Irvine, and Edea try to board and stop it. They are successful in the former task, unsuccessful in the latter.

FFVIII – Part 65: Tomorrowland

Summary: Laguna, Kiros, and Ward rescue Ellone. I spend way too long gawking at the innovative beauty of Esthar.

FFVIII – Part 64: Salt Lake City

Summary: Breakthrough! The team sets out on a journey together, crossing a dried up salt lake and arriving in Esthar.

Coldrun Fitness - March 6, 2016

FFVIII – Part 63: Ghosts of Winhill

Summary: A trip to the White Ship, and then to the more and less legitimately haunted pastoral paradise of Winhill.

FFVIII – Part 62: No Country for Any Men

Summary: Wandering the barren landscape of Esthar. Some chocobo forest puzzles break up the relentless monotony.

FFVIII – Part 61: Forest of Rage

Summary: Attempting to play the chocobo forest mini game puts me in a bad mood this session. May have found the Cactuar. The White Ship.

Coldrun Fitness - Day 10

Solid week last week.  Not having a computer at home really threw my life off and I didn't adapt well.  Lost my routine, ended up binging the last few days, but I'm back.

All I can do now is try to eat about 2,500 calories today, tomorrow, and Saturday, and see where weight is on Sunday.  Probably nowhere good. But that's okay too.

Decided to try putting a bit of a timer on things: wherever I'm at by July 1st with weight, I want to start fencing again then.

[posting this at the start of the day to help keep myself accountable, to avoid a scenario where the day goes well and a last minute binge throws it all away.]

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12:15pm:  Back from lunch.  1,630 calories down, full with a good lunch.  870 calories to go.

Current plan is to work until around 3:30pm then go to a nearby coffee store to get a skim chai tea latte, 150 calories.  I'll then have a bowl of soup I made at home for dinner with Fritos, and that'll be that.

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4:35pm:  Had a small hot chocolate (270 calories) around 3:45pm.  Looking forward to dinner tonight, and then keeping my mind off eating until bed.

FFVIII – Part 60: Centra Exploration

Summary: Brief foray to the past as the Galbadian Trio take on some Ruby Dragons. Direction from Edea. Odin. ZANTETSUKEN!

FFVIII – Part 59: The Once and Future Sorceress

Summary: I get angry at Triple Triad. Chocobo hunting. Matron Edea at the orphanage. A new name enters the fray: Ultimecia.