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RYANDEJONGHE's Recent Blog Entries
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Monday, January 16, 2012
I have over 100 pounds to lose—I know this. This is not a mystery. Ever since I dropped dead last year, I’ve been nervous about working out. In turn, I’m now the heaviest I’ve ever been—and I’m not happy. You can read my other blogs, where I’ve resolved to lose weight and be a brand new person, but I was doing it all wrong.
The Kinect to Fitness and Health group has a new challenge built around ideas from The Spark. Something there finally clicked with me: the tipping point. There is a magical place where everything in your life comes together; a place that is created by every facet of a healthy lifestyle. This place is called the tipping point. Losing weight happens as a result of reaching the tipping point. Well founded goals drive us to the tipping point. Losing weight is not a well-founded goal. Wanting to lose weight is what sets us up for failure and disappointment.
Here is what my new goal is: to be around for my kids and have energy to play with them. I want that youthful energy—the kind that makes me happy and those around me happy. With that energy, I can be successful at my work, be the husband I’m meant to be, and the father my kids deserve.
My goal has nothing to do with my weight, but I’ll probably lose weight in an effort to reach my goal. Because of this, I’m not going to give much thought to the scale. I’ll step on the scale at the doctor’s office, but that’s about it. I don’t want to set myself up for failure, disappointment, or regret. If I eat too much, I’ll remind myself of how this may not help me reach my goal, and I won’t beat myself for the possibility of gaining a couple of pounds at the next weigh-in. My goal is health and energy.
I’m going to start doing things to help reach my goal: get more sleep, exercise more, eat better, and spend more time with my kids. If my goal was to lose weight, I wouldn’t do these things. If my goal was to lose weight, I would think about “kick-starting” myself and following some crazy plan. My goal is simple and the way to obtain it simpler.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
I’ve always been a fan of video games and technology. Anything that would marry the two would be icing on the cake. Starting out on the NES, I would hook up every accessory available, from Broderbund’s U-Force controller to the Miracle Piano Teaching System. So naturally, when Microsoft announced they were releasing a product that would be able to track your entire body, I was first in line.
Prior to the launch of Kinect for Xbox 360, I was already trying to get back into shape. I was using SparkPeople.com to guide my habits and the Wii to get in shape. The Wii Fit was a great product for me, but seemed more of an introduction to exercise, versus a substitute for it. The Wii Fit was where I found my love for Yoga, so no complaints there. However, I couldn’t wait for the release of the Kinect. Every video I watched only made me hunger more.
One of the nice things about SparkPeople is the ability to create groups, similar to Facebook. Knowing how powerful and amazing Kinect would be, I set out to start a fitness group called, “Kinect to Spark”. I solicited the help of Tema Chipo, who has been an amazing motivator in other video game groups. At the launch of Kinect in November 2010, we had about eight members. From that point, we tried everything in the book to drive growth of the group. And not just growth, but growth while motivating members of the group.
When the Kinect launched, it was evident how transformational it would be in people’s lives. Our members were finding amazing exercise in everything from Your Shape Fitness Evolved to Dance Central. Even the game that came bundled with the Kinect, Kinect Adventures, proved to be a fitness challenge in some areas.
Needless to say, the Kinect sells itself, especially to those that are looking to become more active. There are days where I just like to go to Best Buy and watch people try out the Kinect display. I love watching the magic in people’s eyes when they first experience the Kinect. Usually what happens is, they try out the Kinect for about 20 minutes, call someone over to watch them play, and then they go seek out where it is sold. It’s hard to explain to people what it does and feels like. Once they’ve played it, the magic begins.
We certainly had the momentum rolling, coming off of the holiday season. However, in February, I suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. My parents were in town visiting and we started off the day playing a bit of the Kinect. From there, we went out to eat and the next thing I remember was having my chest pounded on. 72 shocks and a coma later, I woke up feeling like a train hit me. To this day, doctors don’t know what caused my Cardiac Arrest. My heart was clean, but there was some kind of electrical storm that dropped me instantly.
While this momentarily set me back, both in exercise and weight loss, I am thankful for the experience. While recovering, I became addicted to another technology called OnLive. Essentially, OnLive is a streaming video game service. You can think of it as Netflix streaming, but for video games. I became increasingly involved in the community and even started reaching out to developers and publishers about putting their games onto the service.
Thanks to the connections I was able to make with OnLive, I then had inroads to people working on Kinect games. Looking to reignite my Kinect team, I started up another site, called Kinect Reviews and Interviews. Since September, I have been reviewing games, conducting interviews, and hosting contests on the site. All for the purpose of driving people to our Kinect fitness group.
Today the Kinect fitness group is thriving. Sure, there is always room for improvement, but we have come a long way. We currently have a weight loss contest with some nice prizes the members have contributed. We also have a virtual walk across the country, ways to motivate each other on Xbox Live, a Facebook group, another contest to win Dance Central 2, and many other things to keep each other active and motivated.
So while we may hit a few snags in the road, such as losing members or PR companies not responding the way I want, there are always rebounds, such as making a new video game industry contact or seeing a member reach a healthy milestone. These member milestones are actually the reasons I keep driving on. We’ve had members that have lost over 100 pounds-playing video games. So while the world of video games may be full of the Call of Duties, I can still find solace in the success of the Kinect for Xbox 360.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I’m looking at my SparkPeople life and thinking that I need to improve a few things. I would like to join more groups so that my blogs and updates have more exposure. More exposure is always a good thing. That means I’ll get more support and meet more people. However, I don’t think it would be fair to the groups if I join and don’t participate. My goal is to lead my current groups and keep everyone motivated. That is tough to maintain and still participate in other groups and challenges. What do you all think? Should I join more groups for more exposure, even if I don’t participate?
Speaking of leading groups, I’m very active in leading my Xbox Kinect group. Right now, I’m not even on the map in my other two groups. For that I feel sorry. Another question for you all, should I resign leadership of my other two groups? I would like to be able to get on board and motivate folks, but I haven’t been doing this for months.
While we are on the topic of Xbox Kinect, there are lots of new games coming out for it. What is the Kinect? Think about the Wii, but without any controllers. You step in front of your TV and play. Don’t worry about pressing buttons, because the machine sees you and corresponds to your movements. Swing the bat, bowl the ball, dance the tango, and do whatever you want. If there is an interest, there is a game for it. This week there were several games released for the Kinect. I have had the privilege to review a few of them and hope to be reviewing a few more. Of the ones I reviewed, they are:
Kinectimals Now with Bears!
(Review here: kinectreviewsandinterviews.wordpress
.com/2011/10/11/review-kinectimals-now
-with-bears/ )
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
(Review here: kinectreviewsandinterviews.wordpress
.com/2011/10/11/review-once-upon-a-mon
ster/ )
Forza Motorsport 4
(Review here: kinectreviewsandinterviews.wordpress
.com/2011/10/10/review-forza-motorspor
t-4-for-kinect/ )
So, I’m having fun and meeting lots of great people. I just have to fine tune what my priorities are and have that happy medium of participation, leadership, and personal drive.
Until next time, keep Sparking everyone!
Ryan
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Catchy title, right? You'll have to go to my blog to find out the answer. (sorry)
bit.ly/p2hUeK
Saturday, September 03, 2011
I'm starting to use blogger to blog...it just seems easier to blog there and add pictures, links, make it purdy and all.
I'll endeavor to keep posting links here and giving you all a special 'exclusive' preview of what to find in the blog.
Here I talk about my weight loss last year, my cardiac arrest, and my weight gain. And now, it is time to lose this weight...and what better way to do it than with the help of you all! Oh, and a couple of contests with prizes never hurts either. :)
ryandejonghe.blogspot.com/2011/09/ti
me-to-lose-this-weight-whos-joining.html
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