Post by mysterycycle on Aug 3, 2010 8:09:17 GMT -8
I didn't know where to put this, since it concerns both food and exercise, so here's a thread all it's own.
Michael, Joanna and I ran a fantasy LARP event over the weekend. Since we were the GMs, it required us to do a lot of hiking all over a steep mountainside, hiding crates of monster costumes in remote areas, hanging atmosphere in the trees at appropriate locations, hauling a daunting amount of equipment all over the place... and that's before the game started! After that was all the running around and fighting. At the end of the weekend, I was sweaty and rank, sore all over, utterly exhausted and completely ecstatic.
It's been a while since we've played, so this time I was reminded of all the reasons I love LARPing, and a few lessons that I had forgotten.
1. I am REALLY out of shape. There's nothing like doubling over and gasping for air while hiking up a trail to remind me of how flabby and weak I've let myself become. When you're a GM, you need to be every place at once, available to all the PCs for arbitration while portraying monsters and NPCs and overseeing your other NPCs to make sure everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing when. That's a lot of physical demand! If for no other reason (and there are plenty of other reasons), I want to be physically able to do these things, so I need to exercise regularly.
2. I don't really need to eat that much to get by. When I'm on game, I usually eat like a bird, usually because I'm too involved with what's going on to say to myself, "Hey, when's the last time I ate something?" When I did eat, it was usually something pretty simple: bread, cheese, lunch meat or chicken breast; and then usually just a handful rather than a full meal. This is something I want to carry over into my regular life. While I need to be sure I'm eating the right amounts of the right things, I really don't need to eat nearly as much as I usually do. Cutting back won't kill me; in fact, it's quite the opposite.
3. It's good to drink a lot of water. Since we LARP in Southern California, it's especially easy to get dehydrated on game, and I've been reminded of this by how many otherwise fun and exciting game evenings I've ended up spending with a splitting headache. So I made sure to drink lots of water and to always carry water with me. The end result of this is that (aside from the headaches not being so bad) I reacquaint myself with the concept of water-as-primary-drink instead of, say, my usual choice of soda. When I'm on game, water tastes good again, and I want it all the time. I welcome the chance to gulp down some cool water. When I got back home from the game, I tried one of my father's Propel flavored vitamin-water drinks, and it tasted too sweet to my palate. Since I usually feel that the flavor's a bit weak, I realized how I had - at least temporarily - weaned myself off of sugary drinks over a single weekend. I'd like to keep drinking lots of water, and generally stay away from the sweet stuff.
Finally, as cool as it was to see all of the pictures that people took of the game, it's never easy to see yourself in them and realize just how overweight you are. I don't want to be the Elf with the double-chin any more!
EDIT: And just for fun, here's some pictures of the event we ran. I'm the aforementioned double-chinned Elf on the far right here.
Michael, Joanna and I ran a fantasy LARP event over the weekend. Since we were the GMs, it required us to do a lot of hiking all over a steep mountainside, hiding crates of monster costumes in remote areas, hanging atmosphere in the trees at appropriate locations, hauling a daunting amount of equipment all over the place... and that's before the game started! After that was all the running around and fighting. At the end of the weekend, I was sweaty and rank, sore all over, utterly exhausted and completely ecstatic.
It's been a while since we've played, so this time I was reminded of all the reasons I love LARPing, and a few lessons that I had forgotten.
1. I am REALLY out of shape. There's nothing like doubling over and gasping for air while hiking up a trail to remind me of how flabby and weak I've let myself become. When you're a GM, you need to be every place at once, available to all the PCs for arbitration while portraying monsters and NPCs and overseeing your other NPCs to make sure everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing when. That's a lot of physical demand! If for no other reason (and there are plenty of other reasons), I want to be physically able to do these things, so I need to exercise regularly.
2. I don't really need to eat that much to get by. When I'm on game, I usually eat like a bird, usually because I'm too involved with what's going on to say to myself, "Hey, when's the last time I ate something?" When I did eat, it was usually something pretty simple: bread, cheese, lunch meat or chicken breast; and then usually just a handful rather than a full meal. This is something I want to carry over into my regular life. While I need to be sure I'm eating the right amounts of the right things, I really don't need to eat nearly as much as I usually do. Cutting back won't kill me; in fact, it's quite the opposite.
3. It's good to drink a lot of water. Since we LARP in Southern California, it's especially easy to get dehydrated on game, and I've been reminded of this by how many otherwise fun and exciting game evenings I've ended up spending with a splitting headache. So I made sure to drink lots of water and to always carry water with me. The end result of this is that (aside from the headaches not being so bad) I reacquaint myself with the concept of water-as-primary-drink instead of, say, my usual choice of soda. When I'm on game, water tastes good again, and I want it all the time. I welcome the chance to gulp down some cool water. When I got back home from the game, I tried one of my father's Propel flavored vitamin-water drinks, and it tasted too sweet to my palate. Since I usually feel that the flavor's a bit weak, I realized how I had - at least temporarily - weaned myself off of sugary drinks over a single weekend. I'd like to keep drinking lots of water, and generally stay away from the sweet stuff.
Finally, as cool as it was to see all of the pictures that people took of the game, it's never easy to see yourself in them and realize just how overweight you are. I don't want to be the Elf with the double-chin any more!
EDIT: And just for fun, here's some pictures of the event we ran. I'm the aforementioned double-chinned Elf on the far right here.