I was bashing out a long winded reply to AbominableAllStars song post diary when I remembered it is bad form to hijack a diary thread. So I thought I'd throw together a bit of a diary expressing how music has changed my life recently, while affording DKOS readers the chance to share your playlists with each other. 1st, my playlist and then my story.
My total metalhead playlist: Annihilator: Alison Hell, Antrhax: Among The Living, Mudvayne: Dig, Slayer: Raining Blood, Iron Maiden: Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter, System of a Down: Chop Suey!, Iron Maiden: Flight of Icarus, Megadeth: Holy wars... The Punishment Due, Megadeth: In My Darkest Hour, Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams, Testament: Into the Pit, System of a Down: Psycho, System of a Down: Tentative, Testament: The Formation of Damnation, Iron Maiden: The Trooper, Megadeth: Wake Up Dead, Suicidal Tendencies: Waking the Dead, and last but not least, Iron Maiden: Wrathchild.
Now my story. Aproximately two years ago I reached my peak weight of just under 350 lbs. I'm 5'10" so it was NOT a pretty picture. I had quit smoking about 2 years prior to that and then lost my job so I experienced the perfect storm of events to lead me to a pretty sorry physical state.
The day after Obama's inauguration (YES!) I got the call from my current employer offering me a job (double YES!). One benefit they offer is access to an onsite weight room. I decided to put some time in and get myself into better shape.
I did alright for about a year... slowly shedding weight and feeling stronger as I got into an on again off again work out routine. I would miss some days, and drag myself into the workout on others... and I did manage to slowly improve. But that all changed this past March, when my wife gave me an MP3 player for my birthday.
The very first time I hopped on the exercise bike and blasted Antrax: Among the Living, into my skull was an experience like none other. And then Megadeth, Holy Wars flooded my senses and I was holding 90 rpm on 15 resistance with ease. Freaking Slayer Raining Blood while spazzing on an exercise bike? Just WOW! I ended that session hitting my goal of 200 calories burned about a minute sooner than was typical. And I couldn't wait for the next days session.
To cut to the chase I just crossed the 300lb threshold, going down. My 200 calorie goal has shifted to 15 minutes on the bike each lunch hour, which normally gives me about 5.5 miles and around 220 calories. We are looking for an excercise bike for home use on my days off. My initial playlist has expanded from about 10 songs to 20, and I still look forward to each one of my lunch hours and sweating like a Republican in a real news interview. The only time I let myself listen to the MP3 is when I'm exercising so hopefully it won't get old.
That's my playlist and my story... and I do hope an egocentric basically non political diary didn't rub you the wrong way.