Füsters
The 71 days of Winterfüste 2021 have come to an end and with that we close the door on what was ultimately a pandemic recovery Füste. Extra long, extra hard, built to break the shell of coagulated flank meat that had encased many of us like an early and unwanted sarcophagus. To GG’s delight, the Füsters didn’t disappoint. You showed up to play hard from day one, some brand new to the concept, some already seasoned by past Füste events. We started with a record 122 players and 79 crossed the finish line at the Finalefüste, a 65% completion rate. The average weight loss was just under 10 pounds, which is in line with what we’ve seen from past events (maybe a little low but as the player count increases we’ll see more divergence from the year over year averages). Assessment reporting was significantly down this year with only 57 of the finishing players reporting in their final weight loss (72% compliance). As a result, GG has to estimate total weight loss but he knows that 57 players reported losing 530 pounds and if you work the average over 79 players, total weight loss for WF21 should be right around 806 pounds (not counting any weight lost by those who retired out early). If you have to burn roughly 3000 calories to kill a pound of flank meat, then we collectively torched 2.5 million calories over the last ten weeks. Not too shabby, folks. But here’s where it gets hard (harder than the game without any question). For all the work you just did, it takes 9 months of maintaining a new weight for your metabolic thermostat to reset. So what does that mean? It means your work has only begun. Right not your entire body is like one giant abrasion. Yes, you’ve scraped off 10 - 30 pounds of flank meat but just like a dermal injury, your body will now want to scab over (with flank meat, yuck) and heal. It wants to put that extra weight back on and it’s going to do what it can to get you on board with that plan. But if you can hold it together long enough, your body will recognize your new weight as its baseline and the fight in 2022 will be much, much easier. So how do you do that then? How do you hold your body off from what it naturally wants to do? Routine, accountability, structure. All the things you just did for the last ten weeks to get where you are today. You don’t need a GG to stand over your shoulder or wag a finger at you each day. You just need to put the habits you’ve been practicing since Jan. 2nd into play now, for reals. What’s that look like? 6 days on, 1 day off. Start there. For the rest of 2021, GG challenges you to maintain your current eating/drinking/schmerzing pattern for 6 days each week. The 7th day you can do what you want with. Eat what you want. Drink what you want. But maybe help keep things balanced on that special day by doing a Doppelt or Trippelt work out so that everything stay high and tight. There is absolutely no reason to return to the poor habits of 2020. Ask yourself this. On the cheat day, did you feel good? Did the food you ate really taste that amazing? The buzz was that impactful? If you’re like GG and you look at things as they are and not as how we’d like them to be, you’d realize that the food and drink didn’t make things better. Now think about the days you were outside, running or hiking or biking or whatever you did. How’d that feel? Yes, you had your hard days out there in the world but for the most part, it felt pretty damn good, didn’t it? Play those two concepts together and try not to forget what you did and how you got here. Too many Füsters have learned a hard lesson once Winterfüste has ended. They fall off the wagon and undo ten weeks worth of work in a fraction of the time. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Keep to the principles of the Füste. Limit sugar intake. Limit your drinking. Get outside every day you can and exercise. Try this. Each week, bank 18 punkte. If you slip up, do a Doppelt to earn back the lost point. Play the principals of the game forward and use it to set parameters for yourself. You like how you feel right now, how your clothes fit and how you look. Why would you give that up just so you can eat processed krap that’s ultimately going to poison you and make you old before your time? Yes, that’s a dramatic statement but also true. GG puts a lot of time and energy into you whether you realize it or not. Now do the same for yourself. You’re worth it. I promise. But if you slip up, we’ll be back to get you on track again. That’s what we try do here at the Füste, to give you what you need to be successful, even if you didn’t know you needed it.
And with that, GG will sign off for the foreseeable future. This Füste was experimental in many ways, from the new bonuses to the reporting structure. I’m sure many of you have comments, recommendations and concerns and GG plans on putting out a survey in the next couple of weeks to gather all that valuable intel. As always, GG thanks you for inviting him into your life for this short amount of time and letting him boss you around. There’s nothing quite like watching someone who didn’t think they could do something not only succeed at it but go far beyond their own preconceived limitations. Cause here’s the secret behind everything hard. If you think you can do it, you can. If you know you can’t, you won’t. Pretty simple really.
As always and until we meet again on the Spielbrett,
May the Füste be with you . . .
Griswalde Grolar
WINTERFÜSTE 2021 TOTALS
TOTAL DISTANCE RUN: 5400 MILES
TOTAL DISTANCE WALKED/HIKED: 4800 MILES
TOTAL DISTANCE RIDDEN: 1800 MILES
Average distance across the United States: 3000 miles . . . we walked/ran/rode to New York and back again, TWICE!!
WEIGHT LOSS TOTALS (reported)
Waist Management: 62#
Skwäk Skwäd: 57#
Superflüffers: 51#
H. Spanglers: 37#
She-Teufel: 30#
House of Payne: 27#
Skwäd Skål: 21#
Pandemic Skwäd: 20#
Bod Skwäd: 20#
Nachoskwäd: 17#
Ebies Anchor: 16#
HIIT Skwäd: 14#
Fussa Zwei: 9#
Badass Skwäd: 7#
Skwäd Runn: 4#
TOTAL REPORTED WEIGHT LOSS (57 of 79 finishers): 530 pounds
TOTAL ESTIMATED WEIGHT LOSS (79 finishers): 806 pounds (that’s 54 long dogs!)
