Hey everyone!! I’m mostly a lurker here but I wanted to post because Stepmania changed my life. I swear i'm not tryna sound dramatic but. It really did! I wanted to post this to get it off my chest but also to maybe inspire others who come across this post in a while. You know how that goes. A person in five years might do a very specific google search and bam, a Reddit post from ages ago helps them out.

Sooo. I've been overweight most of my life and have felt horrendously ugly because of it. There's an easy solution to that of course. Just lose the weight. But to lose weight, you gotta make some life adjustments and one life adjustment just didn't work for me: sports.

I HATE, hate HATE sports. It's just so boring to me. I tried gym stuff, tried tennis, tried random fitness phases. Same story every time. I hated exercising and usually quitt after two weeks, or forced myself through something I hated for a little bit longer. Then i quit anyways. I just can't seem to move my body without engaging my brain too. And by engaging i mean engaging. Watching Netflix didn't cut it. I remained a fat fuck.

But then... drumroll... I found the concept of Stepmania (and also DDR).

I wasn’t around for the arcade era, so to me, the concept of Stepmania was brand new. But holy shit did I get excited once i figured out what it's all about. What do you mean, i can play a game, listen to music and exercise at the SAME TIME? Why's no one ever told me about this shit?

I spent a month reading up on Stepmania and on how to start (specifically on my Macbook), then finally said screw it in November and bought an L-TEK pad. And okay listen: I know there were cheaper ways to start, but I wanted something good from the jump. Also if I spend real money on something, my whack brain goes "well now you HAVE to use it or you're a loser."

Okay so. When I had spent like 300 euros and set everything up (ITGMania), i could finally play. And I was so excited but also: I fucking sucked. You can see that in my first screenshot lol.

Everything hurt. Level 1 and 2 were fine, but once I touched level 5 or 6 my calves just gave out like pillars under a bridge. There were times where i just fell to the floor like i'd taken an arrow to the knee lol.

But! I kept going. 30 mins a day, 6-7 times a week.

In the second week I founf a simfile of one of my favorite songs: Square Hammer by Ghost. But that bitch was a level 9 of more than 4 minutes. So that was way above my level at the time. I got cooked when i tried it. Misses everywhere. It was an absolute public execution. Thankfully i'm not a ragequitter because I ended up trying that chart every single day at the end of my session. I got demolished every single time but there was some progress. Less misses every time.

Now skip forward to today and I now do 1 hour sessions and play around level 8 to 13 charts. I aim to play 4 to 5 times a week. I also added some home weightlifting and boxing.

And i can play that Square Hammer chart now! Not perfectly of course. I'm not a pro like some of you guys. But I can do it without misses now.

And dude, my legs have become muscular as hell! I mean i don't look like a bodybuilder of course but they are way more muscular than before.

And! Lastly, combining Stepmania (itg) while eating 1500 calories per day helped me lose 13 kgs as of now. I'm still going to get to a healthier weight (maybe 9 kg more) but I wouldn't have lost anything at all without Stepmania.

I just wanted to share my excitement. Back in November I felt so unhealthy and ugly, but now I don't feel like that anymore. Now i just wanna show people my calves lol.

Had a great turnout! A lot of people wanted to hop on and try. Some haven’t played DDR in years (there’s no DDR machine around my area since the arcade closed down during the pandemic so I settled for an Ltek) while others are trying it for the first time 😃.

P.S. I just noticed my right arrow is also facing left lol. I penny-modded it before the event and I unknowingly screwed it back wrong 😆.

I did it myself ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

Im so happy!! Im used to playing with arrows on the computer so this was really exhausting - but im so happy!!!