Current Weight: 300 Height: 5' 10"

Hey guys, /u/QtrainCardigan here again. I am closing in on my first week on actively trying to change my life. I just wanted to throw an update in for the people who care/would like to read about my growth as a person and to help/inspire some other folks like me that feel that they arel not be able to meet new people/make new friends/meet women because of their looks, insecurities or something else they may have wrong with them.

Starting yesterday, I decided to start tracking my interactions with people. One of the reasons is to be able to share that with you guys, to be able to show the different responses I receive and you can expect to as well. The other reason is that I am weird and love having data and this is no different.

So here is this week's (honestly only 2 days) results:

Approach Anxiety: 5

I won't mention much about the Approach anxieties, the count is only there to show that in between these approaches, I am still struggling with approach anxiety.

Approaches: 6

To preface these, almost all of these occur in train stations/trains due to it being my current main "Game Day" setting, being 1 hour to/from work

1) My first approach was with a girl sitting by herself on the train. I went with the first thing that came to my mind (she was wearing a jacket, I just had a cardigan on) and went with it.

Opener: "I guess I should have checked the weather huh? you have that sweet jacket and all I'm wearing is this thin cardigan. I'm freezing!" This ended up being small talk about the weather and our schools, though she seemed generally disinterested (Looking around, avoiding eye contact) and the conversation died pretty quickly.

2) Approach #2 was in a bank, at the ATM's. Speaking to herself I heard her say, "woah" as she used the ATM. I replied with a, Opener:"what's up? are you a millionaire?" which was met with an, "I wish" and a laugh. I can't quite remember what was spoken about afterwards but I remember it starting up OK but I suddenly got nervous and went quiet. I am not sure why but I know I messed up that convo.

3) Was an HB 7.5, pretty cute girl. I work as a counter person so it helps out tremendously with working on my social skills. technically is was not an approach, but we hit it off pretty well. I managed to keep her smiling and laughing. I realize that the second I get a girl smiling/laughing, I get a boost in confidence and my inner comedian starts showing.

4) HB8 made me so mad at myself due to my inexperience at this. I was sitting on the train when she walked in and sat diagonal to me. My problem as of now is that I get really nervous talking to someone once they are on the train (where it is more cramped/people just sitting staring at anything and making a move in front of people still make me really anxious. Luckily, this train was fairly empty and the only other people were not to close to us. A strategy I am trying to use for my AA is a quick 10 second countdown. The second I realize that I am starting to feel AA, I count down from ten to get myself to walk over and talk to the girl. This girl looked my age, dressed pretty classy, and in any other state of mind, "Way out of my league."

I was so ready to call it an AA when I was counting down but halfway through I just stopped thinking, stood up, walked across, and sat down next to her. Now, I forgot to say, I had a bag with a tub of Cream cheese. I don't know why it occurred to me, but I used it to start up a conversation with her. Once I sat down and just said:

Opener: "Hey, let me ask you this: What would you do if you had 2-3 pounds of cream cheese?

She asked me to repeat myself 3 times, she said said she wasn't sure I was really saying cream cheese. She replied, "I'd make A LOT of bagels!" and laughed. I immediately started having a really good conversation and when I asked her name she stumbled a bit and said, "uhhh....D___" I called her out on it and asked whether she made up the name and she said, "Yeah, I just couldn't come up with one in time, Or I did! and you'll never know!" she admitted it was her real name and asked me for mine. I stalled for a good 5 seconds and said, "Damn, I was trying to think of a good fake name but I couldn't" She named me "Stephen" and I rolled with it. It was really fun talking to this girl since our sense of humor just clicked so well. unfortunately, my stop came up and I had to say bye. She said, "this was fun" and even blurted out, "take care!" on my way out the train door. I couldn't believe I didn't #close. I am still kicking myself for that. I probably will for a while.

5) HB6 went for the Cream cheese approach and she pretty much ignored me twice, nothing special.

6) cream cheese approach #3 HB7.5 I was on the train and she was standing right in front of me: Opener: Hey, what would you do if you had 2 pounds of cream cheese?

Guys.. I had no clue who I had just asked this question to...

This girl was prepared! She started telling me all these recipes and all these things she does with cream cheese from cheesecake to freezing it, to putting it into italian food. She was not fucking kidding about cream cheese. all I really got to talk to this girl was about cheeses and not much else. thinking back on it, this conversation was really almost all about cheese and cheesecakes. It's really funny thinking about it. she was a really sweet girl and really cute too. She also said,"It was great talking to you!" but I really was taken aback by this girl and her cheese knowledge to just laugh and pretty much forgot about my initial intention altogether.

All in all Really helpful week in motivating me and instilling thoughts of, "I can definitely do this" into my head. I will be working on my AA and # Closes and I will report on it next week.I not sure where I am going to go with these updates, this being the first one. I will work it out as I go and see what the response to this is.

Alright guys thanks for hearing me out and taking the time to read this. I'm off to make some cheesecake yummies inspired by a beautiful cream cheese enthusiast, take care.