Sort of… I guess I had to blog about it.
Today, I managed a new record on the bags: 28.
I also beat Matt. I was very excited for my next match where they paired me up with…. Matt again. And this time he beat me again, so that extra 64 points was taken back immediately. *sigh*
I am stuck on a Wii boxing plateau. Everyday for my workout, as I am boxing opponents, I beat Elisa, then I go up to Matt, who beats me, then I beat Elisa, then Matt beats me, etc etc. I’m averaging 23-26 punching bags in training mode. I’ve been hovering around the level in the graph above for about a month now.
The good news is that I keep working out and I’m building muscle and losing fat. I just wish I could punch through this plateau. I’m getting sick of Elisa and Matt.
I’m well into the second month of my Wii Boxing Workout. There were a few days last week when I was traveling with Kristin where I let it slip, but other than those brief interruptions, I’ve been sticking to the routine. 5 days a week, I’m alternating doing 300 or 500 crunches (500 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and 300 on Tuesday, Thursday) and I’m doing between 5 to 8 boxing matches on the Wii. I’ve also added 3-5 sessions of the Wii Boxing Training with the punching bags. And then I play a round of Wii Tennis to cool down.
The entire workout takes me about an hour to an hour and a half. I consistently get a nice sweat going. More importantly, I can feel the changes going on in my body. Throughout the day, I feel the muscles in my legs, arms, shoulders, and abdomen growing. When I look in the mirror, I see more definition in my shoulders and arms. My gut isn’t hanging out as flabbily as it was, but now is more compacted. I’m not getting thin. That’s not the point. I’m still hefty C.K., but I’m getting fit. I’m healthier. I’m stronger. It’s a good thing.
I’ve managed to do two straight weeks of my Wii boxing workout. Not only that, but I’ve managed to stick with the workout while on the road. It’s taken a lot of effort to *make* myself get up and do it while on the road. Much more difficult than when I was home. Part of that is just the added things that one has to do to get to work when traveling compared to the commute from my bedroom, to the kitchen, to my home office at home. In the home office scenario, finding the time for the workout is easier, b/c everything is set up in their routine spots and ready to go.
Here, I’ve been plugging my Wii into my Macbook’s small 13-inch screen by using my EyeTV and it’s taken some getting used to. There’s a stark experiential difference between playing on the 32-inch Sony WEGA LCD hanging on my living room wall and playing on my laptop sitting on my desk.
So even though I said originally that 2 weeks would be the key to making this workout routine, I think I really need next week to drive it home while I’m inconvenienced away from my real home. Also, next week, I need to up the crunches from 300 to 500 a day. Wish me luck.
… the rest of my life to go.
I finished 5 straight days of my Wii Boxing Workout. I can already feel a difference in my body. I would guess that I’ve easily already dropped about 5 pounds of fat. Muscles are growing and I feel them at work after the workout. The real test will be next week when I’m traveling. If I can keep up this workout next week then and the following, then I’m set.
Today was Day 4 of my new workout and, man, was I feeling beat. My arms were heavier than ever from the muscle fatigue of the week. I lost 3 of the 5 matches I fought. The crunches also were more difficult than they have been.
That being said, it’s only day 4, but I can feel the difference in my body. I can tell I’ve already lost a few pounds of fat and I feel the muscles growing in my abdomen, neck, arms, and shoulders. The real test will be taking this on the road next week when I am flying out of town for a few weeks. I have a little travel bag for the Wii and I’m planning on packing it and setting it up in the hotel.
In any case, Friday is tomorrow and then I get 2 days of break time from the ass-kicking. If I stick with this consistently for another week, I think Kristin is going to be shocked by how much weight I’ll drop while on the road.
This T-shirt is awesome. I need one for Get Fit With Fat C.K.
Also, thanks to Tom Biro for twittering this link to me.
The hardest part of starting any workout is complete: I managed to stick with it on day 2 when all the initial soreness was kicking in. I did the full ab workout, albeit with an over-excited pug jumping up and licking my ears and side as I was doing the crunches. I skipped the push-ups because of how extra-sore I was back in the shoulder blade area. Instead, I spent extra time stretching my arms and neck, along with some neck strengthening exercises.
Then I started the Wii boxing. The cool thing about Wii Sports is that the game gets progressively more difficult as your individual Mii improves and wins more rounds overtime. Unlike yesterday’s workout, where I did 5 matches and only got into the 2nd Round of any single match before I either had a K.O. or a T.K.O., this time each match went the full 3 Rounds. By the 3rd match, I was thinking I wasn’t going to make it to 5 b/c my arms were feeling like large sandbags, but then that match ended in split-decision tie, so I suddenly had this surge to keep going. I made it 5 full matches. I won one undisputed, 3 by split decision, and one was a tie.
I’m feeling good about this workout. Energized and excited to see how much more difficult it gets tomorrow.
Alright, I’ve false started this twice before, but now I’ve finally found the workout that is going to keep me entertained and good to go on Project Get Fit With Fat C.K. 3rd times a charm and all. Also, as much as it chagrins me to say so, my friend Jason Calacanis’s incessant fatblogging has had an impact in getting me motivated to do something. However, I must say, my inspiration for this is still my good friend Scott McNulty who has done an amazing job of losing weight, and who was fatblogging long before Jason coined the term.
So what’s the plan? Well, first some history. As you may or may not know, I’m originally from Mississippi. I think one of the things that I’ve inherited from my Southern roots is that I’m naturally rebellious. This actually jives well with New York’s in your face attitude, as if someone tells me to do something, my natural reaction is to do exactly the opposite. In the South, you usually smile and say “Sure” before rebelling, but I’ve always been the type that prefaces the rebellion with a few choice words. Thus, why I love New York.
Anyway, so this presents a problem when trying to lose fat (note: we’re losing fat, not weight; weight is largely irrelevant and America is overly-weight conscious, thus why we’re all fad-dieting and getting extremely obese as a result), because most people who want to motivate you to lose fat do so in a negative way, telling me that I need to lose some weight. Rebelliousness kicks in and I go eat more food.
Second part of the backstory: I used to box. I don’t like to get into real fights, but I’m not scared of getting hit either. I wasn’t professional or anything, but most nights when I go out to a bar, I look over the place and I can tell whose ass I could kick and whose I could not if things were to fall from pleasant happy drinking. Most people just think of me as this kind of big guy, but I’m really strong, and more importantly, I’m surprisingly fast for someone my size.
I love boxing. It involves an intense ass-kicking workout that is fun. The other good thing about it is that it kicks your ass so nicely that you don’t have to worry about dieting and checking the scale all the time. You can feel the muscles growing and the fat shrinking in your body and you have to eat a lot to support the muscle growth, but, for me, it nicely regulates my hunger too, so that I grow hungry for what I need, don’t overeat, eat a large variety of foods, and I still grow healthier and lose weight.
Unfortunately, to do that workout well in the past I’ve needed about 3 hours of time, and that’s time that I just don’t have anymore. Time to prepare and head to a boxing-capable gym. 2 solid hours to workout, and then time to return home and shower. I’ve tried doing the workout at home without a full gym and people to workout with and it’s never remained as fun and so I’ve always lost track of it.
However, thanks to of all things, the Nintendo Wii, I’ve found a good alternative version of the workout. So here’s the plan:
Starting out: 300 crunches a day, 5 days a week. 3 sets of 100 rapid crunches, 1 set with legs straight out, 1 set with legs bent at knee and arms on either side of the head, and 1 set with legs bent at the knee and arms pointing straight up at the sky. I’ll do this until I’m up to speed, then move up to 500 a day, adding side crunches, and then I’ll keep gradually growing it, until I’m up to 1000 a day. Then we’ll see if I need to up it to 3000.
30 pushups (3 sets of 10). Then 50. Then 100, etc.
Full-stretching.
Then Wii Boxing. I’m too fast for the Wii to register all my punches, but if I pretend that I’m really boxing someone, it’s a great shadowboxing workout and I actually end up winning anyway. Starting out with a minimum of 5 rounds a day. I’ll up this as it goes along. I need to buy some wrist weights, as the Wii controllers aren’t heavy enough to nicely replicate my fighting gloves.
At least 3 days a week when it is warm enough, I’m going to go ride my bike for at least half an hour.
I just did a foreshortened version of this with the crunches, stretching, and the Wii boxing and it was fun and I can feel the burn in my arms and abdomen. Tomorrow, I’ll begin the full thing.
Things I won’t do:
1. I won’t weigh myself. It’s a bad way to judge health as muscle growth can psyche you out (since it’s heavier than fat).
2. I won’t go on any fad diets. I’ll continue to eat well-balanced meals and as I work out more, my body will begin to naturally register when I really need food and when I don’t, rather than misfiring as it does when I’m not working out enough.
Wish me luck.
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