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I’m getting back in the saddle on getting into shape. The Wii workout didn’t cut it and I couldn’t maintain it, because there is only so much of your wife walking in and laughing at you for working out with a video game that one can take, and only so much a wife can do to avoid making fun when she’s trying to be supportive, given such absurd circumstances. In any case, I’ve decided to go back to the only thing that ever really worked at keeping me in shape: kicking my ass with a hardcore boxing workout.

So, at the end of every workday at Mahalo, I’m going to start kicking my ass into shape. I started Monday and I’ve been sore ever since. Today will be day two (I had to take yesterday off, as we have the Mahalo Writer’s Group on Tuesdays where those of us who are interested get together and workshop our fiction writing / screenwriting). I plan on doing this 4 days a week minimum. I eased into it on Monday by doing 12 minutes on the treadmill at a moderate pace with one minute of burst sprinting. I also did jump-rope, but only about 50 or so jumps. That crap is hard when you haven’t done it for years. I also did 400 regular crunches and 50 on each side. It will take me a while to work back up to several thousand crunches per workout, like I used to do when boxing. I also curled 50 pound free weights and bench-pressed with the free-weights too, 50 pounds per hand. 3 reps of 15 with the curls and 3 reps of 10 with the bench-press. Then I did 50 punches with each hand with 5 pound weights. Then I punched with no weights as fast as I could, each hand, 100 punches per rep for 3 reps. I started out with a bunch of stretching and continued to do stretching throughout.

Today, the only place I am really still feeling the burn is in my abs and in my neck and in the muscles right around my elbows. I could already feel the abs making me stand up slightly straighter yesterday. The entire workout took about an hour with a lot of me pausing to gasp for air. Eventually, I’ll work this up to 2 hours after work Monday, Wednesday, Friday and one hour Tuesday, Thursday. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that this is all possible thanks to the mini-gym we have going on here at Mahalo. We have new bathrooms with showers, so I can workout at the end of the day and get cleaned up before I go home. Also, we’re getting a heavy bag, so I can start punching away. Can’t wait!

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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*

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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.

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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.

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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.

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… 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.

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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.

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Body by wii

Originally uploaded by heather.

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.

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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.

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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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…like this one from Saris Cycling Group, so that I can ride my bike indoors when it’s too cold outside to ride it for real. This one is the one that Mike Wesner, one of the developers from Netscape, has, and he swears by it. I may go for a cheaper, noisier version though. $329 seems a bit much.

Now, I just have to talk Kristin into allowing it in my office…

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So the first goal set for Get Fit With Fat C.K. failed miserably. I think much of this was because of several bad habits that were built into my Netscape workday (leading a team of individuals on a 24/7 news site makes one sort of on call), and I’m hoping that now that I’m doing the whole fresh start thing, I can rededicate myself to losing some of the blubber. To accomplish this, I am going to:

1. Stop eating meals in front of the computer. I’m actually going to take breaks for my meals.
2. Eat more slowly. Chew my food. Give myself more time to get full.
3. Avoid junk food.
4. Avoid after dinner snacking.
5. Reduce my weekly alcohol intake.
6. Get back into Tai Chi.
7. As soon as it is warmer / I get the necessary sporty, insulated body glove, I’m going to start riding my new bike like a maniac. Note to self: Look into getting a helmet.

If I can drop about 20lbs of fat, I’ll be pleased. If I can drop about 40lbs, I’ll be ecstatic. I’m a big-framed guy though. I’ll never be slim. However, I’d like to have a little more muscle and a less of the gut.

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I’m really enjoying Tai Chi. It’s helping me de-stress and while it is relatively easy to do, physically, I can already feel the changes it is effecting in my body. I can tell I’m losing a little bit of fat and growing some muscle (which is more important for long-term fat loss). My shoulder structure is starting to stick out some and I’m noticing more definition in my arms and legs. It’s always amazed me how easily my body can start changing. It’s just killing the gut that is the hard part.

So, yesterday, I went to my 3rd Tai Chi class and no one else was there so I got a more or less private lesson. I finished learning the Wu Chi Tai Chi form and just repeated it over and over again, first to the left, then to the right, to try to correctly get all the nuances. It’s odd how this martial art requires you to relax as you move very slowly, and as a result, the muscles in movement get stretched and receive a nice workout while the tension dissolves from the rest of your body.

It is very much the antithesis of boxing, where you must learn to tense up sections of your body to take hits and move swiftly to deliver hits. There’s a build up of excitement with boxing and a sort of focused zen when you are in the midst of the fight, where you’re not thinking so much as reacting. In Tai Chi, I find the opposite is occurring. The form must be practiced at a slower speed and you have to actively think about what you are doing in a very focused way, otherwise your body begins reacting to the way it thinks you should be handling the movements, often tensing up in areas where you do not need to be tensing up. But it is a balance, because if you start thinking about what you should not be doing too much, that in itself will trip you up as much as the normal reacting. You have to think, but you have to focus on the right way to do the form without thinking about the wrong way or faulting yourself when you misstep. Now that’s zen.

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This morning, Kristin and I began Tai Chi lessons with Master Domingo Colon at the Tai Chi School of Westchester. I’m going to start attending classes twice a week and practice the forms daily. I think this will definitely help relieve my stress levels and facilitate the entire Get Fit with Fat C.K. project.

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Speaking of Weblogs, Inc. blogs, now that I’m on the Get Fit with Fat C.K. craze, I may have to start regularly reading That’s Fit.

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Food: For breakfast, I had a bagel with butter and coffee. For lunch, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Mid-afternoon I got hungry and gave in to temptation briefly, eating 4 Doritos, before closing the bag and grabbing an apple. For dinner, I made a salad with a left over piece of chicken breast chopped up with lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrots, green peppers, and oil and vinegar for dressing.

Exercise: I typed a lot. I walked to the train station and back. In other words, I didn’t really do anything, but I think I’m going to start taking Tai Chi classes.

Other goals: I ate slower today at breakfast and again at dinner and I can tell the results, as I didn’t get hungry as much afterwards. I made the mistake of not really taking a break from work for lunch and so I kind of rushed through that meal (thus the afternoon snack). I drank a lot of water today though and avoided thirst hunger.

All in all, it was an easy and good first day. Tomorrow, I will do better.

Also, I added a Get fit with fat C.K. tag / category in case you want to subscribe to its feed and follow along.

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Scott McNulty has inspired me. As has my friend Erik. All these people I know trying to get into shape, I thought I’d do the same. However, after signing up for Traineo, I don’t know how much I’ll use it. I don’t think going on a diet is healthy. I think making a change in the overall way one eats is healthy. I also don’t think weighing oneself daily is healthy, as the numbers mean little. Muscle weighs more than fat and you can easily psyche yourself out just as you are starting to make progress.

So here’s the Fat C.K. Gets Fit plan:

1. Exercise.

2. Don’t eat junk food.

3. Only eat when hungry.

4. Consciously chew my food longer and eat more slowly.

5. Stop eating when full.

6. Drink when thirsty.

And that’s it. Simple plan. I work out, I build muscle and lose fat. This is something I know how to do from back when I used to box (and even before that from two a days in highschool).

I avoid junk food. Easy enough. I like fruit and veggies.

Numbers 3 & 6, I think are somewhat related. I tend to dehydrate rather easily, always have. I also tend to get thirsty, then start looking for a drink with a particular taste, and if it’s not available, I get distracted by some food like an apple and I end up snacking when I’m not really hungry, just thirsty.

Number 4 is going to be the difficult one, but the one that I think will really pay off. I tend to race to finish my meals. I always have. My father and I used to see who could eat the fastest at dinner. My busy lifestyle lends itself to me eating quickly in between things. I’m going to start taking the time to eat. To enjoy my food. And as I chew more per bite and slow down, I’ll give my body the time it needs to tell how much I’ve consumed and I’ll actually fill up more quickly and eat less.

My goal: lose 50 pounds in 6 months, though again, I’m not really obsessing about the number there. I just know that now I weigh somewhere around 260. I’m a big guy with a big barrel chest, so even when I’m fighting fit, I’m still around 200lbs. So I figure fighting fit + 10 lbs is a good final goal.

So who wants to get fit with fat C.K.?

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