Day 33: EA Active Powers Activate!

So, I think I do my worst eating during the weekend because I know I will have the whole week to fix it. I celebrated my Friday weight loss with copious amounts of sushi (not necessarily bad) and went to a birthday party where there were ice cream and snacks (yeah bad).

On Monday, I was pleased to discover that EA Active was on sale at Target. Not only have I heard that this is all around a better workout than Wii Fit, now I had no reason not to get it. I also bought some weighted gloves and some Slim Fast (to satisfy any chocolate cravings I have and to give myself a breakfast I always seem to miss).

I tried out the game for the first time tonight and it is awesome. I only had about an hour set aside to work out and I decided to customize my workout with only sports-related activities. I looked at basketball and boxing. Basketball was fun; I did all the activities (passing, shooting) related to it for 10-15 minutes.) With the weighted gloves, boxing gave me much more of a workout than I expected. I'm certain I burned more calories than it told me and I worked out for another 20 minutes. I was wiped OUT by the end of it. And, of course, I felt great. I was getting a decent workout at home!

Nintendo: You are fantastic. Kudos to you for getting people off their asses. I'm looking forward to many more workouts in the coming days, weeks and months and I'm hoping I can burn enough calories to ensure a bit more weight loss this week.

Neil

Day 19: My Boxing Career Has Crippled Me

So, I've been playing the Wii on a pretty regular basis since I got it a few weeks ago. I've been limiting gameplay to tennis, baseball and boxing, all of which give you a decent amount of a workout, but mainly just for your arm that has the most dexterity. In this case, it was my right arm that got the biggest workout. After the first weekend of this, my right arm was sore so I had to lay off the Wii for a few days.

On Sunday, I decided to finally start boxing. I would just like to point out that I am an excellent boxer. I barreled through about 9-10 opponents before I was finally knocked out. What I didn't realize that, as I worked up the biggest sweat I ever got playing the Wii, it took me about 45 minutes to get to that point. I also did not realize yesterday how much of a workout I got.

For those who have played boxing on the Wii, you know the key to winning matches is really to avoid your opponents punches more than connecting with your own. There are many ways to avoid getting punched, including putting your gloves in front of you and weaving from side to side.

Apparently, doing this for 45 minutes straight - without stretching beforehand - has obliterated my back muscles and shoulders. So, I am hereby announcing my retirement from professional Wii boxing. However, should I hear the fans chanting my name and calling for my return, I shall perhaps come back to the sport that I dominated for almost an hour. Maybe as soon as this weekend.

Only time will tell.

Neil

Day 8: The Weigh In - Week 1

You may be noticing that I'm not writing in my blog every day like I said less than a week ago. For that I apologize, but most of my entries this week would probably be incoherent gobbledy-gook. BUT.. the busyness has subsided.

What a week it has been! I am almost at 100 percent again, health-wise. Performed in two shows last night! Got a lot of great feedback. I hung out pretty late and ended up coming into work late because I was so tired. It was quite a day; I sent out an email that's going to make me dread coming into work on Monday. I hate when I do that to myself but I couldn't put off the bad news any longer. I hate worrying about work outside of work so I'm hoping I can have a peaceful weekend.

Anyway, it's been a week since my first blog entry, so it's time for the weigh in...

STARTING WEIGHT (1/1): 254.
CURRENT WEIGHT (1/8): 248.
Weight loss this week: 6 lb.
Total weight loss: 6 lb.

Yes, I lost six pounds in the first week! I know you lose the most pounds in the first week and it's just going to get harder, but it's very encouraging, especially since I didn't exercise this first week. Tonight was my "guilt-free meal" (ie meal where I just ate whatever.) I had a frontega chicken at Panera and I barely had the chips that came with it. I thought about having a "guilt-free day" once every two weeks, but maybe I'll just have a "guilt-free meal" once a week.



And, of course, the big news is that I bought myself a Wii tonight. I love this thing already. I'm so glad it comes with Wii Sports because I'm going to have to get by with that for a while as I save up for the whole Wii Fit package. I worked up quite a sweat tonight and I didn't even BOX.

I mean really, Nintendo. Kudos to you for making a video game system that's cool to play AND healthy to do. You did it. And I will take advantage TEN-FOLD. Mwahhahhahahhahhha!!

N