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Monday, January 24, 2011

Coming to terms with fatness. Day 1 of the 9 week challenge

Well Day one is here and the nasty stuff is about to begin. With all the talk and self-promotion on this blog there was no pulling out so I dove into the game with the full force of good intentions and stern determination.
Setting up my 9 week challenge was a breeze. I simply selected the desired intensity of workout from easy, medium and holy shit I am going to get smashed (I mean hard). I chose medium as it was suggested by the game for a person in my condition. Speaking of condition, well it isn’t so crash hot. I have realised for a while now that I need to do something about my health and this game made it clear that this issue couldn’t be avoided any longer.  My health has been a growing concern for me and I feel many little niggly problems I suffer can probably be attributed to my weight and fitness. Hopefully this is the first step to fixing that.
So let’s get the dramatic out of the way. The measurements:
1)      Waist measurement -138 cm
2)      Resting heart rate – 78bpm (beats per minute)
3)      Weight – umm well this is the hard one. Its its………………….. 148.4kgs. Yup you read that right 148.4 kg.
Let me tell you I wasn’t expecting that, I mean high 130’s, maybe low 140’s but not nearly 150kgs. But unlike a certain reality show starting soon I didn’t burst into tears. It simply steeled my resolve to complete these 9 weeks. So now that the shock and drama have been completed, let’s talk about the first workout.
Well it became apparent very quickly that this game was serious. It started with a simple warm up, getting the blood flowing by some light jogging and stretching exercises. It quickly moved onto the more difficult. My sweat was freely flowing by the 5th workout and I had 21 to go. My resolve was severely tested at that point. I ploughed on however with an audience of my 5yo son cheering me every time I completed an exercise (it actually helped believe it or not).
The exercises were varied and some of them were even fun. The basketball shooting which combined side lunges with jumping was a great exercise and fun to do. Mountain biking was not fun, it was just plain evil. It involves a combination of squats, squat jumps and running to complete, the second time I did this I was almost at the point of worshiping Huey (that’s vomit time for those that don’t know).  I only had one problem with the motion sensors, in one exercise it wouldn’t recognise my movements but I am not sure if that was the game’s fault or mine as all the other exercises worked fine. At this point I will put it down to incorrect technique.
So as I sit here I feel many different things. Fear at having to go through this for the next 9 weeks, exhaustion because I am basically knackered, pride at taking the first step, and intrigue as I wonder if this will work. With all of these different emotions swimming around in my head I am sure this will make the whole thing an interesting journey.
Well that’s it for this week. Next week I will do a new weigh in/measure and let you all know how I am going. I will also go into more detail about some of the other features in the game which I have found interesting.  In the meantime I have three more workouts to do this week (4 workouts 3 days off per week) so wish me luck.

Hewso’s Stats tracker.
Workouts – 2
Hours of Exercise – 33min
Calories Burned – 355
Distance Ran – 0.75 km
Average Heart rate – 129bpm
Max Heart rate – 185bpm

3 comments:

  1. A good start on a new year. I think after some time it will become easier for you. You will know the exercises and how to perform them and become more comfortable in front of the TV.

    I would only suggest that you not only measure your waist, but also arms and legs. When you get more muscles, they are heavier than the hmm... "shaky stuff" and it can be a bit demotivating when it does not change so much. I think over 9 weeks you will get a huge difference if you combine it with good and proper food. All movement helps in the end.

    Good luck from Norway from one with sore muscles after 50 squats or so yesterday in front of the Wii Active :)

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  2. Thank you for the kind words, I contemplated the arms and legs however this experiment is more about overall health and not just weight loss. I plan to go into more detail about how my body is feeling and how it hopefully improves over the time of the challenge.

    The food side is based on what the game suggests. Which is pretty much just common sense. I will go into more detail on my next blog on sunday/monday.

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  3. Awesome job. It's good to see someone take the reins and show the resolve and willpower to make improvements. If you can maintain that drive for the entire 9-week program, you'll be well on your way to better health. Good luck!

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