Last Updated on May 21, 2023 by Michael Brockbank
Although I’m doing what I can to slim down before the end of the year, I’m still looking forward to starting my next 12-week fitness challenge on January 1st. Mostly because I’ve kind of expanded the challenge and included a variety of fun elements.
Not only am I going to work toward being at top performance before the friendly boxing match with my son, but there is a lot of content planned during the experience.
It’s one of my goals in 2023 to fix up the website and deliver a few tidbits of data. Plus, some of the things I’ll be doing, in the beginning, are providing the gaming blog with a bit of content, as well.
In fact, I’ve spent a great deal of time recently hammering out all of the details and working on a daily routine that will help me reach many of my fitness goals. For one thing, I’ve added blocks of time in Asana specifically for workouts.
This is because if I don’t remind myself throughout the day, I’ll easily forget. After all, I manage a lot of different things Monday through Friday. It’s easy for anything to slip through the cracks.
Yay…40s!
In any case, the blocks of time reminding me to exercise have been incredibly helpful over the last couple of weeks. This is going to play heavily into maintaining the next 12-week fitness challenge.
Figured Out Some Gym Time!
One of the reasons why I haven’t made it to the gym lately is because of a lack of transportation. With it being the winter, it’s a bit of a brisk walk back and forth early in the morning and my van is still broken.
However, I figured out that if I get up at 5 am and get to the gym at about 5:45, I can borrow my friend’s KIA and be back before she has to go to work.
Unfortunately, that means I’ll have to get up an hour earlier than usual. Well, at least on the days I plan to go to the gym. But until I can get my own wheels moving, I gotta do what I gotta do.
Why don’t I plan for trips to the gym later in the day? I have a very narrow window of when I can actually exercise. This is because of what I do for a living. My schedule is incredibly tight and fragile, and I need to do certain things at specific times.
Still, it’s better than nothing at all. As long as I am able to get to bed at a reasonable time, it won’t make much of an impact on my day.
Needless to say, I’ll be drinking a bit of Sleepytime Tea the nights before going to the gym.
Using Asana to Plan My Day
In order for me to get everything done on any given day, I take to using the free version of Asana. It’s a project management app that lets me keep track of virtually everything I do every day.
One of the most recent additions has been the inclusion of my exercise times. Like I said, I will easily forget that I want to work out at certain times of the day unless I have a block of time and a reminder.
For example, I’ll work for two hours on client projects and then schedule a 30-minute break. This gives me enough time to play a full session of the Xbox to burn roughly 340 to 400 calories.
Not to mention working up one hell of a sweat.
Then, I schedule another two-hour block of time for work, followed by another break. All in all, I have eight hours scheduled for working and about an hour’s worth of breaks for physical activity.
This doesn’t include the 50 minutes I spend on certain mornings at the gym…which is also included in Asana.
The point being I’m actually getting in more physical activity by scheduling the time in the project management app. I know there are probably plenty of people out there who simply remember to exercise. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
Regardless, this has been working exceptionally well for me lately, so, it’s definitely something that I’ll do in the next 12-week fitness challenge.
Sigh…I hate getting older.
Still Working on Fitness Through the Holidays
Although I’m pretty excited about starting the next challenge, I’m still doing what I can to work on fitness for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, chaos doesn’t let me get in as much as I’d like.
I’m curbing a great deal of the mayhem here at the house. But until Christmas is over, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to focus on fitness.
Take this morning, for example. I had to spend about 30 minutes fixing my daughter’s computer so she could play with friends. Luckily, it was an easy fix. Still, this is just a blip in the chaos that comes with having teenagers home for the holidays.
Not Gorging Too Much on Goodies
I’m trying to refrain from gorging myself on holiday goodies. What can I say? I love sugar.
Nonetheless, I have been able to curb my sweet tooth through proper portion sizes and not sitting around as much. I’ve lost 80 pounds by watching my intake vs output, and it’s what works for me.
Though, it is quite difficult to stop myself from downing an entire box of Queen Anne’s Cordial Cherries. They’re one of my greatest weaknesses when it comes to the holidays. Especially if I’m lucky enough to find some cordial blueberries.
Still, I haven’t been overly bingeing on sweets. While I might not hit 236 pounds by the end of the year, at least I can maintain my current weight.
Any victory is still a victory.
Improving My Time in Virtual Smash
I’ve been playing more of the Xbox Kinect as of late. And over the last few weeks, I’ve improved my overall time playing Virtual Smash. This means I’ll start adding more to the sessions.
For instance, I started a couple of weeks ago playing three rounds at easy, four rounds at medium, and five rounds at hard.
When I started playing again, I finished the set in just under 29 minutes. Now, I’m down to just over 23. This is the result of needing shorter breaks in between the rounds. That means I can start adding more rounds to the different sets without feeling obliterated.
As soon as I’m hitting five, six, and seven rounds respectively, I’ll add more weight to my wrists.
I’m just excited because I’m starting to get back to where I was in 2018. It’s taking a bit more work as I’m getting older, but it’s still doable.
Setting New Fitness Records for 2023
Before the end of the year, I’m going to work on setting a few new records on Exercise.com. I would like to set the pace for what I want to accomplish in 2023, and part of this means getting a baseline of what I want to achieve.
The sad thing is that a lot of these personal records were set back in 2014. I’m relatively certain that I’ve improved considerably since then. After all, I’m much lighter now than I was back then.
Unfortunately, Exercise.com revamped its database, which wiped out a lot of my older records. So, I’m just going to pick a few and see if I can set them for the new year.
For instance, I know I can set a record for planks. Before the database wipe, my record was two minutes and three seconds. Now, it shows 37 seconds from when I was exercising back in 2021.
Eh…it’ll still give me something to work toward in the new year, I suppose.
About a Week and a Half to Go!
It’s a bit of a bummer that I didn’t accomplish many of my fitness goals in 2022. But I’m not going to let that stop me from trying. In a week and a half, we’ll start the new year and I’ll swing for the fences.
I have quite a bit riding on pulling my head out of my ass. Let’s see how loud of a pop it makes when I do.
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