Day 4

Today was another tough day. I spent most of it cleaning the house and wasn't done until around four or five. I was really tempted to blow the gym off, but I had a scheduled run with my five-man group rolling through old Wrath content.

So I sucked it up and went to the gym (remembering to check in on Foursquare). I did a leg workout that was given to me by my old personal trainer, but it had been so long since he showed me the exercises that I couldn't figure out a couple of the exercises. I substituted machines -- wound up doing five or six different exercises. Four sets, 12 reps per.

It wasn't the most intense work out, but I'm not going to take points off considering it was my fourth day in a row at the gym.

Our five-man run today went smoothly, we blew through Drak'Tharon keep, which was pretty fun. We're gearing up for the Violent Hold next.

Last night I was up until around two with my death knight. I got her just under level 82 questing in the Shimmering Expanse. I got to the bit where you play as a Naga (you're actually reliving flashbacks). I had a sliver of rest when I was done so I think I'm going to give her a break tonight. The rest I gain tonight will probably be enough that I'll never have to play purple again.

Day 3

Today was the toughest day for me so far. After a couple of days its easy to lose enthusiasm for this whole exercise thing. On top of that I met somebody for lunch. I live in Bumfuck, Egypt, so that means a couple hours of driving to civilization. I didn't get home until four o'clock or so. Any excuse will do, right?

So, I realized yesterday that I talked up my World of Warcraft goals, but not my health goals. I guess that says a lot about my mindset. So basically I don't want die. And I don't want to become a huge fat dork. But those aren't really constructive, easy to measure goals. So for the sake of productivity I'm hoping to get down to my ideal weight and get thin enough that I can fit into normal sized clothes. My nice cut-and-sew stuff has to be XXL and even then they feel tight sometimes.

As far as World of Warcraft goes last night wound up being mellow. I got my scheduling wrong (our "other guys" group meets tonight) so I spent a couple of hours with my death knight in The Shimmering Expanse. I love the story and setting down there -- especially Nespirah. The scale of the place is just bananas.

Anyway, I had a decent workout today. Spent 35 minutes on the treadmile. Alternated five walking briskly, five running. 2.44 miles. 234 calories. I feel pretty good, but still spent.

I noticed that they're having some kind of Foursquare promotion at 24 Hour Fitness, so I'm going to make sure to check in every time I work out. Maybe shooting for mayor there will give me the same kind of satisfaction that in-game achievements do.

Final thought: was thinking of an awesome 24 Hour Fitness / World of Warcraft cross promotion. Imagine how effective my work out regime would be if the computers at 24 Hour Fitness spoke directly to my authenticator. No play unless you physically check in at the gym. Your reward would be something like +5% to xp gain or something.

Lastly: The image above is me at Blizzcon. I'm the fat hippie on the right. Lets call that my "before."

Day 2

So far so good. Last night I got to play some World of Warcraft -- had a bit of a binge really. Started the evening at eight with my "static" group. That's a fixed party of five who all agree not to go level up. We schedule weekly dungeon runs and only play when the whole group can turn up. Since we're all adults that's not terribly often (once a week if we're lucky). Still, we're up to Ahn'kahet.

But that wasn't all of my play last night. At midnight I took my death knight (my only level 80) character into the new Cataclysm content. I love day one of MMOs. Spent a good four hours (half a level) there. Then, before bed I rolled a Worgen Druid just to reserve the character name I was hoping for.

Today I got to the gym around 4:30 and did the basic upper body work out my personal trainer outlined for me. That's six different arm and shoulder exercises. Three sets, twelve reps each. The experience was fairly joyless, but I got it done. Had a protein drink afterwards then went to Target to buy workout clothes -- I figured that not having clean clothes is a pretty lame excuse for not working out.

Day One

I've had chronic trouble motivating myself to exercise. This is a life-long problem that just gets more and more problematic as I get older.

Yesterday, totally on a whim, I decided to limit my World of Warcraft play to days that I've worked out. I'm not sure it that means I'll be playing less World of Warcraft or working out more. But I suppose if I can somehow link my exercise progress with the progress of my toons I'll have a better chance to find and stick to a routine.

I worked out this afternoon. After finishing my work I drove to the gym and spent about 25 minutes on the treadmill -- five minutes running, five minutes briskly walking. I'm in such bad shape that my shins started complaining immediately. And when I was running my heart rate buried the needle around 181. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up.

Here's the stats from my run:
Time: 25 min
Distance: 1.75 miles
Calories: 165

And for shits and giggles my starting weight is 266lbs. If it is not too disgusting I'll post a before picture on the blog.