Boxing, the story thus far

Question: What happens when you mix Taiwanese street food, Winter holidays, and a James with no set schedule?

Answer: Doughy James + 15lbs.

Oh yeah, and a blogger that continued to remain neglected even after his return to Taiwan in early December. It's clear that this is a serious condition. A condition so serious that this entry is written in the third person. A condition SO SERIOUS that it needs a name. Let's call it Fat And Indecisive Lee (FAIL.) James was suffering from a massive case of FAIL.

Let's start from the beginning with the Fattiness. No one needs to know that James was close to 180 lbs, but there you go, 'nuff said.

And then the Indecisiveness started setting in. Was James really going back to school? And what is he going to study? Tick tock goes the GRE clock. For the first time in a quarter century, the future never looked so...foggy.

So the FAIL piled itself on and the vicious cycle seemed to have a life of its own.

THE END

Yeah, no. Keep reading. Otherwise the title doesn't make sense. I just got tired of typing and took a break to eat some pork jerky. Taiwan/Macau's jerky? Untouchable.

James then went into a cocoon and decided not to come out until he thought of something awesome. But before James actually thought of something awesome, he had a conversation with his ex-boss Jane. It was her birthday and they were chit-chatting about what the chinese zodiac says about 2010. Jane said that both work and fitness will be a serious challenge for her. So she's got this plan to draw a line in the sand and hunker down. She's gonna treat this year like everything is going down.

Then it hit me. I'm not a prophet about my own future, work-wise. But I can definitely prepare by being healthy and ready for whatever comes around (when it comes around.)

So I started gym hopping. I wasn't looking for anything special, just an energetic gym with decent intensity. Man oh man was I disappointed. Every gym was either dead or had an obscene program to join. Taiwanese people want to live forever, but not by being gym rats.

Well, since I was out of options, my thoughts turned towards martial arts again. I've already tried tae kwon do, judo, and chinese martial arts. What's left? MMA sounds cool, but no one even watches the UFC here. Suddenly, I remembered that my dad and brother tried boxing around 15 years ago. It all clicked then. Boxing training puts heavy focus on cardio training so I'll stay fit. And it has the added bonus of making your arms, pecs, and abs look good. And shit, Hajime no Ippo baby.

And that's how I came here and shed the FAIL: