JOHN: I already hate this. I'm just going to do this the whole time, so you can't put this in the show. Day 43 was a Monday, which meant another workout with Laura. Chris and I were both in some back pain, and my arm still kind of hurt from boxing on Friday.

I think I may have a little tendinitis in my elbow. Don't mind the Indy Star photographer by the way, we're just, you know, kind of a big deal. I forgot I'm gonna be photographed today, maybe I shouldn't have worn my headband.

Anyway, we started by re-testing some of our metrics. First we did pull-ups. I did 13, and Chris did 6, although to be fair, I do have more band assistance.

Then we tested our heart rates after a minute on the rower. Mine was 354 at an average of 10 watts, and Chris' was 140 at an average of 240 watts. And then we did these standing jumps, which are not starting to feel dangerous at all.

LAURA: This is your max, right here.

JOHN: It's pretty close. So even though I technically failed at 13 risers, I did manage to actually get up to 14.

LAURA: *laughs*.

JOHN:That's gonna be it. Chris made it to 16. We're getting quite good at this. Now if we ever get transported into an action movie,.

I don't doubt our ability to jump from one rooftop to another while being chased by the bad guy, and really, that's what this whole project is all about.

JOHN: Easy, like J. J. Watt. I wasn't even close!

Then it was time for wall-sits. Chris has gotten a little bit self-assured about this metric.

CHRIS: Maybe we could, do you have like an episode of the Walking Dead or something?

LAURA: Seriously.

CHRIS: Could we just watch the second season of Lost?

JOHN: My wall-sit has improved by 15 seconds, so I'm now at one minute and 30 seconds. Chris literally did this for 4 minutes.

LAURA: Cutting into our workout time.

JOHN: I mean, he's just focused!

LAURA: 3:40.

JOHN: He goes to a zen place. What are you thinking about when you wall-sit?

CHRIS: What do I think about when I wall-sit? I think about all the people who wall-sat before me. And made it possible for me to sit on that wall, that day. "You want me on that wall, you need me on that wall!"

JOHN: Is that Tom Cruise or Jack Nicholson?

LAURA: 4 minutes.

JOHN: 4 minutes!

LAURA: Thank you.

JOHN: Alright.

JOHN: After that, we started with stations. We did planks, and burpees, and crunches, and some cardio. Then we did some partner abs. And, for the record, I really don't like using these gliders, like, Laura claims that I've improved a lot, but I'm not sure I've made improvements in the one area that counts the most:.

Not looking ridiculous on camera. At the end of the session, Laura had us do two and a half minutes of planks, but we'd move every 30 seconds. We did a standard plank, and then side planks, a high plank, and one while rocking back and forth.

According to Laura, cross-fitters do five minutes of planks, but I, on the other hand, collapsed before we could get through two and a half minutes. Overall, this workout was fun, but I didn't eat great on Sunday because I wasn't tracking my food and I felt like I didn't have as much energy as I wanted. It's so obvious to me that how I eat affects my energy levels and my health, and yet I cannot seem to make good choices.

That noted, I did have some good meals after the workout, which you can see here, and here's some of Chris' Day 43 food. Day 44 was another self-directed exercise day. I ran for about 30 minutes at a nine minute and 30 second pace, which I felt pretty good about.

That's real progress for me, And here's some of my food. As you can see, my dog Willie was pretty jealous of this egg sandwich I ate. On Day 45, we had yet another self-directed exercise day, so Chris and I decided to play ping pong.

JOHN: Oh, great shot. One game to Chris, in this best of 13 series. It would've been. My first slam, I did it!

Two-all. His best is 19 series.

CHRIS: This side's won every time.

JOHN: Good game.

CHRIS: Woo!

JOHN: Nope. Nope. Nope.

CHRIS: Yeah, that was on that side.

JOHN: Wrong side! No!

CHRIS: No, that was that side.

JOHN: It was definitely on your side.

CHRIS: It was? JOHN Yes. A hundred percent.

CHRIS: When you go back and look at it--.

JOHN: You're gonna be like, that was not even close.

CHRIS: That was in.

JOHN: That was in.

JOHN: Wow! I got stuck--To be fair, I got stuck on my own pants.

CHRIS: I hit it.

JOHN: *laughs* That was...

CHRIS: Thirteen-fourteen.

CHRIS: Oh!!!

CHRIS: Champion.

JOHN: That was a good game!

CHRIS: Congratulations.

JOHN: At the end of the day, ping pong wasn't physically challenging. As you might remember from earlier in the show, though, Dr. Erin Carroll has said that to get the benefits of exercise, you really only need to do moderate intensity exercise. That's something like walking quickly for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week or even playing doubles tennis.

But I don't think I quite got to the doubles tennis level of exertion while playing ping pong. Now, I know people who are much more physical ping pong players, but I don't incorporate my body much. I'm mostly just like raising my paddle this way or that, and then flicking my wrist.

CHRIS: Ping pong champion, right here.

JOHN: I don't like to brag, but I did finally win something.

CHRIS: Ping pong.

JOHN: I don't think it was exercise.

CHRIS: Of course it's exercise. I mean, it's not like going and running a marathon, but it's much better to get up and play ping pong than sit on the couch and watch Harry Potter (pronounced Har-EE Pot-AIR).

JOHN: And also there's another competition I continue to win at: 100 Days participant who consistently takes the most pictures of their food. Here are two things I ate on Day 45, versus the zero pictures that Chris took. Speaking of which, we've decided that whenever Chris and I fail to photograph our food, instead of seeing question marks, you will now see pictures of. Chris and me looking ridiculous.

So, we'll see if that motivates us. Thanks for watching. I'll see you on Day 46.

CHRIS: Six-three.

JOHN: There are all these jokes in the show about how, like, it's not a competition and it's a good thing it isn't, because here's Chris finishing half a lap ahead of me.

JOHN: This is the closest we've ever been to properly matched.

CHRIS: Well, we've always been very even at ping pong.

CHRIS: This and probably writing are the two things we're most equal on. Eight-three.