Comedian Mike Bocchetti was not happy. He had recently lost his dream gig with the Artie Lange show, and was feeling bad about that. He was was overweight, and out of shape. He decided to do something about his unhappiness. He made up his mind to take up kickboxing, with a friend who was a trainer, and get in shape. Mike wanted to share his story about deciding to make changes in his life, just in time for New Years when everyone is making New Years Resolutions.

I had been obese– not even fat — for a long time and had tried a few times half heartedly to get healthy when I was working at the Artie Lang Show. They tried to help me. Jon Ritchie, a former NFL player for the Raiders and the Philadelphia Eagles, and co host of Artie’s show convinced me to try Nutrisystem which I did for a few months.

And oh God, being on Nutrisystem was so brutal. The first meal I had was a muffin. A muffin! And I’m a New Yorker, so I was at least expecting a muffin the size of my head. But the muffin they gave me was the size of my thumbnail. It was horrible. And I had to eat like that for days. I was jonesing, and I like…came very close to, you know, eating a pizza and a half the first few days, but I stopped myself.

Another thing that went wrong with the diet- it was overloaded with fibre, so i couldn’t even go to the bathroom for days. It was horrible. I was bounded up. And they gave me a drink, like a malted, that was like liquid speed, 400mg of caffeine, in an 8oz glass. I was running around like a chicken without a head. I could like do the iron man event twice without a problem. The malted they gave me, that was pretty brutal, but then I finally did go the bathroom. I let it all out at the Artie Lange show, and that was even more horrible. My stomach was so sick. The twins who worked at the show at the time were complaining because they said the stench smelt like about 6 blocks a way, that’s how bad it was.

It did get better, once I got used to it, and started being able to go to the bathroom after awhile. It was good but then I just got tired of the food because I wanted to have some regular stuff. Ritchie used to break my chops about a lot of stuff but one good thing he did was the diet. He told me I was too fat. He said I would look good if I lost weight and so he was the first inspiration.

After Nutrisystem failed, I decided to try again. I started training privately this spring, on March 3rd with my great long time friend Irene Bremis who is also a comic and an actor.

Ever since I was a kid I loved boxing. I got to see great legends like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier when I was growing up. I also loved martial arts and I’ve been a huge Bruce Lee fan since childhood. I’ve never been great at team sports, like football or basketball, and I don’t like the gym, but I’ve found that I am able to excel in boxing and martial arts.

After my first class with Irene, I almost threw up because I haven’t done any physical training in years. It’s a lot of hard work, but after two months training, I was able to do the whole hour. I like competing with myself and it’s much better than the gym atmosphere. Kickboxing gets rid of a lot of inner aggression and makes me feel great about myself. It keeps me super positive. I’m just doing it myself. It’s more of a one-on-one thing, and my cardio is crazy now. I went from like, the first lesson I had, throwing up almost, to feeling like some guy with 12 extra chromosomes; my energy is that high. I feel better about people around me and I feel like I’m making a lot of progress.

There’s been a huge improvement in my life in general too. It used take me 8 hours to get out of bed. Sometimes now I can get out of bed like I’m 9 years old, it’s that fast. My clothes, forget it. I went from a 3XXXL that were super tight, to an XL that fits good now, and I have more confidence with women, which is great. They say I give off an energy now that’s great, not an energy where they want to repel like they used to.

My friends say I’m going great too. One female friend actually called me one day, you know she seen a picture of me online, I’m taking pictures documenting this. She goes, you’re body is awesome. She called me up and said that. I was like, woah, I hadn’t heard that any time in my life before.

Video produced by Carmine Famiglietti

Irene Bremis, Mike’s trainer said, “Mike is 10 lbs away from skinny jeans and now his 2014 New Years resolution went from lose weight to lose his virginity.” Follow Irene on Twitter to see more of Mike’s progress @IreneBremeis13. You can follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBocchetti

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