September 7th my wife Christal, daughter Erin and I will jump into the Murphy family SUV and head to Disney World!  We’re all very excited about going and my wife has become obsessed with the trip.  So much, she has planned out almost everything we are doing…what park on what day…which ride at the optimum time…when and where to eat…etc.  She’s been studying Disney World like she’s preparing for her bar exam or something.  We are planners (Christal especially).  Erin will be a little over 20 months by then so it should be awesome.

My first weight loss goal was to lose 15lbs in 90 days.  I hit it and it only took me 40 days.  This is the amount of pounds Dr Messer suggested I lose in order to get my blood sugar and blood pressure to where it needs to be.  I haven’t had a high reading in over 4 weeks and my blood pressure seems to be good too. 

Why stop at 15lbs?

It really wasn’t that hard to get here.  As a matter of fact, at the time I am writing this, I’ve lost 16 1/2 lbs.  So, now that goal #1 has been hit, I am getting ready for goal #2.  Lose a total of 30lbs before we go to Disney!  Can you imagine?  I’m deliberately not buying vacation clothes until closer to the date because I want them to fit.  I don’t need to be mooning kids while I climb into one of the tea cups!  Not a pretty site!

Wish me luck and let me know if you are joining in on my challenge of getting healthier this year.

You know when you watch the show The Biggest Loserand the contestant gets up on the massive scale with the weight numbers bouncing up and down and then suddenly it rests on a weight and a loss number?  Pretty exciting stuff- as we all pull for our favorite person to lose X amount of pounds.  Then, all of the sudden, we find that someone didn’t lose anything.  The contestants then cry and hug each other….(There is way too much crying on that show!)

I’ve been stuck at my14lbs weight loss for about 5 days now.  I feel like a contestant on the show!  I want to lose another 16lbs before September 8th.   I stalled!  After clicking at about 3lbs a week my body stops down.  I’d punch myself if it didn’t hurt! lol  I’m going to chalk it up to possibly building muscle…I guess?  I mean, I can tell I have muscles in some new places.  I can see results from the 5 weeks I’ve been doing this.  It just makes me think my goals are going to be harder to hit than what I originally thought.  Oh well….nobody said this would be easy right?

I’ve had several people ask me what kind of workout I do when I go to the gym.  Normally, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do Cardio and abs.  Tuesday and Thursday I do a workout with Renee King (my trainer from the Life Center in Simpsonville).  This week she had me mix it up and do this workout 3 times this week.  It will make you sweaty! :) 

 After a 20 minute walk on the treadmill….I do:

Incline Dumbbell Press- 2 sets of 35lbs (each arm) 15 times.  1 set of 15 reps of 40lbs

Lat Pulldown- 3 sets of 15 reps with 120lbs.

Tricep Pushdowns- 3 sets of 15 reps with 100lbs

Left and Right leg lunges-15 of each leg while holding 20lb dumbbells.

Ball squats (big ball between my lower back and a wall.-3 sets of 12 and then hold for 10 seconds on the 13th.

Lateral raises (like I am flying like a bird)-3 sets of 15 with 15lbs in each hand.  I alternate these with dumbbell curles-3 sets of 15 with 20lbs in each hand.

Dumbbell shoulder press-3 sets of 15 with 25lbs.

I then do crunches with the ball-3 sets of 25.  I then do a set of 10, 3 pulse crunches after each set.

Bicycle abs (elbow to opposite knew while laying on a mat-3 sets of 30. (15 for each side)

Oblique workout (side bends on a ball)-3 sets of 25 for each side of my body

And then some crazy stretching exercises (my trainer Renee is secretly trying to get me to do Yoga)

Hope this help!

 Sunday I will be taking batting practice beofre the Greenville Drive game.  Feel free to come out and watch.  I’m sure we will post video of me looking stupid! 

All these years I thought I had a slow metabolism.  THIS was the reason for gaining extra pounds!  If I could just get the metabolism going faster, I’d be thinner in  no time flat. 

LIES ALL LIES!

Went to the Life Center in Greenville the other day and did a test on my metabolism.  It was to test “my target caloric zones”.  I sat in a chair hooked up to a computer that read and monitored how much air I breathe, how often I breathe, etc…  After 15 minutes they were able to determine how many calories my body burns in a given day without any exercise or anything. 

Here are the results:

If I sit on my butt all day and just eat and breathe I burn around 2,290 calories.  They then added 687 for working out and 286 for “other stuff” I do.  They came up with a total of 3263 calories.  This is what I burn on  average each day.  That number mixed with my weight, age and height told them that my metabolism was 10% faster than the typical person fitting my description!  ALL THIS TIME I’VE BEEN LYING TO MYSELF! LOL!

Now the good news is that because of these finding, they determined that I should shift my diet from 1500 calories to 1800 calories.  Eat more?  I’m cool with that!  There is a concern that if I don’t eat enough, my body might go back to storing up energy (fat/sugar) and I will dwarf the weight loss process.  So, starting yesterday I kicked it up to 1800 calories.  So do the math.  3263 calories going out….1800 coming in.  Hence the 12lbs I’ve lost in just 4 weeks! 

(See picture of my breathing into the calorie thing)

If you’re counting calories too, might I suggest the book “The Calorie King…Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate counter”.  $6.99 at Target.  I take it everywhere so I know what I am eating.

 Next up….my workout! (check back)

Went to the Life Center in Greenville this morning…very cool facility!  Anyway, today was the day that they took a look at how my body is burning calories and what amount I would need to lose or sustain my weight.  It was pretty cool.  I learned a few more things about myself today! :)  Turns out I don’t have slow metabolism….I’ll write about that later.  I’m still trying to take all that information in before I explain it on here.  Next week…

Every person who is serious about their trade, has the tools for success.   A Carpenter has great tools, DJs have the best of headphones and people who are serious about getting healthy should set themselves up for success and surround themselves with the tools necessary.  I have a Doctor, trainer, a person who handles my diet and now I have the proper clothing.  Since I was in the neighborhood of the Life Center in Greenville, I swung by and saw Mike and Sheila at Fleet Feet on Augusta St.  I will now look the part of a person who is serious about getting healthy.  I must have tried on 10 pairs of shoes until we found the exact pair.  (I’m not Cinderella!)  Mike was very helpful and made sure that the clothes I was getting, matched the kind of workout I was doing.    It was very helpful!  If you have any questions about the cool stuff they have at Fleet Feet- log online to www.fleetfeetgreenville.com

More on the metabolism later….

I love those offers that seem to be too good to be true.  “WANNA LOSE 80 LBS IN 5 DAYS…ASK ME HOW” or “Take this pill, sit on your couch, watch Dr Phil and lose 30lbs overnight”.  It’s silly.  You gotta think that can’t be healthy for you even if it was possible (or legal).  Here’s my sales pitch- “Be like me and lose 10lbs in 3 weeks”.   I’ve actually done that.

A few months ago I saw a friend of mine lose a few pounds and I read his blogs about it.  I was intrigued about his success.  I wanted to know what he was doing and what he was eating (or not eating) to make it happen.  When the opportunity presented itself, we met up with Greenville Hospital System to see if they were interested in helping me lose 20lbs.  I didn’t want to do it with some goofy fad diet or with some pill.  I wanted to do it in a way that was realistic and I didn’t have to completely overhaul my life in order to make it happen.  For example, and I know a lot of people have done well with Atkins or Atkins -like diets, but I just cant imagine eating a pound of bacon and it be good for me? (I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean) Besides, I know A LOT of people that have done the Atkins and as soon as they get off it, they start putting it back on.  I like carbs and I deserve to have them!  I’m not a fan of doing things twice.  I like to do it once and do it right.   

Ok, so now you have a little more back story on how this whole website and challenge came about.  I won’t ask you to send me 12 shipments of $19.95 to find out how I’ve lost 20lbs.  Here’s basically the deal:

1.        I eat 1500 calories a day.

2.       I work out 5 times a week.

3.       I stay active

So far, that’s it.  Crystal Robinson, a nutritionist from Greenville Hospital System told me that I could go up to 1800 calories a day if I wanted to (since I workout 5 times a week).  I’m gonna stick to the 1500 calories for right now, but I wont get down on myself if I go a little over.  Every time I tell someone that I only eat 1500 a day, they act like I’m crazy.  I love big (fatty) meals just as much as the next guy, but I have found that it has not been as hard as I thought it was going to be.

For example, the other day I did this:

Breakfast-1/2 cup of egg beaters (60 cal), 2 slices of chopped up lunchmeat ham (10 cal), 2 pieces of low-cal toast (90 cal) and a small container of low fat cottage cheese (90 cal).  Total: 340

Snack at 10am-100 calorie snack size sun chips

Lunch-Subway Turkey breast sandwich (no cheese) on wheat.  About 300 calories after you put on the veggies.  Diet coke to drink.

Snack at 4pm-60 calorie yogurt

Dinner:  6oz steak (312 cal) ½ cup Grilled mushrooms (30 cal), 10 asparagus spears (50). Total 390

Snack at 8pm-100 calorie ice cream bar.

Total of 1492!  It’s possible. Oh sure, I know I am supposed to eat more fruit and sometimes I sub in fruit, but with the Diabetic stuff, I need to eat it with other things and not by itself.   The internet is your friend on this stuff!  You can pretty much find the calorie count on all of your favorite foods as well as your favorite restaurant chains.  Also, feel free to ask me.  If I don’t know the answer-I’ll ask someone from Greenville Hospital System who does.