I always look to set mini goals for myself. To keep me motivated and always working towards something new. It keeps me fresh, looking forward and free of too many workout pitfalls. Tomorrow morning I leave for Vegas to hang out with my best friend Geoff. We’re doing a guys weekend in celebration of well….being guys I guess? We got a great deal and were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel for the weekend. Should be fun!
One of my mini goals was to get “pool ready”. To be able to go to the pool and not look like a whale beaching himself. I think I’ll be ok as long as I dont hit the buffet before the pool! lol It’s nice to be able to fit my clothes for the weekend in the small carry on bag opposed to one of our larger ones. Back when my clothes were much bigger, that actually was an issue. Now I wear Large shirts opposed to XL and XXLs. It feels good.
This morning, when I went to workout at ASI on Patewood, my trainer Danial (see video) was bragging about how some guy burned 650 calories on the speedflex system in one hour. For those of you who workout on the treadmills and think, because of the false treadmill readings, that’s not a lot….I assure you, burning that many calories is harder than you think! Treadmills and eliptical machines LIE! Anyway, Danial was braggin on the guy this morning. So what do I do? SMASH THE CALORIE NUMBER! LOL!! I burned 731 calories this morning in 1 hour of working out! Meanwhile, I was starving the rest of the day! Wanna justify a big Italian dinner like I had tonight? Burn 731 calories in a workout, then you dont feel so bad about all that pasta. Overeating is still not a great thing to do, but I dont feel guilty about it today. Maybe tomorrow? 
More after my Vegas trip!
This morning I worked out at ASI on Patewood Rd in the GHS building. I’ve been there for a few months now and it’s been great. I can feel myself getting stronger and healthier with almost every workout. It feels good. Yet, no matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to do pull-ups very well. I can lift a lot of weight over my head, off my chest, from my shoulders, but pull-ups are not my friend! Every time I step off of the stool to begin the pull-up process, I revert back to 3rd grade gym class and after doing 4-5 of them, I dangle there like a fish on a stringer. The only thing missing is a bully coming over to pull down my shorts.
There is some good news! It appears that my blood tests have come back AWESOME from my recent visit to Dr. Messer’s office this past week. My good and bad cholesterol are almost perfect! I was a little worried because I had not been as militant in my eating as I was for the last 2 blood tests. This is where the workout stuff comes into play. You can’t lose weight or get healthier just by dieting and you can’t lose weight or get healthier by just working out. They come hand in hand. I’d always worked out, but hardly ever watched my food intake; assuming that I deserved to eat this and that because I was working out. Rewarding yourself is important; just make sure you are not rewarding yourself TOO much! (Oh I deserve this chocolate cake….I walked up the stairs at work today). I did reward myself a little too much this past weekend and ate what seemed like a whole side of beef! I smoked a brisket and it was AWESOME! I think I am part cow now….I’ll be eating chicken, turkey and veggies for the rest of the week.
Since working out at ASI on Patewood Rd, the dietitian has informed me that it’s time to count the calories again. I haven’t put on any real weight from fat. went from 197-203, but I expected that since I am pretty confident that a few of those pounds are muscle. They have to be or I’m doing something wrong. The other day I stood on this machine for like a minutes and somehow it informed us that one of my sides is heavier than the other, my legs each weigh like 35lbs, there is 7lbs of fat in each leg and that my body mass index has me as athletic, would 20% body fat/mass. What does that mean? Ummm….that I need to lose 7lbs to be at 18%. I guess that is the recommended percentage for me. All in all, very doable, but I just have to get back into the practice of counting calories again.
Im currently fasting right now…haven’t has anything to eat/drink since 8pm. Got a blood test tomorrow morning at 8:40am and I will then promptly go to the closest place to me and each something terrible for me….lol I’ll know more about my blood test on Thursday. I hope that the meds that I am on will fix the little thing wrong in my blood. Cant remember exactly what it is, but the reading needs to be something like 100 or lower and I am at 108. For normal people this shouldnt be an issue, but since I am a recovering Type II diabetic, it’s something that needs to be watched. I’ll know more Thursday after they run my labs. Fingers crossed that the fried chicken I had this week doesnt come back and haunt me on my blood test! :) Feel free to post your comments.
5 days a week for a year now. I’ve missed only a handful of workouts. I wake up every morning in the 5am hour, take a deep breath and push myself out of bed. Too driven to not go to the gym, but I listen to the “inner wuss” enough where I am willing to sit there for a few minutes and contemplate not going. On Tuesday and Thursday I workout with the trainers at ASI on Patewood, but on the other days, i go to a gym. I would be more likely to miss a day that I don’t have a trainer. I tell myself that if I miss a day due to pain or soreness, I’ll be more in pain the next day. In many ways, that is true. I don’t workout on weekends. Those are the days I use to heal up my body. Yet, those days consist of activities that require me to use my body. Last weekend I helped move my neighbor, this weekend I have about 2 hours of yard work that I need to get taken care of. Not complaining, just feeling run down and could use a break. Yet, the more I workout, the better I feel about my body. Ahh this double edged sword….
My goal for Father’s day? To do as little as possible. The reality? Who knows! lol
After a year of working out in Simpsonville at the Life Center and ASI, I’ve moved up to the ASI facility on Patewood. That means I wake up a little earlier in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday (5am opposed to 5:30am) and I drive up to Patewood road which adds about 15 minutes more to my workout commute. Yet, I know it is worth it. Ive worked out twice at the Patewood facility now and it appears that I will be sweating more these days. They have a system called SPEEDFLEX with is a series of machines that help to increase speed and stamina while shredding fat. I’m not a trainer, but I’m hearing that it helps build fast muscle.
On Thursday morning I had my first session. I worked out with 4-5 other people. This is the first time I had worked out with a group since starting Chase’s challenge about a year ago. It’s kinda cool to be able to compare your workout, strength and endurance to others around you. It’s not a race, but its something to at least measure yourself by. If everyone around you is passing out and you’re still standing…that’s a good thing right? :) We did a series of 12 SPEEDFLEX machines. Each machine performs a different task and after you hit all of them, you’ve pretty much done a full body workout. We did each machine for 30 seconds. The goal was to do as many reps on each machine as you could in that time. After the 30 seconds, you moved on to the next machine with no rest between sets. We did 2 rounds of this and I have to tell you I felt pretty whooped about half way thru the 2nd round. It’s a pretty cool workout. If you’re interested in something like this, google speedflex. The are exclusive in this area to the ASI centers.
This morning, Tuesday, our trainer Daniel made me and one other guy wear heart rate monitor straps under our shirts. These monitors displayed and recorded our endurance levels. Essentially, they monitored our heart rates and gave us a percentage of where we were at as far as our endurance and heart rate. I got up to about 90% and kept it there for about 15 minutes. The cool part about it was that you could look up at any of the TVs that were on in the facility and see what percentage you were at. Pretty neat stuff.
As I learn more-I’ll share more with you. I’m confident that this new workout is going to help me get closer to my “shirtless summer” goal! I can already feel the effects 2 workouts in!
More later. Plus some random videos later this week.
1) When getting measured for my tux for the Hawk and Tom Prom my jacket measured a 46 regular. A year ago, when getting measured for the Hawk and Tom prom I measured a 50 short. Umm that’s pretty cool.
2) After my workout this morning at ASI in Simpsonville I asked my trainer (DJ Johnson) to time my 40 yard dash time. I ran it twice. 5.3 and 5.2! I’m 34 years old…not a pro athlete or a high school student and I ran a 5.2 40! Holy crap! Too bad they don’t let us steal bases in our softball league! We need all the help we can get-we’re 0-4 this season! lol
Just thought I’d share…
My wife and I are planners! We plan almost everything in our lives. She’s hard core about it and when things don’t go to plan…WATCH OUT! We are currently trying to make kid #2. According to the planets….signs….vodoo…whatever…this is the prime week for baby making. My father (who helped to make 3 sons) claims that the sure fire way to creating a boy child is to do 2 things (or not to do 2 things). 1) Don’t take a shower. (that’s not going to happen! I want to make a kid, not get kicked out of bed) and 2) Don’t shave. That I can do! I hate shaving! No problem! So I haven’t shaved for about a week now. Im sure these things have nothing to do with it, but what the heck, it adds more fun to the process! What have you heard? Feel free to share!
Here’s a pic of the “unshaven” me. I don’t grow facial hair very well so don’t be surprised if you don’t see anything…lol
As of this past holiday weekend everyone in the Murphy house pee pees in the potty! Well, I still miss from time to time, but I’m a man and that’s what we do! Hard to believe that my little girl is doing this. She went from no interest at all in potty training to full blown letting us know and bringing her potty into the living room. We started off giving her lollipops for every time she did it. Now we’ve run out of lollipops, so we’re trying to reward her with hi-fives and clapping. It’s not the same, but we’d like our daughter to have teeth! One trick my wife used is to let her run around naked. This has worked like a charm! Any time we put clothes or a diaper on her, she has a tendency to have an accident. So it looks like there’s going to be a lot of little toddler butt in our future…I’m trying to keep from being embarrassed. I just hope nobody comes to the door…
In workout related news, the upstairs AC doesn’t work right now so I am thinking that I should be able to lose a few pounds in my sleep! Maybe I should be more like my kid and run around naked? This is the time of the year people drop pounds easier. With the warmer weather, your workouts are more sweaty and you drop a lot of the winter weight that is clinging to your body. Feel free to take it up a notch and you may see the tone that’s been hiding behind that winter coat of yours. I’m cutting back on calories a bit too. Swimsuit season is just around the corner and the goal to mow my yard without a shirt still needs to be reached. I think I’m almost there…(fingers crossed)
Today is my first day of my 34th year on this planet. I will look back at 33 as one of the best years of my life. Seriously….It’s sad to see 33 go. Last year at about this time I decided that I had had enough of the extra weight. I wanted to feel better-look better-stop being sluggish and not living up to my potential. I wanted to be better for my family and set a strong example for my daughter. 33 will be the year that I changed my life. I lost 35lbs. I found out I had type II diabetes and then got it under control. I got to put on a size 34 pants. Fit into a large shirt (not an XL or XXL). Bought one belt only to have to buy another one months later. Bought an entire new wardrobe. Not had to use the hand rail to get out of my SUV. Stopped making fat jokes about myself. Started to see how out of shape the world I live in really is. Was described to others as “that fit guy”. Took a picture and was proud enough to share it with others. My knees stopped hurting. Amazed my parents. Learned to cook healthier. Became a teacher to others in something besides radio. Caught women checking me out. Gave my wife something better to look at. Heard other women use the word “sexy” when making comments to my wife about me. Saw what this side of 200 looked like on a scale. Ran my first 5k. Was made fun of because of my healthy lifestyle and not the alternative. Walked around my front yard with my shirt off. Was told by people who havent seen me in 10+ years-”You haven’t changed a bit”.
33 I love you. You will always be one of my favorite years. I will miss you. 34 here we go!
