1 Week Seems Like A Long Time – Day 8

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I don’t know if it is because I am so much more productive due to having more energy or what, but this last 8 days have seems liked they took a long time.  Like it was a long week, but no in a negative way.

I got so much done this week.  Because I am sleeping better, I am sleeping less.  The quality it better.  So I am only sleeping about 6 hours a night.  And I feel better after 6 hours than I would after sleeping 8 or 9 hours before.

My day now typically starts at 6 a.m. and ends around 11 pm or midnight.  I try to go to sleep earlier and my body just isn’t interested.

Now I have been alcohol free for 8 days now. I was not a problem for me to stop, but just to break the bad habit.  Was not so much that I needed to drink as I just turned it into a habit and would drink everyday because I had nothing else to do.

The first real test of not drinking will be this Saturday night. We are going out to dinner with friends so will have to see if I have what it takes to not drink.  I just think I will see everyone else drinking and having a good time and not want to miss out.

It is my goal not to drink because I am feeling to good.  I don’t want to jeopardize what gains I have made in my health, even though it has been just one week.

Not much to report from Yesterday, I just did a leg and shoulder workout with my wife.  This morning I am going to the 8:30 training and it will be a weight day again.  That works for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Feeling Better & Sleeping Better : Day 5

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I have to say that just 5 days in I am feeling much better and sleeping much better.  Today I was a little run down, a little tired.  There was no personal training today, but my wife and I did go to the gym and did your heavy lifting day with the weights.

Tomorrow is the cardio day.  James O’Rourke does his training with weights on Monday and Friday and Wednesday and Saturday are reserved for cardio days.  The cardio days are more like a Cross Fit class with weights and a lot of motion.

I already notice myself getting stronger and even losing a little weight.  Today I mistook a pair of pants that I have not worn in a while for a pair I do wear all the time.  I don’t wear the other pair because they just didn’t fit well.  Yep, too tight.  Today I put them on by error and they fit.  I only noticed they were wrong because they were still a bit snug, but they fit actually pretty good.

I think just a quick post tonight, getting late but still wanted to post an article as this was my plan to keep me on track and motivated.  I was just about to go to bed, then remembered I was going to write a post everyday to track my fitness, how I feel and to remind me to eat well and everything else.  So far, so good. It seems to be working.

Valencia Workouts Getting Serious With Survival Of The Fittest – Day 4

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

So it is only day 4 of working out.  Is that right?  Started Friday, worked out then, and Saturday, took Sunday off and again today.  Yep, just day 4.

I have to tell you that the whole diet thing is hard.  I do very well during the week when I am busy with work, etc., but the weekend proves challenging.

This past weekend I tried to stay busy, but no matter what I did, I would feel hungry.  I swear was saying, “When will the weekend be over?” lol.

Anyways, today is Monday and a holiday. My youngest did not have school, so i decided to sleep in a bit and hit the 8:30 personal training class at Ignition Fitness.  That went well, we did another 4 rounds of high rep weights after warning up.

But I have always liked to get strong.  So tonight, I went back to the gym and did a heavy, low-rep chest and triceps workout.  The personal training is good for the high intensity stuff so I can lose weight, but I still want to get strong.  I think the two will work out well.

Well, that is all for today, not a whole lot to report.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Jim Johnson : Ignition Fitness Valencia : Day – 2

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Okay, so here we are at day 2 of working out and day 2 of making it a priority to blog about it.

In addition to talking about me, I wanted to talk about the place I am now working out.  Ignition Fitness. Ignition Fitness is where the personal trainer I started working with, James O’Roarke, now holds his training classes.

From what I understand, Ignition Fitness was opened by Jim Johnson who previously was a trainer at Big John McCarthy’s in Valencia.  And when Big John’s closed down, Jim opened up Ignition Fitness at just the right time.

As I am writing this article, I am realizing that I don’t have all the information.  I think what I will do is ask to interview Jim Johnson to get some of the back story. For now, I will discuss why I decided to sign up at Ignition Fitness and what I think about it.

I had never been to Ignition Fitness in Valencia when my trainer said to meet him there.  I showed up and realized that Ignition Fitness is in an industrial building near Valencia High School (sort of) on the corner of Ave. Tibbits and Newhall Ranch Road. This seems to be the popular way to go and I don’t mind it at all.

Ignition Fitness is where you want to go to work out.  Period.  Ignition Fitness is also the place you want to go if you want to support local business owners and not your typical franchise gym.  Ignition Fitness is also the place you want to go if you like feeling like you belong somewhere.  Hope that makes sense.

Ignition Fitness is not what you are probably used to.  The best way to say it, is that it is the polar opposite of LA Fitness or say Gold’s Gym.  I know people like these gym’s for certain reasons, and I’m sure your reasons are valid, but for the same reasons, I don’t like the big chains.

But I don’t want to talk about what I don’t like about the big chains.  Let’s focus on what I like about Ignition Fitness.

First, when you walk in you are greeted by either Jim a family member.  Or sometimes nobody at all if Jim is training somebody.  It is totally relaxed.  Didn’t see Jim when you walked in? Oh, there he is in the corner or helping spot someone. Pretty cool.  And when he is there it’s, “Hey Tim” and I’m like, “I just signed up yesterday and you already know my name!”  Juuuuussst a little bit different than handing your key tag to some girl at a desk to scan it.

Second, what I like is that Ignition Fitness is no frills.  Today I took my wife (secretly trying to convert her) to show her what it was like.  We walked in at about 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday and there were 2 people there.  This was aside from Jim running a personal training group.

It is literally like walking into your own private gym and it makes you want to treat it that way.  Not to mention that you can park right in front of the gym. Not that this was a deal breaker, because I would always make fun of the people at LA Fitness in Valencia circling the parking lot trying to find a closer space.  I would always yell at them (windows up and laughing ) “You’re here to work out for christ sakes, what’s a little walking going to hurt?”

And then we would park far off and walk past them as they were still looking for parking.

Third.  Tires.  Not just regular tires.  Tractor Tires.  I don’t have trouble gaining muscle (or fat) but my cardio is terrible.  I get tired going up a flight of stairs and this is what I want to work on.  Flipping tires must be the best (worst) way of totally exhausting someone.  But in a weird way I like it.  I don’t know if there is another exercise to completely exhaust you.

On the first day I was there, Jim saw me flipping tires and figured I liked them. Today when I walked in he said, “I’ll unlock the gate to the tires”.  Now, I was there to do legs and shoulders and then do the tires, but now I felt I had to.  Then he says something about flipping the 400 pound tire.  So, of course, when I was done working out, I had to do that, right?

So I did.  I did 4 rounds (4 times for those not in the know) of 10 flips with the 400 pound tire.  Admittedly, I had to stop after each 10 flips for a few minutes to catch my breath.  By the time i did the last round, I was completely done.  Take it to exhaustion and for some reason, once you can breath normally, you just feel so good.  And this after a heavy leg and shoulder workout.

IMG_1016
Flipping 400 pound tire while my wife says I’m crazy

Okay, signing off for today.  Will try to connect with Jim Johnson in the coming days or weeks and see If I can dig in more about his personal story. For now, you can just go to their website at Ignition Fitness.

Now I need to get back to my divorce business.

 

Day 1 – Personal Training With James O’Rourke In Valencia

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Today is my first personal training day with James O’Rourke in Valencia.  That is actually a lie, because about a year ago my daughter wanted to change gyms because the training staff at LA Fitness was hitting on her and we were introduced to James O’Rourke who at the time was doing personal training at Big Johns in Valencia which has now closed.

At the time I was not looking for personal training for me (even though I needed it) but signed up with him because my daughter wanted me to work out with her.  How could I say no? I hung in there for about a month or so, but when your head is just not into doing something, it sure effects your motivation.  So I stopped going.

When I decided this time to start working out and to get a personal trainer in Valencia my first call was to James.  When I met up with him to talk about my new goals, I could not believe it that it was almost a year ago that I started the first time.

Man, I always think, “what if i stayed then? I would be in amazing shape!”  Okay, I am over that now.

Well, the reason for this article was to introduce you to James O’Rourke with Survival of the Fittest  (that is his business Facebook page)

The other thing I want to introduce you to is the new gym we are at called Ignition Fitness in Valencia. I will talk more about that in tomorrows article.

How Today’s Training Went:

Today was weights day.  Thank god.  Not that it was easy by any means, but the cardio days can be very tough, especially for me.  I am in very poor cardio shape.  You know this if you read my article about my kids and I running the Spartan Race a few weeks ago.  I get tired after just a few minutes.

So today I got there a little early and warmed up.  For me the warm up seems the hardest.  So I did 10 minutes on the stair climber just to get sweat going and it seemed to help.

Today’s workout was weights and hitting every body part.  We started with 150 sit-up/crunched and then pushed this box with weight on top around the gym.

We then did 4 rounds of weights hitting every muscle group.  Because you are moving from one exercise to the next, there is a definite cardio component to it.  This is why I signed up.  I am the guy that does a set and then takes 2 to 3 minutes of rest and never breaks a sweat.

I needed this type of workout infused into my regular gym days, where I still like to go heavy and take a few minutes break in between.

The great part about working with James is that he corrects you.  Even If you have worked out since high school like I have (so for about 20 sum odd years) there are still some things to be corrected on.  Today I was doing seated dumbbell shoulder presses and he said it was better to stand.  I said, “for some reason, i have always sat for dumbbells and stood for barbell presses”  His reply, “Yeah, that is how it was done in the 80’s!”  Lol

So one day down and feeling good.  I think the personal training, new gym and writing daily about working out will keep me in the game.

Tomorrow I am going to talk about the new gym Ignition Fitness in Valencia.

Here was today’s check-in on Facebook.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Really, Really Starting To Work Out This Time

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Okay, so I may have had one or two false starts at working out.  Okay, maybe 4 or 5, but I swear this is it.

How do I know?  Because I am taking drastic measures this time.  Last time, I just said, “okay, time to start working out again” and then it would only last for a few days.  I think I was failing because I didn’t make a real plan.

This time, i took measures for success.

First, I hired a personal trainer.  I did this so I would have some accountability.  The accountability is from both a financial one ( I paid up front for 3 months of training) and second, from a personal, well thought out commitment I am making this time.

I had to ask myself, “why did I want to start working out again”?  The reasons this time around were about health.  Health to the point of the fact I am now 45 and I need to have good health If I plan on making it to old age.  That and the fact that I just have not been feeling “healthy” for a long time.  And what frustrates me is that just 4 years ago, I weighed 75 pounds less and felt great.

In addition, I decided to change gyms.  I thought I needed a change of scenery (and plus this new place is where the trainer does his thing).

The last thing I decided to do is to write about my progress.  Not necessarily every day (although that is the goal) but often enough that it becomes a habit, just like working out.

So here we go.

Tomorrow will be my first personal training day.  The last 3 days, I did go to the gym on my own, mostly just to test myself if I was really committed.   These last few days I have eaten right, and even decided not to have my evening cocktail, um cocktails, which proved more challenging than I thought.

Do you know how much more you get accomplished at night if you don’t spend the time with a cocktail in your hand in front of the TV?  Even now, here I am after 9 p.m. writing this article (because I can’t sleep). Usually, I would be watching TV and ignoring the family. (sorta).

But not today.  Got home from work, cleaned the house, made dinner, paid the bills, watched tv for a bit with the wife and now just trying to find something to do to pass the time. Weird!

More tomorrow. Promise.

Day 2 Of Exercise & Eating Better

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

So I got my 3.5 mile walk in this morning with my dog.  Picked up the pace a little and even ran a bit. I have to start easy otherwise I get shin splints.  I can already feel they are a little sore.

I started eating better yesterday as well.  Had no bread or high glycemic carbs which is usually the trick for me to lose weight.  Had a salad and later grilled chicken with quinoa and asparagus.  This morning I had eggs, turkey bacon and watermelon.  The hard part for me is cutting out the bread.  Love bread!  Was never much of a fast food guy or sweets person, so no problem there.

I have been sleeping better also the last night or two which is already a plus.  I know I always sleep better when I am getting some type of workout. I usually only sleep 4 to 5 hours and never feel 100%, but today I feel great having slept 8 hours.  First time in a long time.

Getting into work now, have a busy day.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Las Vegas Trip & Deciding To Get Back In Shape

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I don’t know what happened this morning, but woke up and decided it was time to invest in myself and start getting back in shape.

I say get  back in shape because in 2011 I was in great shape.  I weighed just 198 pounds and was doing Crossfit and running a lot.  I mean 5 to 10 miles a day. Sometimes I would run to Crossfit and then run back home or run to the gym, work out and then run home.

Then I started this business and it all went down hill.  I started skipping my morning run so I could get into work early and start my marketing. Not that all things are bad, I mean I do have a great business now that does very well, but I think it is time to have some balance and maybe work just a little less and spend some time getting back in shape.

Today is Monday about 10:15 in the morning and I am just getting to work.  Wow, what a change.  I decided I would go for a walk (gotta start somewhere) and take my dog with me.  He loved it to. Only did about 3.5 miles, but it was a good start.  I plan to blog about my working out efforts, just so I have a journal.

I have not weighed myself recently, but last time I checked it was about 275.  (thankfully I have a large frame to carry it) I will have to see what I weigh now so I can gauge how much I lose. I am shooting for 200 pounds and 15% body fat and my goal is to have this done by the end of April 2016 which gives me just 6 months.

About my Las Vegas Trip this weekend.  I am trying to be more spontaneous lately and I think I pulled that off on Friday.  I was at the office and it was sort of quite.  My wife was traveling back from a consulting job in Omaha, Nebraska.  I decided to do a fight checker and see where her plane was.  I saw that she had landed, but she was not supposed to be home for another 2 hours.  I looked closer and saw that she was on a layover in Las Vegas.

So I texted her and said, “I should meet you in Vegas”.  She replies, ” That is weird, i am in Vegas” to which I told her I was aware of.  I said, “let’s do something crazy, get off the airplane and I will drive up and meet you.”  So she got off and I left the office and drove up.

It turned out to be a great unplanned trip.  While I was driving up, she booked the hotel and checked in.  She wrapped up some work she had to do and I arrived about 4 p.m. and we headed off for dinner followed by a massage.  My wife was exhausted from the week long trip to Omaha, so we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

The next day was also great.  No real plan, but ended up at Mandalay Bay where we had lunch, gambled a little, saw the Shark exhibit and then saw Michael Jackson ONE. If you have not seen this show, it was amazing and I highly recommend it.  We are already planning out next trip and going to bring out 2 kids to see it.

Hope you have a good Monday. Tim