Saturday, February 25, 2012

Occupy the Y wk 7: YIKES! (Beautiful Mind)

(No, this is not my actual CT scan.)

So on Thursday at the Y we head over to the Paramount Weight Machines to start a rotation of three leg workouts. And Nicole says, "Let's do sets of 50." (We usually do 20.)

I'm thinking, "Holy schnikies, I'm going to have to bust it through these or there's no way I'm going to get 50 reps on multiple rotations of these three machines." And so I do. I'm kickin' 'em as fast as I can.

After I get done with the second machine (leg extensions), I get the slightest touch of a headache; but it goes away. After two more machines I'm back on Mr. Leg Extension. I'm kickin in. Then it kicks back: "WHAM!" Instantaneous ridiculously painful headache. Feels like someone hit me with a knife on the top/back center of my cranium. It stopped me cold in my tracks.

After sitting there a few seconds, I tell Nicole what's going on. "That's not good," she calmly and seriously says. "That's not good. Maybe you should get your blood pressure checked."

After a few minutes of walking it off and contemplating the rest of the workout and that freakish never-before-experienced headache, I decide to head over to Dr. Haendigas' office since I was due to weigh in anyway and they always take my vitals.

They take my blood pressure: high. "Let's get Dr. Haendigas in here." I get a little uneasy now as nurse DeAnna has instructions to not let me out of her sight. Hmmm. Enter Dr. Haendigas.

Doc: "I want you to get a CT scan."
Me: "Seriously? Do I really need one?"
Doc: "I'm concerned about the pain in your head while working your legs. This may be nothing but...yes, you are my friend, and I want you to do this."

Sidebar:
I cannot express how highly I think of Dr. Haendigas and her staff. When I'm there it doesn't feel like medical staff and patient; it feels like friends--well, because we are now. Having the nurses express concern and for Dr. Haendigas to look me in the eyes and say, "you're my friend and I want you to go." Well friends, that makes a profound impression. And it was great to hear DeAnna say, "You'll be in my prayers." I so admire and love these ladies. If you need help losing weight, I can't recommend Dr. Haendigas enough. And no, I don't get anything for mentioning her in my blog. I'm simply a fan...and a friend.

My day got even better when Sandra & I got to the hospital and our favorite nurse, Jaime Verlee was working ER. (Sandra missed her Y dinner to be with her man; she's my awesomeness!)

After the 5 minute CT scan, Dr. Williams came in with incredibly positive, almost pumped, body language and tone. "...we even had our specialist in Indy look at your scan already, and your brain is perfect...your brain is beautiful!"

"Doc, I'm seriously going to tweet that."

(At this point Sandra is officially over listening to me recant the doc's quotes...)

He explained that at this age they can see future nastiness like dementia, and other long term brain-related yuckiness and my brain looks awesome. He told me to go back to the gym and keep working hard!

So what happened--why the headache?
It seems that Jaime Verlee was the first to crack the mystery when she asked, "So were you breathing when you were kickin' these reps?" (She knew this from her own workout experience.)

As I reflected on her question, I thought probably not. I was probably holding my breath several times during the 50 reps and my brain told me to stop it, idiot!

Friday, Dave Dubois did a great job of explaining breathing and weights--all great stuff because I'm clueless to this world. Dave & I went on to have a solid 45 minute cardio workout on the elliptical machines. I felt good.

Lesson learned: breath, idiot! ;-)

Posts in this series:
The Tres Hombres are at the YMCA gasping for breath Mon-Fri 4-5pm.

If you want to follow us on the Twitters we're
@morgancafe
@GraphicsKing209 (Chad McCarter)
@DuBeeDuBeeDoo (Dave Dubois)
@peel_nicole (Nicole Peele)

Peace,
   Morgan of the Tres Hombres

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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Occupy the Y: Change Happens Thru...


Humility.

I'm an American. Therefore I think I can do anything I set my mind to. I have American achiever genes, so if I just focus and channel my inner badass, there's nothing I cannot do.

On some level we all believe that. And this is pure crap.

Several months ago I pushed down my pride, and took a bite of a humility sandwich when I walked into Dr. Haendigas's office and confessed that I don't know how to lose weight. I confessed that in this area of my life I am anything but a badass.

Six weeks ago I pushed down some more pride (it gets easier, you know) when I walked into the YMCA with Dave and Chad and we collectively admitted to Nicole Peele that we needed her help.

Every day that I work out there's always a Local Schwarzenegger pushing weight like nobody's business. Or there's a Sandy McNulty racing next to me on the elliptical machine as I pant my way through my slow-to-moderate pace.

It's humbling to pedal half as fast and yet sweat and pant just as much. It's humbling struggling with minimal weights in the same room as the 5' 4" woman lifting more than her own weight over her head. Seriously.

Focusing on your challenges in the gym in the midst of people who are metaphorical miles ahead of you is humbling.

Everyday I willingly go to the Y because Dave, Chad and Nicole will be there and you will be wondering about my next blogpost. And in the company of this team, I am reminded that this not a journey I could do on my own. I need them. I could not do this alone. To realize my need for others is humility.

So what do you want do or change in your life? What new play is stirring in your heart? What do you hope changes between today and your funeral?

Change happens through humility. You can do it...but not alone. You need people who know what you do not. And you need some hombres; some great people to journey with you! In humility, YOU CAN DO IT!


True humility and fear of the LORD
      lead to riches, honor, and long life. 
Proverbs 22:4

Posts in this series:

The Tres Hombres are at the YMCA gasping for breath Mon-Fri 4-5pm.

If you want to follow us on the Twitters we're
@morgancafe
@GraphicsKing209 (Chad McCarter)
@DuBeeDuBeeDoo (Dave Dubois)
@peel_nicole (Nicole Peele)

Peace,
   Morgan of the Tres Hombres
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Monday, February 13, 2012

Occupy the Y wk 6: Belts & Stairs Don't Lie

Posts in this series:

I can barely believe that I'm writing about the beginning of my sixth week of 5 day a week workouts at the Y. (Right now I'm just pausing and trying to keep it together as I'm awash in emotion...)

I am amazed I've come this far. It's feeling normal. I look forward to it most days. I even went out of my way to visit our trainer, Nicole, in her Yankee Candle store the other day. Over the weekend I actually considered working out on one of my days off. I didn't, but the fact I was seriously considering it is insane for me.

It was a good weekend. Several people at Oakbrook commenting that I'm looking better and a friend I hadn't seen since before the Tres Hombres got together said he definitely noticed a difference. And he offered a great line, as George often does, "Belts and stairs don't lie."

So true. You know which notch your belt is in and if it's loose or tight. And after a flight of stairs you know how winded you feel; there's no disguising either of those barometers. Thankfully I'm seeing progress in both of these areas. (Even though Nicole let us out of stairs last Thurs...she may be taking a shine to us--even though she'd never admit it ;-)

Crazily Dave is dropping pounds like F-bombs in Good Will Hunting (19 so far!--lbs not curse words). Ironically I'm not. So I had some blood drawn last week and tomorrow I get to sit down with the good Dr. Haendigas and see what my body's doing. As weight is only one measure of health, she monitors a wide spectrum of data. And even though I'm not dropping much weight these past 5 weeks, my belt and clothes are telling me things are changing for the better. And I'm feeling better than I can remember in a long time. So we'll see.

Last week Chad was lounging around in Mexico on vacation, so it will be nice tomorrow for the Dos Hombres to get back to Tres.

I can't say enough about the power of a team when starting something new, like a workout routine. Accountability in Dave & Chad plus the knowledge of Nicole is an amazing blessing. I could not do this alone. And again, the Y staff is a great group of encouragers!

The Tres Hombres are at the YMCA gasping for breath Mon-Fri 4-5pm.

If you want to follow us on the Twitters we're
@morgancafe
@GraphicsKing209 (Chad McCarter)
@DuBeeDuBeeDoo (Dave Dubois)
Peace,
   Morgan of the Tres Hombres



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Monday, February 6, 2012

Images of Lifechange

Click here to see my photos from our Feb. 5th baptism at Oakbrook Church.


If you're not into Christianity, here are some weird photographs: people dunking friends and family fully clothed in a tank in front of hundreds of onlookers. Baptism.

More weird stuff: it signifies that we've metaphorically died to our self and chosen God to be the fixer of our sins and leader of our life.

Weird continues: up from these waters, we're trying with the Holy Spirit's help to live a life like Jesus. But there's only one Jesus and we ain't It.

We'll still say and do some jackass things. Hopefully we'll do proportionally more Jesus-looking things.

We're trying. God's helping and guiding. This life matters. You matter. And so does that person over there...

"By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive."
1 Corinthians 12:13 The Message

Peace. Only from the Prince of Peace.



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Friday, February 3, 2012

Occupy the Y: Week 4

Posts in this series:
blog 1.19.12
blog 1.23.12

Well after four weeks of working out I posted the above picture because people have had trouble recognizing me. After four weeks at the Y I am totally transformed into a living, breathing hunk of GQ beefcake!

Or not.

This week was tough; partly because a cold that started sneaking in on Monday and is now in full bloom. The achiness of a cold coupled with a workout isn't the best combination. But also Nicole kicked up Tuesday's workout a bit. Not to mention a Monday treadmill workout that was a beast!

But I am noticing some things:

1. Our 10 minute warm ups feel like warm ups. When we started they felt like they were the workout.

2. It now takes me a few minutes before I'm sweating like a dog. It used to be instantaneous like turning a spigot.

3. The elliptical is my friend. It first felt like a torture device. Now it helps me stretch out calf and leg muscles and is somewhat enjoyable.

4. This week I peddled 20 non-stop minutes at various speeds on the stationary bike from Hades. The first time I rode these I thought, "How did they design these tiny seats to be so painfully uncomfortable in every single position?"Yeah I know--20 non-stop minutes doesn't sound amazing, but it's my crucible, nonetheless.

5. I couldn't do this alone. Dave Dubois, Chad McCarter, Nicole Peele, and you keep me going. Yes you. I realize you are reading along and that you are there. You and your anonymous reading are just as real to me as the Dos Hombres & Nicole. Thanks for coming along!

Also the Y staff is pretty awesome and encouraging. There's Paul at the front desk who always calls me by name and asks how I'm doing. Trish Sevrens and Lisa Gauger are always encouraging. Lisa is my unofficial coach who adds value to me via Twitter and in person. Even the staff I don't know smile easily and are very nice. It's a good place to be.

And I'll be there shortly getting in my last cardio workout of the week. Four weeks down and life to go! 

The Tres Hombres are there gasping for breath Mon-Fri 4-5pm.

If you want to follow us on the Twitters we're
@morgancafe
@GraphicsKing209 (Chad McCarter)
@DuBeeDuBeeDoo (Dave Dubois)

Peace,
   Morgan of the Tres Hombres














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