Healy Arms

Well CW check-in crew - I made it back to the workout room - that was bittersweet Might as well put it out there - here's the unvarnished truth: Not horrible - not great. Lungs need some endurance (okay... lots of endurance). Strength was pretty good until you added large muscle cardio along with it - then my train derailed quickly. If only I could go back to my days of bench press "sets" - I'd be doing fine. Weighed in 15lbs heavier than my last weigh in - might have been February. A blubbery 217.6 and a hefty BMI of 32 - yeah yeah yeah the big O (nothing like my 246 lbs of days past, but still gross). I have work to do - I have the time to do it - I'm not starting from zero and I'm glad to be back at it - I will talk to you all in a week.

Thank you sir - definitely a different format from the other shops - we're looking forward to giving the space a new & improved reputation.

Okay - I'm back and ready to start checking in again. Business got in the way for awhile - but the posts you made kept me motivated to get back as soon as my commitments were handled. I had take a hiatus and get laser focused, work the long hours and get the new HEALY store opened up. CLICK HERE to see the Coues Whitetail Campfire post I was still working out, but not with the intensity and regularity I had been. I'm ready to get after it again. My training buddies can finally stop busting my chops too. See y'all right here tomorrow. Mark Healy

Most appreciated - see you there

LOL - so true - I was a policeman in Tempe. I darn well knew bureaucratic mess I was getting into and did it anyway. In the end it was good. I reconnected with friends in several city departments.

Hopped back in the new year with a 2015 hit-it-hard week one and promptly injured my lower back - crap! - doing a weighted vest uphill climb and sandbag situps. Whatever. Temp setback. I'll figure out a workaround. Now that I've lived life before & after lung conditioning I have become a cardio-aholic and need my fix. I will find a way to keep going.

2015 Check In - Jan 2nd - Time to get going... I took the month of December off from the eating clean regimen and just enjoyed all of the foods the holiday gatherings presented. Mexican food, beef roasts, starchy carbs, buttered vegetables, smoked pork, cheesecake, craft beers and all the rest. The only thing I really watched was the quantity. Fantastic month with friends & family, but my clothes feel a bit tighter - not too bad (I didn't go up a size) but not exactly good either. December workout schedule was hampered a bit too with a screwed-up schedule. The holidays are officially gone and it's time to get back on the wagon. Time for a quick-change turnaround from the holiday excess and work hard for more long-term progress. I can say with certainty that I feel better and can workout & hunt harder when my diet is more in the meat & produce area and workouts happen with near-perfect regularity. I worked my tail off over the last year, kept the plan intense/simple, and it's been an absolute night and day difference in the field. I'm ready for more of that. To the Coues Whitetail folks that made positive changes to your health & fitness in 2014 - kudos. Let's do it again and let's bring a friend along for the ride. Speaking of bring-a-friend, the guy who told me he was ready to make a 2015 change made an excuse this morning and no-showed - LOL. No worries we'll get him to take the first step tomorrow or the next day and start checking in right here.

Why no cardio?

Yes - we're typically closed on Sunday, but not today. If you're looking for the right gift at the right price, we have lots of rifles, handguns and plenty of ammo & accessory stocking stuffers. There are some solid deals in the Pre-Owned guns too. From gently used to never fired guns that came in on trade, this is a good place to save a few bucks.

Funny - we've scanned the letter 3 times and can't find the bullet point for having firearm(s) and sufficient ammunition. One would think that with very high probability that ALL of the police officers will be 100% busy, they might mention the need for self-defense measures.

When I shop in the produce section and the butcher shop I make workout gains and lose weight. When I stray to the prepackaged food aisles and trip & fall in the beer cooler I don't. Pretty easy really. Most of the time anyway. lol

Great week. Tuned up the heat on the workouts even more - clean eating (except while at the ASU game - man oh man was that a good time). Showing a little over a pound lost on the scale, but the clothes are getting bigger by the day. It will be a fine, fine day when I donate the 34" stuff. Tested the 1000 foot vertical time - got it down to 15:40. 41 seconds from the goal. 3000 vertical is easily/consistently under an hour now at around 54:00. Hundreds of situps. Hundreds of pushups, squats, burpees, presses, etc. etc. Solid week of work & progress.

Fixed the not-so-great eating a week ago. Back on the meat & vegetable wagon, down almost 2lbs and refocused. Still working out like a machine. I'll be starting 2-a-days in the near future as my hunt nears. I wish I'd had this kind of workout tenacity in my 30's. Heck - I just might start 2-a-days tonight. By the way - it's amazing how fast simple carbs and insulin spikes halt weight loss progress. Grinds you to halt in one meal.

Monday night - still sitting at ~203 from my vacation indulgence. I'm back on a strict eating plan now. Not so much last week. Business lunches at the Mexican food joints are not slimming. The positive side: I can eat almost whatever now and not gain. The negative side: I want to get back on the BMI ideal area so I can't stay in one spot and make that goal. Workouts are still 5 or 6 days a week - religiously. That's definitely paid off in the cardio arena. I'm right at 30 days to elk season. Let's see how eating clean, clean, clean - no beer and no BS processed food - for 30 days cuts weight.

So... I'm reading the post by MT. CAT in the "Potential Realized Training" thread and get to the point where he talks about "I had no idea I had that much fat to lose" and a light goes on. That is a common theme in the gun shop. Now that I have personally lost enough walrus blubber for it to be readily noticeable (not the one-eyebrow up with the question, have you lost a few - but the real hey, you look a lot better. Your gut was getting huge) the conversations centered around "I need to lose a few" have been a near daily occurrence. America has gotten fat. So not a day goes by that someone in my sphere of influence couldn't stand to "lose a few". When I finally said enough is enough and realized I was quickly becoming comparable to a beach ball with feet, I went to my doctor. I told him I was ready for a physical and a life change with my weight. I was 44 years old, 5'9" and 245lbs. The physical & blood work surprisingly came back pretty good, but he assured me that would be short-lived if I didn't cut weight and change my eating habits. Which led to the question - Doc, how much do I need to lose? Knowing I'd need a visual, he handed me a Body Mass Index or BMI chart and said here is a good gauge for you to set some real goals with. Here is a picture of the chart. Of course he's a marathoner and a lean 65 year-old jogging machine. But I know that only silly people run for fun so I take this obvious affront casually at first. I'm looking at a chart that says I should be between 160 and 169 on the HIGH end and immediately think BMI is just a guideline right? BMI must be outdated right? 165? Surely not. So I say to the doctor - uhm... are these numbers accurate? Do I need to be shooting for 165? And he bluntly says - YES. He adds that if I were in the mid 170's I would be just fine, but I should shoot for 160-165 and let's see what happens. I say to him - I was thinkin' I need to lose 30-40 pounds. He tells me - yeah, that'll be a good start, but if you lose 30 you will STILL be obese. Still?? I thought, holy moly he just used the O word. I can't be! But, there it is. In black-n-white right in front of me. Being the quick thinking type that I am, I begin to defend my idea of 30-40 lbs and question the Body Mass Index validity. He's obviously heard this line of tripe before and shoots my balloon out of the sky immediately. The Doc says - you need to go look at photos of American men in the 1950's and 1960's. A man back then who was 5'9" tall was overweight at 180lbs and that has NOT changed. There are some VERY NARROW exceptions to BMI based on body frame and muscularity, but if you get to 180 and you're so dang huge that you're ripped to shreds, let me know 'cause I'd like to see it. He added - you need to understand that the idea of "being fat" in America has changed as we've gotten way, way, way too fat. Clothes have gotten larger and the tag that should say XL or XXL now have a tag that says Large. He called it "vanity sizing" and said we glorify being super-fat with brands like Big Dogs which he said makes obese pre-diabetic men feel like super-studs. He summarized - BMI still applies in 2014 and every ounce of fat you choose to keep is an ounce of fat working against you when you hunt, swim, exercise, play with your son, etc. etc. Just because you don't WANT it to apply doesn't matter - it does. To say the least, it was an eye opener. So I look back at photos of my grandfather in his late 30's and early 40's and the Doc was right. He was 5'8" tall not an ounce over 145 - a lean and muscular pit miner from Globe - certainly not starving as we might say if a man is 5'8" and 145 today. Then I get out a photo of me graduating from police motorcycle school - there I am at 175 - looking nothing like the 245 beach ball status I had attained. The evidence is in and the Doc is right. I need to lose at least 75 pounds. That's reality. Period. The reason I bring this up is to shed some light on what a healthy weight actually is. I've talked to plenty of BMI deniers since I've taken this project on. Big guys that need to lose 70-100lbs who say "I'd like to lose 20 or maybe 30 pounds". If I know them well I will challenge that notion and work on a more real perspective of where they need to be so they can set a goal. If I don't know them well I leave it alone because 20 or 30 is a darn fine start anyway. I've chosen a one-year path to lose the 75lbs. I amped up my exercise routine and have done a lot over time to clean up my eating and drinking regimen. I did NOT make drastic food changes right away that resulted in huge weight loss. Rather I made smaller changes that both gave results and that I could sustain forever. I've lost 38lbs and I'm happy to share with anyone who wants to know what I'm doing. In the meantime, best of luck to all who begin the journey. I hope this information helps. And remember - they won't tell you when you're way too fat until you lose it and then they'll tell you how they couldn't believe you'd gotten that big. LOL Here's to huntin' light!!

It was time to test my program & progress in a real-world setting. Took my pack, filled it to right at 50lbs and hit the hills Sunday and Monday at 5500 to 6000+ feet of elevation. I tried my 10 months of workouts and blubber loss against the hills. Boom - No Problem. No stopping. No dropping a lung. It didn't matter what the terrain was like. Ducking under & around trees didn't matter. A night and day difference. This year's hunting will be great. Next year will be even better. Steady progress. I need to do a thread called "The Skinny Fat Guy". One of the guys we had with us is a little too quick to remind me that he's height/weight proportionate and stays that way without a fitness regimen. After the smack talking, he got schooled on fitness yesterday. I felt bad for him sucking wind until I realized it was a self-inflicted situation. Been there. It was his turn.

I'm calling this check in "The Power of Food" I went on a week's vacation to Vancouver Island and gave myself an open ticket to eat and drink anything I wanted. Net gain in weight: 2.5lbs - not bad considering the caloric intake, the sugary deserts, the beer, fish cooked in butter, the burgers, the fried food, etc. That would have been a 8-10lb gain without good metabolism. However! Note to self: never do that again. My time in the gym this morning nearly felt like week number one when I got back on track several months ago. Out of energy. Out of breath. Same circuit training stuff from the week before vacation, just ZERO go power. Good Lord.. Fortunately I'll bounce right back with a natural food detox and extra extra treadmill time. Cheat day occasionally - YES Cheat Week - NO - worst idea in a long time

Dropped off a pile of clothes for Goodwill yesterday. With the current condition of American humans I'm sure there's a full-figured 36/38 inch waist guy who can use them. 200.4 today - that's a full 45lb loss from the starting point. As of this morning I officially get to leave this thing behind. I'm curious how much actual fat I lost. I'm sure it's more than 45, I just never did the dunk thing to know for certain. One more 35lb plate to go and I'll be all the way back. I'll definitely have another 15 off by December 1st. As for my friends (some of them reading here) who tell me "you'll be too skinny" . Whatever - we'll see. I strongly believe that's incorrect.

That'll keep a man motivated. Shed it like you mean it.

I think it's time to donate some old camo. It might keep me from creeping backwards if I have the buy the big stuff again.

I'm staying at 202 - 203 and getting thinner. Eating is back on track and my clothes keep getting magically larger and my face is shrinking - but the scale is not budging. Not to worry. It will. My workouts are intense and have stayed the same. Now I've added uphill hiking on an incline treadmill a few days a week (I live in the middle of flat lander ville, so I have to find other methods to get elk country training). At least with an incline-hiker machine I can get a continuous or widely varied uphill for as long as I need to meet a training requirement. Here's a typical one-hour incline hiker session - 2600+ vertical rise, approx 2.7 miles and 1000 calories in the dustbin. I like the ability to track progress with a machine. When I weighed 240-245 I used to take 22 to 24 minutes to do a 1000 vertical foot stress test. I've worked that down to 16:05 and hope to see 14:59 or lower before my hunt. The MOST important thing with the incline machines is NO holding the bar at the top of the machine. Let your arms, legs and back move like you would on a hunt. Nature doesn't have handrails. I see people holding the top bar all the time, effectively taking the incline out of the exercise. Makes you feel like a stud but doesn't do much. I remind myself to keep it as close to hunting as possible and use lots of muscle groups. It's been a good year. I'm glad I finally started.

Very cool - people are coming in the shop talking about fitness, weight loss, terrain in the units they drew and it all started with this Hunting Fitness forum. There are two guys at the gun counter right now chatting about eating changes they've made and getting extra exercise in for their upcoming hunts.

Totally forgot to weight in this morning, but everything is fitting about the same so I'm guessing all is good. Worked out like a champ the past 3 days to make up for some family birthday dinners that MIGHT have included cheesy & delicious Mexican food. Went to the doctor for a 90day follow-up visit last week on Wednesday. The "official" read on his scale was 204. He's not much for mincing words. I got the "well you've really come a long way - nice progress - you're still very overweight. You'll get there." Dang! Smacked on the forehead. I just smile-n-nod. He's right - I'll get there. Should have NEVER gone over 200. Alas - it's fixable. I know why he's staying on me to complete the project. If I want to keep hunting for the next several years I must consider the following: "Being only 10 pounds overweight increases the force on the knee by 30-60 pounds with each step." Read more here: http://www.hopkinsarthritis.org/patient-corner/disease-management/role-of-body-weight-in-osteoarthritis/

LOL - I can hear it now. "holy moly... I can do this. Where did I put week one? Ok, there it is. We're good. Moving forward." I know what you're talking about and that's a truckload of willpower. Good on ya.

Well... Down about a single pound - just under 202. I'm sensing a trend here - lol That works for me. A pound-ish a week will eventually make me a thin hunter. And I get to do it while eating regular food - differently than I used to - but normal stuff. I had 5 baby back ribs and a potato last night. I can't do that every night but it's game on in moderation. Wearing shorts to work this morning that NEVER would have fit a month ago. That's the progress I'm seeking - a little that lasts.