I'm getting a bunch of people together for a Biggest Loser challenge at work. The goal, to lose the biggest PERCENTAGE of weight. Winner gets a cash prize. I didn't want it to be all about the money though, and wanted to create a community of accountability, and so instead of just starting the competition and letting them go their own way, I'm scheduling weekly lunches to get together and talk, share ideas, tips, etc. Afterwards I send out an email to the group with notes I prepared and additional information gathered from the meeting. Here is email #1, in hopes it can help some of you:
There are many tools to connect with and help you on your journey. A site I showed the group today, and that I personally use is called www.DailyBurn.com. It’s a GREAT and FREE site (with a paid “Pro” added content version as well if you choose), that has MANY amazing things to help you with your goals, meal planner, daily intake, calorie counter, etc.
Tips:
1. We all know that watching your caloric intake is the biggest part to losing weight, but you also need to REALLY pay attention to your salt/sodium intake! A trainer once told me to focus on keeping it around 600-ish mg’s of sodium per meal…so around 1800-ish mg’s a day.
2. Healthy snacks, and snacks to curb your appetite are hard to find, as we all like and don’t like various things. Try unsalted almonds. Just 12 of those will curb hunger. Also, for late night snacking, if you absolutely need something, drink a large glass of milk! It gives you nutrients, healthy calories, and coats your stomach and thus tames down the stomach acid that may be churning and making you feel hungry. Protein Bars are good once in a while too.
3. Make sure you are drinking enough water. Dehydration feels the same as hunger pangs, so make sure you take assessment of how much water you’ve had, before going for your healthy snack.
4. Chew gum or ice if you are wanting food but know you don’t need it. The act of chewing may help curb your desire to eat something.
5. “Healthy shakes” (ie: Smoothie King) are actually not very good for you. Sure, they give you lots of vitamins, etc, but they are almost always LOADED with sugar.
6. Sugar is OKAY…not sugar in the form of packets of sugar, etc…but natural sugar in foods (ie: fruit, etc) is OKAY right now in your diet, because again, caloric intake is the highest thing to be aware of (followed by sodium/salt).
7. Do whatever you can to workout. Just by changing how you eat you will drop weight, but adding any sort of workout at all, will DRASTICALLY help! We all have favorite shows we watch at night (*cough* Biggest Loser is on tonight…GREAT motivation! *cough*), so try walking/jogging in place, or doing jumping jacks, etc, during commercials.
8. You’ve heard to not eat after a certain hour at night, well that’s kind of true. You should not eat four hours before you go to bed…or better yet, don’t eat bad if you know you are going to do nothing the rest of the night.
9. Try eating reverse sized meals…instead of eating a small breakfast, larger lunch, and then big dinner, eat the reverse…big breakfast, normal lunch, smaller dinner. That way you have a better chance at burning more calories that you’ve eaten throughout the day.
10. Focus on having at least 5-6 meals a day…your normal meals, and then a small snack between meals (maybe a hard-boiled egg, unsalted almonds, etc…something more protein based…or some fruit). A protein shake is a great meal-replacement, or snack. You can get the ready-made stuff you just pour, or can save money and buy the large bags of powder you just mix with water/milk. Great over ice!
11. KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL!!! How can you TRULY tell how well you’ve been eating if you can’t sit down and look at actual numbers. Sure that meal may have been small, but how many calories was in that steak…those fries…etc. There are many paper/online methods.
12. I subscribe to Runner’s World’s, “Daily Motivation” emails. It’s a daily quick sentence or two to help motivate. There are many sites like this, and many apps I’ve seen on the iPhone for this type of thing as well.
Software:
iPod Touch/iPhone users: There is a free app for the DailyBurn site, as well as a cheap app called “FoodScanner”, where you can scan the barcode on the food you’re eating and it automatically adds it to food journal for the day. This then syncs to your DailyBurn.com account, for an easy one-stop-shop website to track how you’re doing. If the food you’re eating doesn’t come up, you can input the information manually on the app, and then when you save it, it’s there for you and anyone else who comes across that food in the future!
Windows Mobile/Palm/Blackberry users: Sorry, I didn’t have enough time to find something for you, but I do know that DailyBurn was at least in the process of getting apps for your platform as well! If you know of any kind of app, let us know!
So there you have it. That was what we talked about this first meeting, and we didn’t even get to the real parts I wanted to. Each Tuesday we’ll meet and go over our victories/struggles we had for the week (if you so choose to), discuss things we’ve found that could help others (using Ms Dash spices vs salt – they have 10+ kinds of Ms Dash…Garlic, Onion, Chipotle, Lemon, etc), and other things that might help us. Even though this is a competition to find the Biggest Loser of the company, "we’re all in this together" (thank you High School Musical), and I want to see us ALL succeed! I have things planned for individual/team competitions throughout these three months, so I hope you’re excited and ready to lose with me.
And lastly, please spend time with the Father, as well as keep all of us in prayer. Being totally honest here…food has always been my “drug”, and for those like me, we all know that food is just as addictive as smoking, drugs, etc. So, let’s cover each other, and keep Satan at bay, so that we can give ALL the glory to the Father and show the world what He’s done through us, and how He’s broken these chains!
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Find out where your space is being used!
This article on LifeHacker shows an app called "FolderSize" (Windows only). It's an app that you run on your pc and it lets you know what folders are using big chunks of your hard drive. You download the file, unzip it, run the .exe and then tell it to scan whatever drive you want (ex: C:\) and hit "Go", and viola...a visual display of where your hard drive space is being used. Thought I'd share this for my technology peeps.
http://lifehacker.com/5386811/foldersize-displays-whats-eating-your-hard-drive-space
http://lifehacker.com/5386811/foldersize-displays-whats-eating-your-hard-drive-space
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Easy like Saturday morning
Wakin' up on a Saturday morning and not having to immediately run somewhere to do something is such a beautiful thing. Now, couple that with waking up and getting to take a shower, wake up a little, pay some bills, have money leftover, then sit down to blog, finding College Gameday is in Austin at UT broadcasting, and then to top it off, finding that my internet provider now offers ESPN360 online...WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY!!! UGH! I don't know how it can get any better! Seriously! I am in such a great mood right now! Today will be a good day. Here's what my day will consist of:
Head to get B's iPhone and take our phones to get the Invisible Shield put on them.
Head to said kiosk and while our phones are getting the I.S. put on them, will hav some lunch with friends Don & Mercy.
Head to a birthday party for one of Braden's friends, and hang out with our friends Lance & Jennifer while the party goes on.
Come home, and hope the Iowa game isn't blacked out, so that I can watch it on earlier mentioned ESPN360 online.
Hang out with the Mrs when she gets home from work, and maybe watch "Rocketman", one of Avery's favorite movies.
Good times all...good times.
So, what's new with me lately?
Picked up the new iPhone 3GS this past week. To go from the original 2G, to the 3GS is an insane upgrade. For those of you that have a 3G, and are deciding on upgrading to the 3GS, the only real difference is the added video camera option, just a slightly better camera, and a slightly faster processor (and more ram). So it's not such a huge upgrade like going from the old 2G. I went with the 32GB version, as it just made sense for me, since I wanted to have most of my music collection on it as well as having room for the many apps I plan to add throughout it's lifetime.
Next weekend, I'm heading up to Minnesota, to go on the annual Roos Men Fishing Trip. I haven't been able to go in four years since we moved down here, but B decided to give me one of the best birthday gifts ever (and one I wouldn't mind every year, ha!), and bought me a plane ticket so I could go this year. It's such a fun trip and one that creates many memories for us guys. All we do is fish, play poker, and have some beers, but we get to just "guy out" and hang out for a few days. GO LAKE! GO FISH!
The boys started their official baseball season this past week, and both played two games. Avery's team (the Pirates) is 2-0, and Braden's (the Rangers) is 1-1. This is Braden's first year playing any sport, and while he was apprehensive at first, he's starting to feel comfortable and opening up when it's time to play. He's really liking it, and it's so much fun watching them learn how to play. He usually plays right field, 3B or Catcher. Avery played 3B all year last year, but the coach really likes him anywhere he can get him to play, since he feels comfortable in his skills at any position. He mostly plays SS, but has played CF a lot this season as well. Even a little catcher also. It's so much fun watching him play, because he just gets it. He seems to barely need any real coaching. The other kids are too young to tell how they could be in sports, but Avery has a real chance and playing far, so I pray he keeps his mind on the straight and narrow, God in his heart, out of trouble, and listens to his parents and coaches.
J is taking the season off, so she's really helping us watch Evan while we watch the boys play sports. She likes to watch them too, but really only when they're batting, since it's just too slow of a sport for her to sit and watch. And if it's hard for her to watch, then you KNOW it's hard for Evan to watch. ;) So, she'll take him to the nearby playground, or an open baseball field next to the one we're usually on, and let him run. We can keep an eye on them, but she can be the hands on close by.
Other than that, we're just trying to work as much as we can, to save up for B's surgery in January, relax as hard as we can when we have down time, and enjoy each other's company as much as we can, since we're on the go most of the time during the baseball seasons.
One last update, two weekends ago, I was having some really bad chest pains. I figured I just had some muscle pull, but planned to see the Dr on Monday if it still hurt. By then, the pain went away. Then this past weekend the pain came back. I went to the Dr and he said it was some inflammation called "Pleurisy", which was in the muscle to the right of my sternum. He gave me some anti-inflammatories and told me to come back in a couple weeks if it's still there. Fast forward two days later, and five uses of said medicine, and it was worse to the point where it felt I was being stabbed in the chest. I couldn't move to get comfortable, was getting worried something else was wrong, and so I drove myself to the ER. I never had any physical pain where I could push on my chest and it would hurt, but I had a few spots where I could push and it would lessen the pain when I would have the flare-ups or when I coughed. However, the nurse was pushing on my chest and hit a spot where I did have some pain that I must not have known about, and it sent me through the roof, screaming in pain. They then ran bloodwork, got chest x-rays, and found that all tests were negative for heart issues, white blood cell counts, etc. He found that it's ANOTHER inflammation called "Costeochondritis", which is inflammation of the upper sternum and cartilage. So, they gave me an IV, pumped me full of steroids, high-dose anti-inflammatory, and some pain meds. After an hour, my pain which was at a 10, was down to a manageable 7. By the time I woke up in the morning, it was down to a 5, and has been better since. I'm still tender on my chest, and the pain shoots up once in a while, but it's way better than it was, and I feel I'm almost done with this now that it's been another couple days. Whew. Crazy stuff our bodies can do, the pain it can give us, but how awesome our bodies are when they heal.
Thank you all for who prayed for me this past week.
It's time to get moving, and go get some Invisible Shields put on! GIDDYUP!
Have a blessed week, y'all!
Head to get B's iPhone and take our phones to get the Invisible Shield put on them.
Head to said kiosk and while our phones are getting the I.S. put on them, will hav some lunch with friends Don & Mercy.
Head to a birthday party for one of Braden's friends, and hang out with our friends Lance & Jennifer while the party goes on.
Come home, and hope the Iowa game isn't blacked out, so that I can watch it on earlier mentioned ESPN360 online.
Hang out with the Mrs when she gets home from work, and maybe watch "Rocketman", one of Avery's favorite movies.
Good times all...good times.
So, what's new with me lately?
Picked up the new iPhone 3GS this past week. To go from the original 2G, to the 3GS is an insane upgrade. For those of you that have a 3G, and are deciding on upgrading to the 3GS, the only real difference is the added video camera option, just a slightly better camera, and a slightly faster processor (and more ram). So it's not such a huge upgrade like going from the old 2G. I went with the 32GB version, as it just made sense for me, since I wanted to have most of my music collection on it as well as having room for the many apps I plan to add throughout it's lifetime.
Next weekend, I'm heading up to Minnesota, to go on the annual Roos Men Fishing Trip. I haven't been able to go in four years since we moved down here, but B decided to give me one of the best birthday gifts ever (and one I wouldn't mind every year, ha!), and bought me a plane ticket so I could go this year. It's such a fun trip and one that creates many memories for us guys. All we do is fish, play poker, and have some beers, but we get to just "guy out" and hang out for a few days. GO LAKE! GO FISH!
The boys started their official baseball season this past week, and both played two games. Avery's team (the Pirates) is 2-0, and Braden's (the Rangers) is 1-1. This is Braden's first year playing any sport, and while he was apprehensive at first, he's starting to feel comfortable and opening up when it's time to play. He's really liking it, and it's so much fun watching them learn how to play. He usually plays right field, 3B or Catcher. Avery played 3B all year last year, but the coach really likes him anywhere he can get him to play, since he feels comfortable in his skills at any position. He mostly plays SS, but has played CF a lot this season as well. Even a little catcher also. It's so much fun watching him play, because he just gets it. He seems to barely need any real coaching. The other kids are too young to tell how they could be in sports, but Avery has a real chance and playing far, so I pray he keeps his mind on the straight and narrow, God in his heart, out of trouble, and listens to his parents and coaches.
J is taking the season off, so she's really helping us watch Evan while we watch the boys play sports. She likes to watch them too, but really only when they're batting, since it's just too slow of a sport for her to sit and watch. And if it's hard for her to watch, then you KNOW it's hard for Evan to watch. ;) So, she'll take him to the nearby playground, or an open baseball field next to the one we're usually on, and let him run. We can keep an eye on them, but she can be the hands on close by.
Other than that, we're just trying to work as much as we can, to save up for B's surgery in January, relax as hard as we can when we have down time, and enjoy each other's company as much as we can, since we're on the go most of the time during the baseball seasons.
One last update, two weekends ago, I was having some really bad chest pains. I figured I just had some muscle pull, but planned to see the Dr on Monday if it still hurt. By then, the pain went away. Then this past weekend the pain came back. I went to the Dr and he said it was some inflammation called "Pleurisy", which was in the muscle to the right of my sternum. He gave me some anti-inflammatories and told me to come back in a couple weeks if it's still there. Fast forward two days later, and five uses of said medicine, and it was worse to the point where it felt I was being stabbed in the chest. I couldn't move to get comfortable, was getting worried something else was wrong, and so I drove myself to the ER. I never had any physical pain where I could push on my chest and it would hurt, but I had a few spots where I could push and it would lessen the pain when I would have the flare-ups or when I coughed. However, the nurse was pushing on my chest and hit a spot where I did have some pain that I must not have known about, and it sent me through the roof, screaming in pain. They then ran bloodwork, got chest x-rays, and found that all tests were negative for heart issues, white blood cell counts, etc. He found that it's ANOTHER inflammation called "Costeochondritis", which is inflammation of the upper sternum and cartilage. So, they gave me an IV, pumped me full of steroids, high-dose anti-inflammatory, and some pain meds. After an hour, my pain which was at a 10, was down to a manageable 7. By the time I woke up in the morning, it was down to a 5, and has been better since. I'm still tender on my chest, and the pain shoots up once in a while, but it's way better than it was, and I feel I'm almost done with this now that it's been another couple days. Whew. Crazy stuff our bodies can do, the pain it can give us, but how awesome our bodies are when they heal.
Thank you all for who prayed for me this past week.
It's time to get moving, and go get some Invisible Shields put on! GIDDYUP!
Have a blessed week, y'all!
Friday, February 06, 2009
Fences for Windows
For people who have a lot of icons on their desktop, or want to just clean up what they have and put them into logical categories without having to spend a lot of time...I present "Fences" for Windows. A SWEET app I came across on lifehacker. Here is a link to check out Fences. It's a free app, so you have nothing to hold you back...unless you don't use Windows.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Fring
Since I got my BlackJack2 in January, I've been looking for ways to make it as sweet as it can be. I've added the standards like Google Maps (w/ FREE integrated GPS), a few games, Opera Mini (since mobile IE is a piece of crap), etc. The only thing I didn't like and refused to use until now, was any sort of IM capabilities. My old Blackberry 7100i (and any Berry for that matter) had integrated IM (or downloadable widgets) that worked FLAWLESSLY. For the BJ2, not so much. That was until I stumbled upon Fring! What an amazing app! If you have Windows Mobile, you NEED to get this app (unless you have something better). It's a multi-IM client app, so you put in your info for whatever apps you use (and that it supports - which seem to be all the major ones), and then all your contacts are in one list! The nicest feature besides that, is the tabbed IM sessions at the bottom of the screen which are EASILY accessed even for a non-touch screen phone like the BJ2 has. I HIGHLY recommend this app for any mobile phones that can use data programs such as this. Head out and d/l it asap if you want IM capabilities easier than what you currently have!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Google Chrome initial thoughts
Okay, I've had Chrome installed for about 20 minutes, and absolutely love it. If nothing else, the biggest reason to use it is that if one tab crashes, you can close that one tab and not affect the rest of your browsing sessions. Also, it has a task manager-like console where you can see what tabs are using a ton of resources if your pc is running slow. HUGE thumbs up again to the peeps at Google!
Google Chrome
I'm watching the live demonstration/presentation of the new internet browser by Google, called "Chrome". The live demo can be seen here. I'm very peaked at Chrome, because it's done by Google. I haven't found one product by Google that isn't worth a good look and from what I'm seeing on this presentation, this product is no different. It's being released later today from what I've heard. When I find a link, I'll throw it on here.
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