Gaining Momentum

Weight Watchers MomentumGive me the opportunity to do so and I will sing the praises of Weight Watchers to anyone who cares to listen.  I’m not going to rehash my entire Weight Watchers story here, but I firmly believe that the program saved my life in a very literal way.

Weight Watchers has gone through several changes since I started the program.  Heck, there have been a lot of changes since I became aware of the program back when I was a kid (you know, back when if you were following Weight Watchers you had to eat liver every week).  While they haven’t done anything quite that extreme with the latest iteration, they’ve made a few changes that, in my opinion, have really added value to the diet and made it even easier to live with on a day-to-day basis.

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How Gamers In a Relationship Fight

Krystalle: OMG CHIBI WOLVERINE
http://www.joystiq.com/photos/marvel-super-hero-squad/2040025/
me: oh my
WHERE IS CHIBI SPIDER-MAN?!
Krystalle: isn’t he already chibi?
ahem
/hides
me: zomg
RELATIONSHIP BREAKING FIGHT BEGINS NAO
lol
Krystalle: OMG YOU STEAL COVERS!
me: OMG YOU MAKE FUN OF SPIDER-MAN
Krystalle: OMG YOU HAVE MOAR SOAP THAN BATH & BODY WORKS
me: OMG YOU ATE ALL OF MY CREAM PIE YOGURTS
/relationshipquit
Krystalle: QQ
me: I’M SO FLAMING YOU ON THE FORUMS
Krystalle: I don’t go there.
NYAH

Editor’s Note – This is not a serious fight at all. We’re not that bad.

Taking Strides Towards Fitness With The Nintendo DS

Personal Trainer : WalkingI feel like I need to put a disclaimer out before I write this particular post, and so I shall.

Despite appearances to the contrary this site has not been taken over by the Nintendo Fanboy network.

What sparks me to state that before continuing is that I’m about to heap praise on Nintendo yet again for supporting video games that promote health and fitness.  This time, however, they’ve done something that I personally wouldn’t have seen coming.  This new contender in the “getting gamers healthy” game is for the Nintendo DS.

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Getting “Active” With The Wii

EA Sports ActiveIf there is any one console on the market today that has the greatest potential for helping video game fans get in shape it would have to be the Nintendo Wii.  The interactive nature of the motion detecting controllers practically forces you to actually get up and move while playing many of the popular games available on that system (I mean, you COULD sit on the couch while playing Tennis in Wii Sports, but that might just make you a  toolbox).   Nintendo took the fitness potential of the Wii one step further back in 2007 with the release of Wii Fit and the game buying public couldn’t get enough of it.  The game and balance board combination was so popular that one creative individual came up with a website just to track when and where it was available.  Soon similar games followed, including one from fitness expert Jillian Michaels (of The Biggest Loser fame).

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How Big Is Too Big?

Question MarkOn Thursday, May 21st, authorities in Baltimore arrested Jerri Althea Gray and took her son, Alexander Deundray Draper, into protective custody. A warrant was issued for Mrs. Grays arrest in South Carloina on Tuesday after she failed to appear at a court ordered hearing. During that hearing the judge ordered that the boy should be taken into state custody due to medical neglect.

Alexander, you see, weighs 555 pounds.

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On Being Local

With the way things have been going in the economy recently I’ve been thinking a lot about where I spend my money. Specifically, where it goes after I spend it. I’ve been doing a lot of my grocery shopping at Sam’s Club recently, which in the realm of “keeping your dollars local” is about as far off the mark as you can get. I realize that, but I also realize that I have to feed my family and that right now every dollar I spend on groceries has to go as far as it can (I am determined to be out of debt with the exception of my house in the next five years and must stick to my grocery budget).

All of that being said, when I do find the occasion to actually go out and spend some money I’ve had a very strong desire to make sure that it’s going to stay here in the community. When Alex and I went out for lunch a few weeks ago we went to Evo’s, for example. I got a cake earlier today from a place here called Cakes by Carolyn and I’m very excited about the fact that there is a new book store near my house called Books at Park Place that carries a decent selection of gaming, science fiction, and fantasy books.

My desire to do this really makes me wish there was an active St. Petersburg blog and I’m half-tempted to start one myself.

So those of you who live in the ‘burg…tell me…where should I be going?

Different Strokes For Different Folks

Whatchoo Talkin' Bout Willis?We here at ShrinkGeek are not scientists.  We are not doctors.  The closest we come to being official “health experts” would be our resident personal trainer, Rob, and he is the first person who will point out he is not a dietician.  Much of the advice that we give here is based strictly on our own personal experience and the struggles we have had dealing with our own health and fitness issues.  Whether you agree with us or not I can promise that you’ll never see us make a claim or give advice that is in any way based on anything but what we truly believe is the healthiest option available.

Those humble statements aside, it’s really nice to have folks with fancy letters behind their names confirm one of your core beliefs.

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Using Twitter to Track Your Weight

Fail Whale!When I originally started my life of dieting twenty or so years ago the tools I had to help me do so were pretty much limited to a paper journal and a scale.

My how things have changed.

The modern dieter has a plethora of toys, gadgets, and gizmos available to aid in the weight loss process.  There are paid sites like eDiets and Weight Watchers eTools, calorie counting applications you can download for your iPhone or Blackberry, pedometers and heart rate monitors, digital scales, electronic body fat measuring devices….The list goes on and on.

Developer Mark Rickert has decided to add one more tool to the arsenal by creating an application that utilizes everyone’s favorite new social networking service, Twitter, to track your weight online.

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Trials and Tribulations of Telecommuting

Image Courtesy of roland

Image Courtesy of roland

Ah, telecommuting.  That dream within a dream for the working professional.  While most of us are stuck in traffic or trapped behind a cube wall while the person next to us listens to “Come On, Eileen!” for the tenth time the telecommuter is sitting at home, sipping home brewed coffee in their pajamas and basking in the serenity that is home life.

Well, that is how we envision it is, anyway.  The truth of the matter is that working from home, while it has many advantages, is not quite the golden apple that those of us in the cube farms picture it to be.  While the telecommuter may not have to deal with Lundberg face-to-face, he or she has to deal with a whole variety of productivity hurdles that someone in an office is safely isolated from;  Kids, pets, door-to-door salesmen, distracting spouses, telephone solicitors, and the perception that the fact that working from home is not really “working” and as a result you should somehow be expected to drop whatever you are doing at a moments notice to deal with the latest non-work related situation that has cropped up in your life.

There is one other major challenge that the health conscious telecommuter has to deal with.   Staying in shape.  Having just finished a period of over four years in which I was telecommuting about 80% of the time I can assure you that while it is easier to avoid the weekly doughnut trap in the break room there are a whole series of roadblocks to being healthy that appear when you start working from home.  If you find yourself fortunate enough to end up with a telecommuting opportunity there’s a few things you can do to help minimize the negative impact on your physical AND mental well-being.

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When Come Back Bring Pie

Weebl and Bob are copyright j. picking

Weebl and Bob are copyright j. picking

According to Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich there we must all accept that there are certain inalienable truths :  Prices will rise.  Politicians will philander.  You, too, will get old (and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders).

Oh, and Pie is greater than Cake.

Not many people are aware that Ms. Schmich included that in her original column.  Unfortunately that line was omitted from the printed article by a delusional cake loving typesetter named Gladys who worked for the printers.  It’s true.  My wife told me.  My wife….Morgan Fairchild!  Yeah, that’s the ticket!

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