Archive for the ‘General Thoughts’ Category

SMART Goals

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Ever heard of SMART Goals? I’ve seen several variations on the title, but it’s used something like this:



S - Specific
M - Measureable
A - Achievable
R - Relevant
T - Time dimensioned

Most people think of them as important for things like life goals or large projects, but you need to think about them even for your diet.

Many people just don’t realize how important goals like this are. If you really want to lose weight, take some time to develop SMART goals and you’ll find that everything goes smoother.

Just what ARE your SMART Goals?

  • Specific - What EXACTLY do you want to achieve? How much weight loss? What other life changes? Be CONCRETE. Be EXACT.
  • Measurable - How will I know I’ve been successful? How can I tell that I’ve been successful? What milestones have meaning?
  • Achievable - Can I REALLY do this? Is there anything which stands in my way? What obstacles am I likely to face?
  • Relevant - Does this REALLY matter to ME? Am I passionate about this or is this something that I’m expected to do for someone else? If it’s not personally important to me, then I’m probably not going to make it.
  • Time Dimensioned - What’s the deadline? When EXACTLY will I reach my goal weight? When EXACTLY will I reach each milestone?

Don’t take this as a need to build some sort of formal goal structure. That’s not necessary, but some goals even informal ones are important to success.

Once you can clearly see your goal and you know that you’re passionate about it, you know that it’s really achievable, then get to work and make it happen!

Posted in Diets, General Thoughts | No Comments »

Moving in the next week

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

I’ll be moving in the next week, so there will likely be some interruption in my posting schedule. I’ll try to get some posts ready to go, but no promises.

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Take a look at my other blogs

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

If you find this interesting, try these

  • Writing for Techies - my collected notes and thoughts on writing, speaking, and communicating in general
  • Antennas, Modeling, and More - Antennas, Propagation, and Low Power operation are my interests in Amateur Radio. Here is where I talk about them
  • Customer Facing Systems - I’ve spent much of my career building and running systems that interact with customers. Here is the collected insight I’ve gained
  • In2SciFi - My personal thoughts on a wide range of topics originally driven as a

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SPAM is Amazing

Friday, January 16th, 2009

Since I started this blog, I’ve been trapping spam and rejecting it before it gets posted. I’m amazed at how much there is targeting blogs like this one. There is no discrimination, no attempt to get it to any sort of right place. Further, there is no apparent concern that it doesn’t get posted, just that it gets submitted. It’s hard to believe someone pays for this stuff, but obviously they do.

I’ve got to ask myself WHY? Why would someone PAY to have someone do this?

The stuff they’re trying to post isn’t just ’spam’, it’s junk. There’s no relation to the topic, just get some links out there. The worst ones are the ones that are trying to social engineer by posting something that LOOKS OK superficially. They have embedded links to questionable locations that have nothing to do with the topic or the words in the post.

So why? It’s simple really. People are making money at it. In fact, people are making millions of dollars doing this.

Posted in General Thoughts | 1 Comment »

Weight Loss Surgery & Cancer

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

A recent posting relating obesity to cancer interested me in it’s suggestion that weight loss surgery (WLS) might very well contribute to reducing the risk of cancer.

To quote “A recent study by Dr. Nicolas Christou of McGill University suggests that weight loss surgery for obese patients in particular lowered the risk of developing cancer by as much as 80 percent.” His paper was presented to the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (the professional organization for Bariatric Surgeons) in June.

He points out that there is a direct relationship between morbid obesity and cancer that WLS reduces.

I looked up Dr. Christou who specializes in laparoscopic weight loss surgery and has an impressive set of credentials and publications. If you can’t control your weight with diet, this is certainly something you should consider. The risks are still high and the necessity to drastically change your lifestyle is still there, but it may extend your life.

Posted in General Thoughts, WLS, obesity | 2 Comments »

Surgical Weight Loss

Monday, November 10th, 2008

I recently asked about a friend who intended to have surgery to lose weight (Bariatric Surgery). I was surprised to find that he won’t be getting it because it was decided that he wasn’t a good risk for it. He HAD lost weight on Nutrisystems (I understand about 50 pounds) but dropped the program. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I think I’d advise him to get back on the diet.

I’ve worked with several companies in the industries around Bariatric Surgery. While this is a very good and effective procedure and really helps some people, many people who are considering it just don’t realize how much of a change in their lifestyle it’s going to make. Too many people considering surgery seem to think that it’s magic and will let them lose the weight without any effort. Let me say right away that it just isn’t so.

I’ve known a lot of people who’ve had surgery and it’s tough. Anyone who has lost weight by this means and kept it off deserves every bit of praise you can give them because they’ve made radical changes in their lifestyle. Weight Loss Surgery is a last resort and should be because it’s a major intervention in your body, but more than that, it’s not a magic bullet that will automatically make you lose weight and keep it off. The people I know who’ve had it have struggled to create new lives for themselves, lives that change their habits in ways that help them keep their weight down. It involves more than just changing eating patterns, though that’s a major part of it; it means living with a special diet, it means coping with massive weight loss, it means the need for plastic surgery if you want to look half-way decent, it means coping with problems you never expected, it means many things will have to change for you to be a continuing and not a fleeting success.

My hat goes off to anyone who has accomplished all of that. I’m not brave enough to do it.

Posted in General Thoughts, WLS, obesity | No Comments »

Let’s get started

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

I’m not going to say who I am, just that I’m overweight, embarrassed about it, and trying to do something about it.

I’ve been large all my life, but several weeks ago I was 403 pounds at the doctor’s office. I decided to lose it. I’m also an adult onset diabetic with sleep apnea. I’ve got enough trouble, I need to lose weight.

The only diet I ever was successful on was NutriSystems, so I’ve elected to try it again. I’m going to discuss my thoughts and feelings here just to get them off my chest. If no one ever finds this, I won’t worry about it.

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I’m trying MarsEdit

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

I recently ran across a reference to a software package called ‘MarsEdit‘ which is an offline editor for blogs. I’ve downloaded it and I’m going to try it for the 30-day trial. I’ll be tracking it on my Writing blog, so if you’re interested, drop by to follow along on what I’m finding.

NOTE: MarsEdit is for MAC OSX only, it won’t work on Windows. But this is about more than just using a Mac version of something, I’m interested in the good and bad of using an offline editor overall. If I find something for Windows or Linux that appears as good, I’ll probably setup a trial of that software as well.

Posted in General Thoughts | 1 Comment »