December 29, 2008 at 9:24 pm · Filed under About, Featured, Fitness and Exercise, Personal Goals
Yes, it happened.
Again.
Right as I got motivated to resurrect this blog, the very act of trying to change my life got in the way of writing about it. I suspect that’s why Jesus had all those other people write his story (aside from, well, most of it being fiction or loose tales and rambling rumors tied together in to something that, if you don’t read too closely, makes some kind of sense). But, hey, dude’s got 2006 years of success over this blog, so I won’t knock it too much.
Anyway, I’m back.
First goal: a redesign of the site, using as much of a pre-fab theme as possible.
Second goal: actually write something of interest.
Third goal: lose another 10 pounds, run a marathon in June or so, and write about that and other stuff on a regular basis.
That photo is where I am right now, except in real life I’m usually in focus, depending on how many beers I’ve had… a year ago, I was at 199 pounds (which for a 5′8″ guy is, in the parlance of the medical profession, “rather tubby”) and would only run if being chased by something dangerous (something hot and saucy, well, I’d stand still with open arms). As of today, I am at 173 pounds and, prior to some injuries I’ll detail later, able to run 6-10 miles without much problem.
I’ve come a long way, baby.
March 26, 2008 at 8:12 pm · Filed under The Rat Race
The February 2008 issue of GQ has an article by Cecil Donahue that deals with how to interview successfully (no matter which side of the table you happen to call home).
I think it pretty well captured in a couple of pages what you might pay $19.95 for in a much wordier book on the same topic.
In summary, if you’re the one who wants a job, you should:
Know that your success depends on your preparation
Research the company as best you can. Scour its website. Throw yourself before the gods of Google. Check out sites like Hoover’s and Edgar. Join a networking site like LinkedIn.com and see who you know in the target company. Ask your uncle’s neighbor’s best friend’s dog for info.
Research the person conducting the interview
Often easier said than done, since you might not know who will be deciding your fate until you walk in the door. That said, if you do find out who is going to be leading the interview (e.g. the HR person mentions it in a phone call), let the Googling and LinkedIn’ing begin. Your goal is to find common ground, not suck up.
Don’t lie on your resume, dumbass
Enough said.
Unless you can get away with it.
Just kidding, don’t do it, because there’s that12.5% chance that the HR person interviewing you actually understands the topic at hand and will know you are full of crap.
Go in ready to ask questions
Naturally the company is interested in you, hence the questions. If you don’t have questions to ask them, you’re obviously not very interested. Before I actually got into the role of interviewing people, I would have found it hard to believe that an interviewee would not ask questions, but it seems more the rule than the exception.
If you’re not curious about the job, the company, or anything else, I’m not all that curious about what letting you progress further in the interview process would be like (especially if you claim to have no weaknesses in response to another question - I kid you not, I have interviewed multiple people who are apparently perfect in their own mind).
Ask for the job
This is one that a lot of folks miss. They do the phone interview, get invited in for one or more in-person interviews, all goes swimmingly, and then they shake hands and leave with the only next step in their head being to send a bland “thank you” note. It’s like courting a pretty girl for years and forgetting to ask her to marry you.
Look, if things have gone well, ask for the job. Or, at the very least, ask if the employer has any concerns about your capability to suitably perform in the role.
I did this several years ago while interviewing for a job with a certain discount store that people often pronounce as if it were a fancy French word. It was a mid-level position in their Minnesota HQ. I had something on the order of eight interviews over two days. I thought everything had gone well.
At the end, I asked the lead interviewer if he had any doubts about my ability to excel in the position, because I really liked the company, loved what I had seen of the city, and wanted the job as it sounded like a great opportunity.
He said he did not, and then we talked salary.
That, alas, was the end of that, but I did ask for the job. Every time I see a frowning employee in one of their stores, though, I like to think I could have helped prevent that.
Ah well. Their loss. Besides, winter in Minneapolis really sucks, so I hear.
The article continued with tips on how to be an effective interviewer, but I wanted to focus on the job seeker.
I plan to get around to continuing the “how to write a resume” series in the very near future.
March 1, 2008 at 4:10 pm · Filed under Better Than Themselves, Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
Wow.
“Hubba hubba” could also be a suitable comment about Jennifer Marnell’s transformation.
February 19, 2008 at 6:15 pm · Filed under Better Brains
…details from US News & World Report.
There’s plenty you can do to slow the effects of aging. Here’s how to keep your thinking and memory sharp
As I am now closer to 40 than 30, and as I appreciate the fact that Alzheimer’s seems to run in at least one side of my family, topics like this continue to be of growing interest.
In fact, I even intended to buy one of those jumbo crossword puzzle books to sharpen all those synapses, but - well - I forgot.
Note to self for tomorrow.
February 19, 2008 at 6:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
In one of the introductory posts on the site, I mentioned how - after being generally disturbed by the gelatinous quality some parts of my body had acquired - I decided to get serious about getting back into shape. The journey began sometime in November, and since then I have gone from nearly 200 pounds down to 180. I still have another 10 or so of the jiggly stuff to drop, but I’m well on the way.
So, naturally, I thought you might be curious how I have been going about losing weight and gaining muscle mass. If you’re not, hey, you just spent 30 seconds you’re never going to get back, might as well cut your losses now (or, since you’re invested this far, read on).
Either way, we’ll still be friends and - yes - we’ll always have Paris.
(musical interlude)
OK, so what did I do to lose weight?
The simple explanation is that I got my butt in gear. My workout schedule is weight-lifting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with cardio on Tuesday and Thursday. I take the weekend off, allowing myself some tasty beers and potential cardiac arrest incidents on a bun.
I don’t bother with hours upon hours of sweat-drenched physical activity. I’m not the person who ignores the “please limit yourself to 30 minutes on a machine” sign guy. No, my routine to date has consisted of 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer, followed by 10 minutes on a treadmill.
My elliptical routine came right out of the Body for Life playbook. It’s 20 minutes of interval training, ranging from a comfortable pace to an all-out, fast-as-I-can-move-my-feet motion extravaganza. I absolutely hate it, especially the one minute called the “high point,” at least until it’s over.
From there, a quick side trip to the water cooler for a drink and then right on the treadmill.
As my colleague and I want to do a 14er or three this summer, I set the incline at 15%, the pace at 2.5 - 3 MPH, and start walking. Ten minutes later, I’ve climbed a few hundred vertical feet and another 120 calories or so have been burned up.
Step off the treadmill with wobbly legs, grab a drink of water, and I’m done.
That’s it. Thirty minutes. Easy (at least to describe).
Today, for the first time, I tried something new for my elliptical routine. I downloaded an interval training podcast from Podrunner by DJ Steve Boyett. The speed was a bit slow for the elliptical, so I just ramped up the difficulty level and got a good workout too (also followed by 10 minutes on the treadmill).
It runs a few minutes longer than the Body for Life routine, but burned nearly as many calories (if the calorie counter can be believed, and I’m sure it’s not accurate to any significant digits). I will probably alternate routines just for variety, doing one on Tuesday and the other on Thursday.
Check it out, let them know what you think.
And if you find any of the above helps you shed some unwanted poundage, pass it along.
Tomorrow is lower body weights day - I’ll write about the weights routine soon too.
February 8, 2008 at 5:32 pm · Filed under Better Brains, Don't Be Stupid
It’s one thing you will not find me talking about here*.
If you can’t figure out why, might I suggest you go take a science class?
And, no, watching “What the #$*! Do We Know!?” doesn’t count.
Positive thinking? Good stuff.
Believing in yourself? Someone other than your mom should, so yeah.
Looking for opportunities? Awesome.
Pointing yourself in the direction of your goals? The best way for a ship to reach its destination.
Thinking you can alter the fabric of reality with your thoughts and that the universe will just jump to your aid if you only want it to badly enough? That’s just dumb.
Or, wait, maybe my uncle really was wishing to get Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s all at once. Seems a silly wish to me, but hey, who am I to question the New Agers?
* Except using the mocking tone I reserve for, uh, mocking things.
February 7, 2008 at 8:43 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
While not actively looking for a new job, I have learned the hard way that it’s better to always have an eye out for opportunities rather than being laid off and wondering where to go next (at least I had several months severance and paid health insurance, which is more than many people get, but - still - lesson learned!).
So, I figure it’s time to get to work on updating my resume, as it is now at least three years out-of-date. I’m even more fascinating now, honest.
Yes, I know, there are numerous books, websites, and articles out there that give you instructions on how to write the perfect resume for the perfect job in a perfect world with perfect guarantees of perfect interviews or your money back.
Allow me to add to that ever-increasing mound of career-planning information with a series of posts on resume writing.
I can’t promise you perfection, but I can tell you what has worked for me, and it’s free of charge so, hey, no refunds and please don’t bother the management with complaints.
Some background…
Read the rest of this entry »
February 5, 2008 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Better Than Themselves, Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
No, not that one.
Commitment.
I am convinced that, unless you’re of those rare few genetically-destined to be large, your weight problems (and resultant health issues) are simply because you are committed to being one way and not the other. You can say you don’t have the energy, you don’t have the time, you don’t want to look silly in the gym, but it all comes down to your choosing to be, as I was to an extent, a fat slug. You choose to be committed to your desk, your sofa, your television, your Twinkies.
Change, corporate, personal, or otherwise, takes dedicated effort. It takes a vision of where you want to be, and a willingness to commit to getting there, no matter how hard it may seem. Even when you fall off the path, you have to get right back on it and try to do better.
Check out this guy:
Two years ago, Phill Novak weighed 387 pounds.
Reality hit in January 2006 at a Pittsburgh Steelers game. Novak had gone to smoke a cigarette.
“We were walking back up to our seats, and I started getting winded,” says Novak. “I didn’t feel right, I started sweating. I didn’t think I would make it back up. My heart [was] beating a million times a minute; I thought I was having a heart attack.”
“A lot of things went through my head, about saying goodbye to my kids,” says Novak choking back his tears. “I told my friend, ‘This is it, I’m not going to live like this no more.’ ”
Novak, who was approaching his 40th birthday, made it through the football game. As he ate two double-cheeseburgers and a milkshake, he began to think about the limitations of obesity and how it was keeping him from living a full life.
The next day, Novak devised his own game plan and started his weight-loss journey.
He began simply by walking — one mile a day and eating a low-carbohydrate diet of 15-30 grams a day.
“I walked off my first 100 pounds,” he says. “Walked it off, an hour a day. I lost 100 pounds in seven months.”
I thought my losing 20 pounds in two months was impressive, but this guy has me beat hands (and double-cheeseburgers) down.
Two years later, Novak has lost a total of 192 pounds. Today, he runs 30 to 40 miles a week, works out two to three hours a day, does yoga in the morning and squeezes in a push-up whenever he gets a chance at work.
Now maintaining his weight at 195 pounds, Novak says he’s made a lifestyle change and rarely takes a day off from exercise.
I know the feeling.
I hate if a workday schedule keeps me from getting in my planned workout, and on a long weekend I keep looking forward to being able to use the office gym. I would half chalk it up to having a somewhat addictive personality and the other half would be that I am seeing real results from my efforts. Pants I used to squeeze into now fall off of me. Looking in the mirror I see muscles that, until recently, were just the stuff of my own biological rumors. Not to be a walking cliche, but I honestly believe I have knocked years off the clock (even if it only gets me back to where I ought to be).
Doesn’t much hurt that I got hit on in the elevator the other day after working out. Hey hey, look at me, Pavlov’s dog. *Arf*
Anyway, getting here has taken focus and dedication. I’ve had to eat more carefully, abstain from as much of the tasty amber nectar of the beer gods as I might want, and push myself in the gym when I think, “Wow, I’d really rather be in a meeting about some incredibly boring business topic right about now.”
As I have begun to transform myself, a number of coworkers have asked how I am doing it.
I happily provide them the workout templates, the schedule, the ideas behind what I am doing, but they quickly fall into two classes of people: those who hope to find the time to take care of themselves (but seldom do) and those who know this is what they need to do. I can easily compare and contrast two women with whom I work - one is a professional type, looking to be healthier and knowing she should, but our very first workout together was postponed because of her schedule (apparently lunchtime was reserved for caloric intake). Another woman, one of our hourly employees, asked me for my aerobic routine and I gave it to her - and she was in the gym the next day, and today as well, busting her ass to do the hardest 20 minutes of her life. When her coworkers taking leisurely strolls on the treadmill asked her how she was doing, she confessed it was hard but she was not going to quit.
That’s commitment. Commitment in the face of your own weakness and the attempts of your friends to bring you down to their level of effort (or lack thereof).
Even though I might be ahead of her in the fitness race, seeing her effort and dedication was a huge inspiration. I made a point of approaching her afterwards and letting her know how great I thought she had done, because I sincerely did think that.
Here’s hoping she (and I) keep it up!
January 30, 2008 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Diet and Nutrition, Fitness and Exercise
More from the world of medical research:
Increased Fitness Associated With 50% to 70% Reductions in All-Cause Mortality
Sure, yes, we all know exercise is good for you, but perhaps some people need to hear just how good it can be for one’s longevity.
January 23, 2008 — One of the largest studies ever to link exercise capacity to mortality risk should motivate physicians to pay as much attention to patients’ exercise capacity as they do other major risk factors, researchers say [1]. Their study of older male veterans suggests that the adjusted risk of dying was reduced by 13% for every 1 metabolic equivalent (MET) increase in exercise capacity; men with the greatest exercise capacity reduced their mortality risk by 70%.
“For a little bit of investment you get a lot of a return,” lead author on the study, Dr Peter Kokkinos (Veterans Affairs [VA] Medical Center, Washington, DC) told heartwire. “In a time where health insurance in this country is going through the roof, we could do something like walk for thirty minutes a day and reap major benefits.
The study involved did focus on older male veterans, so perhaps the copious benefits of vigorous exercise only apply to them, but I have my doubts.
Favorite quote from the article:
“For god’s sake, if we could walk on the moon we can certainly walk on earth.”
Dr. Kokkinos, we have people who will circle a parking lot for five minutes to find a close spot rather than having to hoof it an extra 50 steps. These folks probably wish it was the moon so that walking would be 1/6 easier - hell, maybe they could just bounce their way to the doors of the Food Court in that case. And eat six times the normal weight of Cinnabuns.
People need to do more. They know they need to do more. They choose not to do more, because it would require effort and be an admission that they have failed in some manner. I know, because I was turning into a fat slug who thought that bacon cheeseburgers, beer, and watching movies on the couch was a fine way to live - and then, well, you know, things changed.
If news like “you will live a lot longer” doesn’t motivate someone to take better care of themselves, there’s not much any of us can do - even on the Moon.
January 30, 2008 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Aging and Avoidance Of, Diet and Nutrition
Happy happy joy joy news for those among us who exercise and enjoy a frosty amber/brown beverage* on a somewhat regular basis:
Staying Active and Drinking Moderately Is Key to a Long Life
Woot! Hooray! Woot woot!
January 11, 2008 — Both physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake are important to lower the risk of fatal ischemic heart disease (IHD) and all-cause mortality, a new study shows.
The study, published online in the European Heart Journal on January 9, 2008, shows that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and are physically active have a lower risk of death from heart disease and other causes than people who don’t drink at all, and that people who neither drink alcohol nor exercise have a 30% to 49% higher risk of heart disease than those who either drink, exercise, or do both.
I will post about it soon, but as part of my new healthy approach, I decided to get a physical.
Based on results from a few years ago, I expected to find high cholesterol and high blood pressure on the list of what ails me. Happily, my cholesterol came in under the high level and I have now twice received comments from nurses on how good my blood pressure has been.
Given that I was drinking probably a little more than was good for me in the past, I can only imagine that there’s been a rapid improvement from reducing beer consumption and greatly increasing my physical activity. Too bad I didn’t have a physical before deciding on a change, as I am curious just how rapidly the body can begin to remedy things when given the impetus to do so.
If nothing else, we can all tell our teetotaling friends, athletic or not, that they are killing themselves.
For the love of God, man, have a beer!
Do you want to die?!
* Try as I might, I just can’t consider the pale yellow yuck of Bud, Coors, or other mass-produced domestic swill to be beer. Sorry. You’re welcome to it - look at it this way: that’s more for you!
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First goal: a redesign of the site, using as much of a pre-fab theme as possible.