Calories Burnt on the Couch Watching Al Jazeera...0 (Jigglenix beta v.0.12)

Yesterday a good part of my blog time was spent searching for a way to input my food data, and as I continue to search for a solution, something occurred to me: sitting around parsing Google code for blog solutions doesn't burn any calories, unless you count the calories spent typing. I suppose learning how to do something new is a sedentary endeavor. I'd like to sign it off with a big oh well, but these couch potat days just won't yield the results I'm looking for. Maybe I should find a noobie web design podcast for my workouts.
And while I'm on the subject, my workouts have been...well, a little non-existent. Mario Wii ate up most of my time yesterday. It's too addictive! So here's the bargain I'm going to strike with myself: if I finish a workout, I get 1 hour of Mario Wii. I guess one of the keys to a good workout is a good system of concrete motivation.
On a completely different note, I've been following the Egypt revolution over the past 18 days. While I applaud people of Egypt wholeheartedly, I'll leave my political musings to another blog. Underneath the massive political upheaval, I wonder how many calories are burnt protesting? Gotta go...baby's crying. Here's today's pic:

With thanks to Cory Booker (Jigglenix beta v. 0.2)

As I awoke this morning to one of the most reliable alarm clocks known to humankind (2 month old screaming), I realized that I can be a morning person in the opposite sense of what I have been. That is, I actually got some sleep before 5 AM. I'm not sure how sustainable this will be, but I've seemed to started a habit of waking up before the crack of dawn, instead of the usual crack of noon. Part of this stems from the freedom from a job that required me to labor into the wee hours of the morning, where I was bored out of my mind and surrounded by pizza to boot. Not anymore. I woke up, had my coffee, ate my yogurt oatmeal parfait, and got going.
So here it is, my pic o'the day:

Sexy, no? Wait, I mean Sexy? No.

Weight: 265
Pants Size: 40
Manboobs: training bra sized
Chin: currently double









So after yesterday's post, I've discovered a few things:

• My blogging/web design skills are rusty/non-existent. Rather than edit my original post, I'm going to leave it up in all of its glory. Jigglenix v 1.0 will be due out around the end of the month. I promise not to DNF.
• I want to play around with how to post what I've eaten, and how many calories are in each item. I'm using mynetdiary now to document what I eat, mostly because its convenient Iphone app. There's only one small problem with this: there's no easy way to import mynetdiary's data. On my previous post, I copy and pasted the table, but it ended up in a formatting nightmare. Possible solutions:
• Post what I eat directly to Jigglenix w/timestamp, fill in calorie info later
• Copy and paste mynetdiary data table into excel or csv, then import formatted data to blog
• Find Iphone app/webapp that does everything mynetdiary does and dumps data into Jigglenix
• Write a script that identifies food names and fetches calorie info automatically
• I'm still not sure who my target audience will be. I'd like a dedicated band of bloggers, but I don't quite know where to advertise, or who would be interested for that matter. Goal: recruit 5 bloggers by the end of the year.
  

As you've probably have already noticed, I've been working on learning how to assemble a decent blog in a little under 2 hours a day. My other responsibilities; namely job searching, baby-caring and maintaining the cross hairs of my squirt bottle on the cat have eaten up the rest of my time. However, I'm not going to let this get me down. This morning I was inspired by Cory Booker's Facebook post. In the post, he recommits himself to a healthy lifestyle, despite the challenges he faces as mayor. My story is strikingly similar to his. Though he's the Mayor of Newark, and I was a pizza delivery driver, our plight was the same: we both eat when we're tired, bored, depressed, anxious, etc. Emotional eating has been a huge problem of mine, and has contributed to most of my weight gain in the past year.
Though I'm not able to completely banish these neurotic emotions, I have a simple strategy to avoid overeating in times of stress. Instead of actually eating, I drink sugarless Kool-Aid (or the cheaper Wal-Mart off brand.) It's extremely low-cal, hydrating, and strangely satisfying. While it's not a comprehensive solution to the larger problem of emotional eating, it serves as an effective intervention until I can take a step back.
As a word of closing, I want to point out that I'm not alone in this online campaign to lead a healthy, active lifestyle. Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign is a great way to get kids to start early. I hope that this idea sticks. After all, I want my daughter to grow up in an world where access to an abundance of healthy food is the norm. That's it for now, look for future posts for experimentation with html, formatting, etc.

Sample post

Wednesday, Feb 9			824	26	113	36
Breakfast			824	26	113	36
Milk reduced fat fluid 2% milkfat with added vitamin a	16 fl oz	488g	244	10	23	16
Dairy yogurt fat free dannon light 'n fit nonfat blueberry by Freshdirect	container	170g	80		16	5
Kirkland wholesome fruit nut (contributed)	0.25 cup	40g	200	11	20	5
Oatmeal old fashioned quaker oats	cup dry	80g	300	6	54	10

Jigglenix beta

And so it begins. No more breathless three-flight climbs. No more excuses. More accountability, less whining. This is Jigglenix, the blog that will attempt to save our pudgy form from eventually appearing on obesity footage on the local news.
I want this to serve as a forum for people who want to lose weight, and feel better. That's it. We all want to sustainably lose weight, and keep it off for years to come. We also want to feel good, but this requires more than what most fad diets offer. We're going to take a more fact-based and critical approach to good health. It's actually a lot easier than it sounds. According to Yale neurologist Steven Novella, "No one wants to hear the truth we all know in our hearts – if you want to lose weight you have to eat less and move more." In sum, if we keep track of our calories that go in, and calories burned, we have a better framework for good health.
So if you're looking to rid yourself of that spare tire, or you want to be more active, or you've tried every fad diet under the sun, this is your sounding board. I have to warn you; this is not for anyone who pines for fast or perfect results. We're all human, and we're going to have tired days fraught with cravings, soreness, and excuses. This is ok, provided we're open and forthcoming. There's no shame here. In fact, I'm going to prove it.
[shirtless picture]
As a means of before and after, I'm going to post a picture of myself once a day for 30 days. It doesn't matter to me what the results look like. I just want to show, mostly to myself, what a month of eating right and exercising regularly can do to the body.
Of course, everyone has their own course of results. This is by no means a competition by default. However, if that's what gets you going, by all means, spark up a contest between you and another Jigglenix poster. It's all fair game in the name of feeling great.
With that, go forth and show the world what you've done. More importantly, have a blast! See you soon.
-Derek