There may be people reading this that have never met me and think that I’m being ridiculous or sarcastic in my excitement and joy at this moment, but what you don’t know is that only 4 years ago I was super obese (it’s a clinical term, not me trying to make my obesity sound cool), something I’ve only ever talked (in detail) to 3 people about and one of those was my doctor and aside from him, I have never let anyone know how bad it really was. Well here goes nothing.

When I first spoke to my doctor about my weight, he weighed me, I knew it was going to be bad and it was. Was this the heaviest I had ever been, I honestly don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I have been heavier because the largest trouser size I’ve ever worn was 2 inches bigger at the waist than the ones I wore that day.

As we chatted about the different ways to lose weight he was tapping away at his computer and then he stopped, looked me straight in the eye and said the most terrifying words I’ve ever heard “George, I’ve been calculating your BMI, while we’ve been talking and yours is 38.5, you are super obese“.

He proceeded to explain to me what BMI is and what the effects of this could be and the discussion got a lot more intense (I want to thank Dr. Tomaz, for taking the time to explain this in a way that was not judgemental, preachy or condescending, I believe you are the one who got me onto this road, which is saving my life). We discussed every method there is to losing weight, the natural ones (diet and exercise), the medical ones and even the surgical options.

You can find a BMI calculator here, you just need to know your height and weight.

I left his office that day, with a prescription for Reductil (banned for sale in europe this week) and a stronger resolve than I’ve ever had to lose weight. I joined a Gym within 24 hours and over the following month dropped 20lbs. For 3 months I took my medication, went to the gym at least 3 times a week and recorded every calorie that I ate. I dropped a total of 45lbs in those three months.

Then I stopped. I couldn’t handle the stress that the rapid weight loss was causing and I was starting to show signs of depression as a result. After some discussion with my doctor, the decision was made to stop taking reductil, but continue with the diet.

He wanted me to continue the exercise but without reductil my weight loss stopped, reversed and I became frustrated, stopped exercising and I regained about 20lbs weight. From what I’ve read about reductil being banned, weight gain when you stop taking it is one of the reasons it’s been banned, but the main one seems to be that it causes heart attacks and strokes, so please don’t take this as an endorsement in any way and don’t try to source it from some dodgy ‘internet pharmacy’.

Since then, I’ve been watching what I eat but I returned to my sedentary lifestyle. I’ve focused on my diet and while I haven’t cut out any of the foods I love, I have learned to cook most of those dishes myself and with cooking from fresh ingredients when possible I have continued a much healthier path to weight loss. I am sharing these recipes on my new (with a little help from Elly) website NotJunkFood.net at the moment and will continue to do so.

I’ve managed to lose weight slowly but consistently for an extended period of time without adding a large amount of exercise to my lifestyle. It’s been fresh ingredients, portion size, frequency of meals, daily breakfast and drinking cold water that have got me this far.

There is only so much weight loss that can be achieved though diet alone and I fear I’m approaching that point, so I need to exercise more and I hate exercise, I’m not fit. This is going to be difficult for me, to say the least, but it has to happen, it’s going to happen, I am already making this happen.

Beginning today I will walk a mile everyday and keep an eye on things to see how it goes, adding to this meagre amount of exercise as I need to/am able to. My next target is to get myself under 200lbs (round numbers are good goals ), then 183lbs (BMI of 24.9 for me and within the ‘normal’ BMI, just) and my ultimate goal is 170lb. I’m looking forward to that day, it will mean the end of my weight loss and the start of weight maintenance.

The afternoon before my mother died, I promised her I would lose the weight, not for her but for me. I will not let anything stand in the way of me keeping that promise and I will achieve all of these goals before the end of this year. The time has come, this is my personal call to arms, this is my mission, this is my right and this will be done.

Now I want, no, I need to hear from people reading this, Do you need to lose weight? What are your weight loss goals? What have you been doing about them? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? The comment form is below so have your say.

The downside for me, to quitting, was that I piled on weight. Rather than actually quitting I accidently managed to do whats called “Drug substitution” I simply switched my disease from nicotine addiction to sugar addiction. Wtf? Yup that’s how my Doctor explained it to me when I started the process that I’m on now.

Part of this process is my excersize regime and I would not have been able to keep that going without my MP3 player, it’s a simple basic 128mb flash unit but it allows me to totally zone out when I’m in the gym.

Now I thought that I was a bit unusual in this but if I am then Sony has just designed a MP3 player just for me. It adjusts the music to the rythm of your workout, counts steps and calories for you, and even works out distance covered.

Is all this good stuff enough to make me forget what Sony thinks of there customers and want one?

Unfortunatly not, Sony you need to seriously sort out your public image. Your corporate conduct in the last 12 month’s is contemptable the arrogence that you now address your customers with needs a slap down in the worst possible way. It’s a shame really cause you guys can still make some great products.

So, we are using this as an excuse to have a weekend away together in the “other Capital” I will have to remember that I’m there in a social capacity and not a business one, everybody needs a break from time to time, you know As I was looking through the list of attendee’s and speakers I noticed a few familiar names, so it will be a chance to get to know them.

My Sweetie got me interested in blogging and probobly leads the most web-centric lifestyle of any person I know. Her job is managing a web-based Doc-control system, the team of people she works with are based in numerous different timezones. She “talks” daily to her friends and mum over MSN (who my sweetie introduced to personel PC’s and the web. Her mum is now an active member in some online communities, runs her own Wiki and not so long ago installed her own broadband. She gives us both tips regularly now) also gives her mum remote assistence for troubleshooting those annoying issue’s we all have her current web project is getting our photo collection geo-tagged and online, so that we can both use it for our own blog’s and so that we can share these images with our families and friends. Almost all our shopping with the exception of food and impulse items is purchased online, every holiday we have taken together has been booked online. All our maps, newspapers and lots of our entertainment are virtual, both on and offline.
I’m blaming her for a lot in the last paragraph but in truth these are the things that we do together. I’m looking forward to this, it’s not often we get to “geek out” in public, so this should be fun and interesting for us both.

So why do I like this more than other web radio? Simple, When you subscibe to these guys you can create your own stations by just telling what bands\artists\songs that you like and through the voodoo that is “the music genome project” they find tracks that are similar to it and use those for the station.

As the tracks play you can customise “your stations” further by giving a thumbs up or down to any track. This has helped me, since I started using it, to find some of the most unusual and pleasant new music I’ve heard in a long time. Bands such as Skalpel (Jazzy Groove Radio), Guttermouth and Gob (2 great punk revival bands on “Nerf Herder Radio”)

So give it a listen and see what you think yourself.

So while I was sitting in traffic this morning, I was thinking how bloody dumb is it to sit in a car for an hour and a half to travel about 6 and a half miles?

I mean, here I am doing my utmost to get a bit fitter and more importantly to loose some (a lot, if I’m being honest) weight and I’m sitting on my fat ass in a car that’s travelling at an average speed that’s slower than me walking!

Then tonight I get home from work late, on a friday evening, change and rush out to the gym to go do a 90 minute workout??? (That I didn’t have the energy to finish) when did the world get so messed up?

Now I know what your thinking, well why don’t you just ditch the car and walk then or cycle? well I work in sales, I’m a customer facing member of the company who has to present a professional image and lets just say smelling like I just walked/cycled to the office would not be acceptable.

So instead of walking/cycling to the office and arriving fresh and awake to begin my days work, I arrive to the office having had to get up before the sun and slowly build stress for an hour and a half before my day begins, I get to arrive to work, like most who work in Dublin, stressed and in a bad mood, this is our burden to carry until next May/June when the primary school kids stop driving to class for there summer holidays.

The sad Irony is there is no real need for me to be in the office 9 to 5.30 every day. What?

Think about it I work for the largest Internet hosting company in Ireland. All the tools of my job are available to me from anywhere, with one exception and that I could actually get around with a little help from one of our support staff.

To explain, the tools of my job consist of the desk phone (easily forwarded to my company mobile)the company web site (it better be available on my broadband connection) my CRM application which is also web based, and my outlook e-mail (thats the bit that I need help with) oh and of course the company IM.

So why can’t I either work from home unless I’m actually due to be meeting a client or at the very least start my day from home so I don’t have to sit in the rush hour traffic? well I’m kinda hoping it’s cause I ain’t asked (see ya monday Boss )

Now here’s a thought, I can’t be unique in this, have a look at your own job if you work in an office, chances are you use a PC of some sort to access files and your e-mail and maybe some special software that relates specifically to your job or company and a phone and maybe an IM app of some sort.

Newsflash we live in the 21st century, if it’s on a computer it can be accessed from anywhere over a secure web connection. I’m not going to get into how cause that would be to much like work but it can be done.

Now think about how many people you know in the same situation in Dublin. Why aren’t more companies doing this?

Is it lack of Broadband? well possibly outside of Dublin but most people commuting to work here have access to Broadband.

Is it the cost of the computer systems, possibly, but they can be offset by the increase in productivity.

Is it because the boss is a power mad megalomaniac? more than likely not

So why are we sitting in traffic day in day out when we could be working from home, there by reducing the number of cars on the streets and improving everybodies quality of life, while lowering greenhouse gas emmissions?

I’m starting to think it’s cause we the workers haven’t asked, and I don’t mean asked once I mean asked regularly, if I were to change job in the future I think this will have to be part of the package. I’d recomend anyone who’s tired of rush hour and the stress it brings to talk to your boss about this, maybe they’ll listen maybe they won’t but I think if we don’t ask and keep asking we’ll never have the option.

In truth time is a precious commodity and there are lots of things I would like to cover on this blog that I haven’t, as yet, had the time to. but thats a whole other post

Anyway, back on topic, I’m gonna include a list of my favourite gadgets and over the coming days/weeks I’ll post about each.

Hewlett Packard iPaq 6515
Media Centre PC
X-box 360
MP3 player
FujiFilm S5200 Digital Camera
This Blog
The mobile bloging gadget
Heart Monitor

There are lots more that I haven’t mentioned so bookmark this page, as I’ll be adding to the list and linking each gadget to the relevant post as I post them

If your a music fan or musician with an “OpenEar ™” (That’s like an open mind for ears ) then there site is a treasure trove, that will suck up hours of your time. As an example of the kind of treats that it has helped me find, we’ve all heard this but who else has heard this version or a better example, from this song I found this one ’cause there similar??? (click the little play buttons for a sample

All I have to do now is wait for this to be made with “decent” speakers built-in so I can put them in every room of the house, ‘cept the living room of course cause the media centre PC is already plugged into the sound system there.

Enough about the venue, Arlo Guthrie is quite possibly the last true American folk singer, now that’s a fairly big statement when Bob’s (Dylan) still about but let’s be fair Bob, you’re a pop star that writes in a folk style, where as Arlo grew up with a folk singer for a father (the late Woody Guthrie) knowing what folk singing really is all about, travelling the country bringing stories and news to the people in the form of song.

It would be fair to say that the world may never have heard of Arlo if it wasn’t for the success of one song, Alice’s Restaurant Massacree. I for one think that would have been a terrible loss, Arlo’s singing and song writing have something completely unique about them, and his recorded work has stood the test of time, hell even Alice is starting to sound relevant again. But in order to truly grasp the magnitude of his talent you have to see him live. The man’s talent as a songwriter comes from his story telling ability, which is laced with a wit most stand-ups would do well to equal. This was the third time I have seen Arlo live and it’s not possible to pick a favourite performance from these, the man’s consistency as a performer is staggering.

As a singer Arlo has that special something, yes he’s a storyteller and that helps, but he also has that same empathy with lyrics that made Sinatra so popular. His singing style is what allowed him to take the Steve Goodman song “The City of New Orleans” and make it his own. A song which has gained new meaning in the last twelve months.

As for the performance last Friday, he arrived on stage with 3 others, one of whom I recognised from gigs I had seen before, his son Abe, playing the Keyboard. After the first tune, he introduced the band, Gordon Titcomb on Pedal Steel, Abe on Keyboards and Krishna Milo Guthrie (his Grandson) [edit heard the name wrong on the night, D'oh] on Drums. Three Generations on the one stage!

Of Course Arlo covered all his “classics” (Alice’s Restaurant, City of New Orleans, Coming into Los Angeles) with the only notable exception being “the Pickle song” although he did briefly touch on that during one of his stories as a heckler was screaming for it, possibly why it didn’t get played as punishment for the drunk heckler being so rude as to interrupt the performance. He also played a number of other “classics” interspersed with tall tales and stories.

One such story involved a small man knocking on his door in the early Sixties to see Arlo’s father, who was in hospital at the time, but Arlo invited him in, had a chat and they played Harmonicas for a few hours before Arlo took him along as he went to visit Woody. That small man later changed his name to “Bob Dylan” and the rest we all know. A really touching tale and a fabulous way to introduce “Mr. Tambourine Man”

There were other fine moments in the performance as well, a new song of Arlo’s (which I missed the name of ) documents the Story of The Katrina disaster and is one of the most powerful songs I have heard in a long time, not because it was looking to “cash in” but because it was condemning those that did. Arlo toured the US after the disaster to raise funds as many did, however he took no fee personally and has not commercially released the track that he wrote, to the best of my knowledge.

The last thing I would like to mention about the performance was when the fourth generation of Guthrie arrived on stage. In what can only be described as a bizarre and touching moment Arlo explained that he had recently come into possession of some old wire recordings of Woody and explained that they are currently being cleaned up for release before the end of the year. He played a snip from one of these recordings for the crowd, with head bowed and lights dimmed in respect. After, he joked that his style “was Woody’s fault!” and having heard the recording, the similarities in their storytelling, I have to say it’s eerily true.

There was a man sitting near us at the back of the venue looked very like Christy Moore (I’m certain it was, some of my friends were of the opinion that it was just someone who looked like him). The quality of the gig is best summed up by saying that like everyone else at the end of the gig he was on his feet cheering for more.