Where's Wil?

Bleh. Weight begone!

w00t! The weight loss continues onwards, despite a crap weekend. I ate far too much, after languishing in a fairly grumpy mood for most of the two days. I also completely failed to exercise, beyond walking into town to get a book. Oh well. This morning I'm feeling better, and I'll be back running tonight. I'm also back on my strict diet today - muesli for breakfast, fruit for snacks and a salad for lunch, with a decent dinner. Hopefully I can break 230 before the week is out, that would rock big bells. 224 is 16 stone, and that would be an awesome milestone to get to.

Is the best thing on Twitter.

PhakeCalacanis

Seriously, total hilarity.

Mofo!

Looks like we're into the second stone of weight loss. One down, about three more to go.

I had a minimal calorie day yesterday. I got up and ran 2.5miles at 730am. Scrambled egg for breakfast, followed by a gourmet pie (?!) for lunch, with a small amount of mash potato. Then I didn't eat anything until about 11pm, after a stint in London, when I had some cheese on toast before going to bed. Seems to have done me ok.

Antonio, a reader of the blog, was kind enough to write and share his experiences of losing weight and some tricks for doing so. I'm really delighted that he took the time out to mail in, and his experience was so interesting and useful I thought I would reproduce it here for other readers to have the benefit. Cheers Antonio, and enjoy.

>>>

Will,

Just a quick hello. Thoroughly enjoy your input on the podcasts I listen to..

I just visited your blog for the first time and noticed you are trying to get some weight loss happening. Thought I'd share my personal experience with you.

I've never been particularly overweight but a few years ago I was a little flabby, pushing close to 90 kgs which for my height (just under 6 foot) is a bit on the bulky side. I hadn't really ever noticed it happening, I'm of a pretty stocky and broad-shouldered build so it wasn't really obvious. Anyway, I moved to Paris for work, and for about the first 6 months there, I was walking absolutely everywhere, getting to know the city and just generally enjoying the experience of exploring, with my trusty ipod of course. Without it being the intention, indeed without even being aware it was happening, I just shed all this extra weight. The first time I noticed was once in summer when I was kicking back in my apartment with no shirt on and I saw that my stomach was completely flat all the way to my jeans... I don't think I'd ever seen that before, even when I used to work out at the gym back in my university days. Then I sort of remembered that I had been needing to wear belts because my jeans were always falling down and it hit me that I'd lost weight that I hadn't even really been aware I'd been carrying. Even just looking in the mirror I had previously remarked that I was somehow looking more youthful and healthy. I'd just turned 30 at the time, this was 4 years ago, but thinking back it must have been that I'd lost that extra puppy fat from my face. All in all it was this really marked transformation, and I was not even conscious of having done anything to achieve it.

So I talked to a friend who is a doctor and also a bit of a fitness specialist. What he had to say was really interesting. Apparently, I had accidentally followed the most perfect weight loss and general fitness plan that you could follow. According to him, while doing exercise like running is a good thing, it's not always the best exercise for actually losing weight. Apparently the idea is that you have to get into a certain zone of activity in terms of heart rate and physical load, and you have to stay within that zone for really quite a long time, and do it regularly. So, seeing as I'd been going for these long, brisk walks of about 2 hours or often even longer almost every night of the week, I was unknowingly getting into the perfect zone for weight loss and staying in it for a really decent amount of time. Apparently the mistake a lot of people make with running, is that they don't run for long enough because they aren't in good enough shape to do a run of a long enough duration. And also, the thing with running is that if you are out of shape, it can rocket your heart rate beyond the optimal 'fat-burning' zone and shock your body into some kind of cardiac-conditioning muscle-building mode.. Which is not a bad thing in itself (as long as you don't have a heart attack..), but it's actually not going to help your body as much to lose weight. It will still raise your metabolism and promote better blood circulation and plenty of other beneficial things that can contribute to weight loss, but it won't cause it to happen anywhere near as well as a very long walk at a brisk rate will.

My doctor friend explained that the mistake a lot of people make is to try and cram a lot of highly intensive activity into a short timeframe. No one these days really feels they have the time to dedicate to sustained lower-level exercising over a much longer period of time, and our perception of what is really a long enough duration of exercise is skewed by how busy we are. But the reality is that our bodies haven't changed for hundreds of thousands of years... So just because in our culture of today, one hour in the day is a long time to devote to physical activity, it doesn't mean that it's going to be enough.

He joked about that old standard that a lot of men turn to for lunch break exercise - squash. Men love it because they work up such a fierce sweat, they feel extreme aerobic intensity when playing, and they can fit it into a short hour (or even less of actual playing) into a few days a week. But apparently it's one of the worst sports you could possibly choose to get fit or to lose weight. There's little to no warm up, or at least people don't usually do a proper one. Then the leap into highly stressful heart rate activity is actually potentially risky and doesn't do a lot for either general fitness conditioning, nor for weight loss. And then on top of that, the running and stopping and swinging of the racket is so jarring to every part of the body that it can easily cause more injury (even unnoticed low-level injury) to the body than any good it promotes. Anyway, even though you don't mention any old-school squash sessions in your regime, there's a similar wisdom in there with regards to running. I'm sure you don't just go for some ridiculous 15 minute sprint, nearly vomit at the end and then wonder why you aren't losing much weight.. But it seems to me that the best thing you could do with your approach would be to add some long (and I mean _long_) walking sessions to your routine. You could even combine running and walking sessions.. start out with a walk for the first 2 hours, and then do a 30 minute jog for the last leg to get home. I know most people immediately reject the idea that they can find that amount of time to dedicate to be out there exercising.. But seriously your ipod is your friend. In paris I don't have a TV (I just download the shows I like), and I found that easily the 2-3 hours of kickback time that I would otherwise have spent in front of the telly or reading a book could be turned into just exactly the same amount of kickback time -- but I was walking for that whole time instead of sitting. I'd listen to my podcasts, or audiobooks (slaughterhouse 5 by kurt vonnegut was a great one..) or some music as well. And even though I never set out to do this as a weight loss program, I got these completely insane results.... Suddenly I was hot and I was getting checked out left right and centre.. :)

Also in combination with this, living in France really got my eating back to normal portion sizes again, but it sounds like you've already got the eating side of the whole process down. So, stick with that. Meanwhile for me, the walking thing is still a regular part of my week. I can't stress enough how brilliant it is when you discover ways to transform your own kickback time into time you spend walking. It means that you just keep doing it all the time without even the slightest thought that what you are doing is exercise that you _must_ do as some kind of rule. For example, if I go out for dinner, or to a friend's place, or to a movie or out to a bar, I always always make the going home leg of the trip on foot, even if I had to take the métro to get to the destination on time. I often get raised eyebrows when I tell people I'm walking home, especially if they know it's going to take a good hour or significantly more. People will be like, I'll give you a lift, or don't you want us to call you a cab? But I've just come to crave that walking time. When I got home I would've sat up reading or doing a few things by myself to end the day anyway. So, instead of that time being on the couch, I have that personal time while out walking the streets home. I really get into listening to my podcasts or an audiobook or music, and it feels like productive personal time. It also gives me time to think, relax mentally, and then I always sleep way better with a clear head, and am generally calmer as an added bonus. Also, I find I'm refreshed and full of ideas from the simple act of just walking and being out there in the world, which contributes so much to my productivity at work the next day.

It helps that I live in the centre of Paris, so it works out to be convenient (and safe) for me to walk home from a lot of different places. But it's so much a part of my life now that I know I'll do it no matter where I live in the future. When I was last in LA I remember looking at all the sad über-fatties they have over there, and it made me _so_ grateful for the lifestyle I have in which there's no car-dependence whatsoever.

Ok I've just realised I've accidentally written you a short novel, my apologies.. But if you're still reading this far, good luck with it, and as I said earlier, it's great to hear your contribution on those tech podcasts... It really takes the edge off that grating American accent which is thoroughly over-represented in tech podcasting, IMO. Good for you, keep it up. :)

Take care and all the best,

Antonio

I love this idea.



The idea is to make a track by an independent label artist number one on iTunes today. Everybody should go and buy it and show that digital is the way forward. Find out more info at this address. Tell your friends, get the word out!

As you may know if you're a regular reader, I've given the Wikipedia community some stick over the last few weeks for their handling of the Terry Shannon Wiki entry and its proposed deletion.

However, that doesn't mean that I'm down on Wikipedia - it's a resource that I use tens of times a day. It never fails to amaze me just how much information, about so many diverse topics, is in there.

Today I was listening to Money for Nothing, by Dire Straits, in the office. One of my colleagues, Benny, told me that Sting sang the backing vocals, which I didn't know (being a child of the 80s). I immediately set off to Wikipedia to find some history about the track.

Not surprisingly, it has an entry.

The opening section dealt with Sting's involvement with the song, but I noticed that no authority was given for the statements in it. A quick Google search later and I found some information to reference the information in the Wiki. I put in the reference (in the annoyingly obsure Wiki markup code ) et voila, a new citation that adds a little more to the article.

I'm starting to get into this whole providing information thing. I can see how people get drawn into the community by the feeling of doing good and contributing to something.

Video coverage is all the rage these days, and its amazing how many people are doing a great job at getting footage online. Here's one of the best. CeBitVideo.com. Nice!

Whilst on the quest for cool domain names, I stumbled across a goodie -

HowAreYouGentlemen.com

For those who don't get the reference, it's part of the widely referenced 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' phenomenon. I don't think I'll do much with it, but I pointed it to the AYBABTU Wikipedia entry.

I love geek humour - I just bought this for one of my best girl friends. She loves it.

Holy moly... got on the scales this morning to be greeted with this wonderful sight. Technically, this means one whole stone lost since the beginning of fatblogging back in February, but I'm pretty confident that this is a downwards fluctuation and that I'm going to be back up a pound or so tomorrow. But that's ok - I'm definitely trending downwards.

I didn't get out for a run last night - by the time I arrived home, it was snowing in Oxford(!!!) Decided to run tonight instead, I'm not a big fan of running in sub-zero temperatures.

At the moment, I'm keeping to a really simple diet, the same one, basically, that I've ben on for the next month or so. Muesli for breakfast, a light lunch (soup/open sandwich/leftovers) combined with a healthy, low-fat, low-carb dinner (chilli + brown rice, chicken + salad, sausages and ratatouille, etc). Snacks are fruit, and a few nuts. This, combined with the exercise, really seems to be doing the trick.

I had a few rough days last week, and the support of the community - being able to read other people's blogs, having people comment on mine - really got me through that. I'm feeling pretty good about things today.

Well I had a really light day of eating yesterday - muesli, a litle veggie lunch and some fruit for dinner. I'm guessing that I'll be at 234 or 235 tomorrow, but it's definitely an improvement. Not long to go until the first stone is off!

Tonight is run night - going to try and up to 25 minutes non-stop from 20 minutes. Adding an extra 5 minutes three times a week is almost a whole 'nother 20 minute workout.

FFS... a pound back on after yesterday. Totally lame. No idea why. Maybe I need to step the exercise up to 4x a week, rather than just 3x... will be regimented about eating today and see what happens tomorrow before deciding.

Rock on. Despite having a tough day motivation wise yesterday, I stuck to and came out this morning at 234. Hopefully I can keep at that weight for tomorrow, that would be a good result. Just got to avoid weekend laziness!

Went for a run last night - went a little further than usual, and didn't take any breaks. Hard work, but some support from Placebo and Foo Fighters got me through it. Good times.

Pretty down today. So far, since February, I've managed to lose a healthy 2lbs a week, which has meant I've lost about 11lbs so far. This week, not only have I not lost anything, I've actually put on a pound. This sucks, big time, and I'm not sure why the weight loss has stopped - nothing has really changed in terms of diet or exercise, so I'm just hoping against hope that it's a temporary blip. Reading through some other fatblogs, and it's good to see the community and understand their struggles, too. I'm going out for a run tonight, eat well and keep exercising over the weekend, and see what Monday brings. Fingers crossed.

Oh well, a pound up after my fish and chip extravaganza last night. I guess that means that an evening running up and down the ring round is in order. I really want to hit 232 and nail that 1 stone! Today I will mostly be eating fruit and drinking water, in a bid to shift some of this weight. Being fat sucks, but getting thinner rocks.

So everyone has been going mental for Twitter the past couple of weeks, and I'm not really sure I get it. I mean, do I really want to know what my friends are up to all the time? Do they really care what I'm doing?

The answer is that I don't know, so I'm giving it a try to find out. I'm WilHarris, so feel free to add me to your friends list. I've put on some of the people I want to hear about - Leo Laporte, Jason Calacanis, Dan Burka, Darth Vader - and I'm wondering what I'll learn.

One thing that is incredibly neat is the way you can update it from a number of places. You can log onto the website, which is fine, but you can also add an IM buddy or text in from your phone. For an app like this, accessibility has to be key, so it's good to see that nailed. Evan Williams, the guy who created it, was on Net at Night last week, and you should listen to his interview.

Talking of Twits, I'm on episode 90 this week. It's a crazy episode, with Ihnatko, Merlin, Dvorak and Leo all having a total hoot. You should have heard the outtakes - the singing, dear God no! Two words for you -

Rat hole!

Man, 12 pounds down - two more until this Fatblogging will have netted me a whole stone of weight loss. That would be crazy awesome.

Yesterday, I was so busy all day I didn't eat. I went for a run at 7, back for breakfast (muesli) at 730, then out the door and working until 8pm, when I finally got some dinner (chicken in teryaki sauce with a brown rice salad).

I went a bit crazy over the weekend with food, and ate rather too much. I had a fantastic Yo! Sushi on Saturday in London, between shops, and a fair few snacks, too. I'm partly worried I'm going to be back up at 235 tomorrow, which would suck.

So far, the exercise is working out for me - I can feel myself getting fitter and more able to run. I did 25 minutes yesterday almost without a break, and that's a big difference from a month ago, when 10 minutes running required a few minutes of walking. I'm really, really pleased about that. I do, however, find it much harder to run in the morning than in the evening. In the morning, my legs feel heavy, I'm drowsy and I just want to lie in bed. When I come home from work, I feel quite motivated to get out and run to work out the kinks and relax for the evening ahead.

I saw that Jason did a podcast of fatbloggers last week. It's a good show, though I was gutted not to be on it! Check it out.

Is an absolute hoot.

We recorded the show last night, in advance of the usual time, to make sure it was in the can ready for Monday. I won't reveal the lineup, but suffice to say it results in total hilarity, and only a lame attempt at staying on topic. It's possibly the most 'fun' Twit I've done, even though it was at 1 in the morning my time. Which is a bit crazy. Prepare for a lot of bad English accents, fanboy movie discussion and the mother of all ratholes! Along with some interesting tech commentary, obviously.

Make sure you keep your feed refreshing to get this ASAP - it should be out on Sunday night. I'll be watching your responses!

Same as yesterday. I didn't run last night, since Alex has done her foot in and can't run on it. I will try and get out tonight. I would love to hit 235 tomorrow or Sunday!

I got a beta key for Joost this morning (huzzah!) and so I've been having a play around with it today.

I have to say, it's impressive - shows stream incredibly quickly, and at a decent quality, too.

The big no-no, however, is the way it launches full screen, grabbing your attention away from everything else. For me, one of the reasons I like video at my PC is because I can have it on while I'm surfing the web or answering email - I don't want something hauling me off to a full screen UI just because it's more TV like. But that's just me.

This thing clearly has a lot of potential - I'm hearing of more and more small content deals being done to get decent stuff up on Joost for launch day. If YouTube is the repository for short clips, Joost could easily become the destination for TV.

Yes, I know there's no real insight in this post. I'm being deliberately vague. Stay tuned.

I don't believe for a second that I've knocked off 2 pounds in a day. But I may at least hit 236 tomorrow, which would be leet.

As promised, I ran last night - 25 minutes, 2.25 miles or so. That's a longer length for me, up 5 minutes from what I normally do. I felt good by the end, so I guess I'm getting a bit fitter. I'm not running for more than 30 minutes - various commenters here have suggested that 30 minutes is about the longest you can go burning fat rather than just getting fitter.

Also sticking rigorously to a low-carb intake, and a lack of super nice things. Yesterday was muesli, quiche and salad, then chilli with brown rice for dinner, and some greek yoghurt with compote afterwards. In at 1500 calories, ish, combined with the run which is good stuff, I think.

But the scales hovered over 236 before juuuust tipping over into 237. Maybe 236 tomorrow.

No run last night, it was tipping it down in Oxford. Run this evening, come rain or shine.

So I mentioned that I went to see a 'blogger' screening of 300 a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of Warner's hip London PR firm. This morning I get an email thanking me for attending, linking the footage of the post-film Q&A with the director, and with a link to the 300 media player, which is embeddable.

This is bloody good PR. The 300 media player is actually pretty neat, and I've embedded the ad for it over on the right for you to take a look at. Beatwax is the PR firm that is working with Warner on this, and it's fantastic that they're starting to embrace social media as a way of communicating their message about 300. They're really going about it the right way too, without forcing it down anyone's throat. There's a lesson there for a lot of people.

C'mon!

I hit 16 stone today, or rather, one pound under 17. This is good stuff. I actually had a bit of a flamboyant weekend - I had a steak with frites on Saturday, which was carb-a-licious. But delicious, too.

So far, I don't have any complaints and I don't really have any tips. I've cut out bread, pasta and potatos (although I'm eating brown rice maybe once a week). Running 2 miles three times a week, and walking loads. Calorie intake of around 1500 calories per day. So far I seem to be losing about 2 pounds a week - that's good enough for me, without killing myself. Fingers crossed another two pop off this week.

Well, it looks like I'm ending up the week having lost a couple of pounds, which is good. I would have liked to have hit 237 - who knows, I still might tomorrow - but I have had a heavier-than-usual week on the food, thanks to a dinner out on Wednesday.

I need to go running tonight. I still don't really like running, but it seems to be doing its job.