Jeff Cahill - Free Agent

I'm BACK!

2011-06-22T22:48:00.001-04:00

Ok so I took a little time off. Stayed about the same weight, but I am sure I lost some muscle. I am re-booting on Thursday as I am in a % loss competition from now until Christmas. Numbers to follow soon!

Starting Over with the Slow Carb Diet and Occam's Protocol

2011-05-09T08:27:00.000-04:00

Today I am starting over. I had a 2 week hiatus for celebratory reasons, and now it's time to get back to work. I did not hit my goal of 205 by graduation - missed it by 1lbs - but I will take it as a victory since I was starting 230 in the face in January.

Here are my measurements that I will be starting from. Weighed in at 213.5 - a gain of 7 lbs from my last weigh in 2 weeks ago. Yes it's a lot to gain in a short period of time, but, I ate and drank about as terribly as I could and only worked out once. If I were to stop this diet all together, I wouldn't typically have the schedule I had.

AGG stack has started up again as well. I found a "Natures Made" garlic tab at Costco and am going to give it a shot. I took 2 a day during the last week of dieting and I did not stink up the place, so we shall see.

And what would a re-start be without the cold showers?! Yes, I will begin those as well. If you go back and look at my weight loss, I lost the most in February by far, and that's when I was doing the more aggressive approach to the cold therapy.

2 weeks off

2011-05-02T23:43:00.000-04:00

I am taking 2 weeks off from the 4HB diet due to celebratory and familial events. I will resume my stacks, diet and cold showers on Monday May 9 2011. I will post my initial measurements for all to see.

Lucky or Smart

2011-04-27T18:04:00.000-04:00

Just finished "Lucky or Smart" by Bo Peabody. It was ok. I liked his opening chapters message: Lucky things happen to entrepreneurs who start fundamentally innovative, morally compelling, and philosophically positive companies. He contends that lucky entrepreneurs are those that understand that often times things fall together not because of a strategy, but because the entrepreneur formed the right team and allowed them to lead. This I agree with. Many times entrepreneurs stand in the way of creative people because they cannot give up control of their baby.

I did not really agree with his selection process. He contends that great entrepreneurs are B students, and great managers are A students - the entrepreneurs are good at a lot of things and master of none and the managers are excellent at one or two things. Considering I have been an entrepreneur in the past and am an A student, I disagree with this completely. Additionally, I have been given advice that being a "jack of all trades" and "master of none" was a terrible position sell to potential employers. I would far prefer an A student over a B student - if I could afford them!

In all, its a very quick read and there are some interesting anecdotes, but it's probably not really worth your time if you are a well rounded business person.

4 Hour Body Blood Test Results

2011-04-20T14:15:00.001-04:00

I had a lipid panel done on 1/21/2011 just as I was starting to diet, and the results were scary. I hadnt started the 4HB stuff until 1/31/2011.

For those of you that are searching for PAGG results, the diet slow carb diet results or the cold shower results, stop looking and view my blood test results. They speak for themselves. I've stopped 2 medications I was on and have cut my risk of heart disease in half and now am considered normal and even below normal for most metrics. My doctor said he has NEVER had a patient turn around as fast as I have. And the truth is, it wasnt that hard. Just daily choices that began to compound.

Click the image below to see the results. I have the 4.21 on the left, the 1.21 results next, and the percentage change. Notice his comment too about my AG stack - I asked about these earlier in the year to make sure they were ok with my meds.

Week 10 - Tale of the tape using Occam's Protocol and The Slow Carb Diet

2011-04-15T08:43:00.001-04:00

Week 9 tale of the tape using cold therapy and Occam's Protocol

2011-04-06T23:46:00.000-04:00

Not as big of a change as last weeks, but that was crazy. This week I can definately notice the difference in my legs. And after my brutal leg workout, I really wasnt too sore. Not like in the beginning when I couldnt walk the next day.

Still skeptical? Cold therapy, slow carb diet, and Occam's Protocol results after 60 days

2011-04-03T01:35:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are still skeptical about if these approaches work, look at my weekly "Tale of the Tape" updates. It's not that difficult of a diet and workout program, and I haven't felt this good in YEARS. I bought size LARGE shirts for the first time in a decade. Stop dipping your toes in the water and jump in. What do you really have to lose? If you are like me, you've been messing around with dieting and exercise for a long time with limited success. This works and it works well.

Things have been extra busy with wrapping up my masters program, but soon I will do another video update, and I think you will be able to see the results.

Lots to update...2 workouts plus week 8's tale of the tape!

2011-03-29T11:35:00.000-04:00

I've been incredibly busy - too busy to update this blog!

Occam A from 3/24/2011

Occam B from 3/28/2011

Tale of the tape week 8 results. Take notice of total body inches now - all the way to the right - and the total body inches at the start. It's quite impressive!

Occam B workout results

2011-03-22T11:10:00.000-04:00

Made some changes again. Why? Because I am getting stronger and want to move over to free weights. I added the leg press and it was much easier to do with some actual leg strength! I could really feel all my muscles working. I got off the machine for incline bench and moved to dumbbell press for that. Bring it.

I will be going to the free weight preacher curl next week.

Tale of the tape - week 7 results

2011-03-22T11:07:00.000-04:00

Below are today's tape measurements. It's pretty clear that I am all over the map with how to accurately measure bodyfat, and am ok with assuming I still have A LOT of it. I weighed in at 210 today, which is just .5 lb down from last week. I would like to note that I had "spring break" last week from school and treated myself to a few non-diet meals to some unforeseen circumstances and just plain fun. I will be having a mid week "binge" day next week to celebrate Kim's defense, so that's another piece coming up.

In all, am pretty psyched to be down around 210 considering the week I just had. Here I come sub 200!

Rockin and rollin on the Occam protocol

2011-03-19T11:52:00.000-04:00

Added upright rows into the mix. My workouts should be pretty static for the next four weeks.

I will do a week 1 - week X comparison soon.

Vacation is an SOB

2011-03-18T00:42:00.001-04:00

I've had the week off of school, and while that seems like a small added bonus, its pretty sweet. So, considering I hit below 210, I decided to give myself a small break from the diet grind and had a few non-diet sanctioned meals. I will be back on this Friday 3/18/2011. For those wondering, I had more pizza on Wednesday (some friends ordered food and I had to be gracious and accept) and today I had an all day shopping situation with the fiancée and I said what the heck, it's vacation.

So, I may weigh in on Tuesday the same, but, no more binge-esque days for me this week. Next "binge" day/meal will be 3/26/2011.

Tomorrow (Friday 3/18/2011) is Occam A and I will be adding upright rows into the mix and lowering the weight on my two back exercises. It's not that I do not have the strength to do them, is that at a lighter weight the form and failure is more consistent. I seem to be working my hands more than anything.

Also, interesting article about the impact 7 M&Ms a day can have on you.
http://hypothermics.com/2011/03/seven-mms/

Tale of the tape - week 6 results

2011-03-15T19:32:00.002-04:00

Well... I think it's time to officially change my April 1 weigh in goal from 210 to 205 because I weighed in at 210.5 today! WOOT! Results below....

Strong like bull

2011-03-14T23:09:00.000-04:00

Here are my Occam B results. I decided to switch up to the leg press today. The squat rack with the guides just isnt doing it for me. Notice the nice gains in bench and preacher curl. I also added french press into the mix. I think I have enough of a base where I can start adding.

Stay tuned.. tomorrow is the tale of the tape!

Binge Meal

2011-03-12T19:38:00.001-05:00

I cheated today and stepped on the scale.... I weighed in at 212lbs! WOOT! Still keeping the strategy at one binge meal, not 2, and not anything I can shovel in. It was really tough today because I went to a birthday party (3rd in 4 weeks) and had NO pizza, NO cake, NO ice cream and NO philipino food (which looked delicious!). I had my fillet and broccoli.

My binge meal was 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza with extra cheese + 1 snack bag of cool ranch doritos + 3 girl scout cookies.

I am headed over to a friends house tomorrow and someone there will be making gourmet pizza. Might be too tough to pass up. I guess one extra meal wont kill me eh?

Book Sale Results!

2011-03-11T12:48:00.000-05:00

Went to the local library's book sale today and got some gems for a grand total of $13.50.
Here they are with Amazon links

Ugly Americans - Ben Mezrich
Who's Looking Out for You? - Bill O'Reilly
The New Realities - Peter Drucker
Ronald Reagan In Private - Jim Kuhn
Getting to Yes - Roger Fisher and William Ury
Real Money - Jim Kramer
The Age of Turbulence - Alan Greenspan
Rigged - Ben Mezrich - I already own this, got it so I could give it out as a gift
The Way Things Ought to Be - Rush Limbaugh
Next Man Up - John Feinstein - I listen to "The Tony Kornheiser" show and he's a constant guest. Figured I'd give him a shot. Possible gift for my step-brother
Leadership - Rudy Giuliani
7 Habits - Steve Covey - for my dad. He cant find his copy
A Good Walk Spoiled - John Feinstein - for my dad as a gift
The Majors - John Feinstein - for my dad as a gift

Occam A workout results from 3/10/2011

2011-03-11T12:19:00.000-05:00

I had an extra day of rest this week because I was too busy with project work to get out to the gym for even the 20 minute workout. Here are my results from this week. This is an exported report from the iFitness program I use on my ipod. I dont do them in this order - no idea why it does that.

Tale of the tape

2011-03-11T11:48:00.001-05:00

Needless to say, it's been a busy week. I wanted to do a video update, but I just dont have the time for the back end processing. So here you go. I decided to do a screen cap instead so you could see the changes for yourself. Now - the body fat data is still suspect because Kim and I are new to using the calipers. Let's see what happens next week. That should give a better picture of what's going on.

Click the image to see the data better

Occam B workout and my new binge day strategy results

2011-03-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

Occam B
Did the Occam B workout today. Still couldnt get to 10 on the squat, but I can definately tell my legs are getting stronger. I am upping the weight on the bench next time around as I hit 9 reps this time around at 120. Preacher curl was good at 7 but I will probably increase that as well.

Incline bench - 120lbs 9 reps
Squat - 185lbs 7reps
Preacher Curl - 50lbs 7 reps

My weight Saturday morning was 216.

New Binge Day Strategy
Instead of having an entire day (12ish hours) to eat whatever I want, I decided to make it just one meal. I had a normal no carb breakfast/lunch and then had mexican food for dinner and a piece of birthday cake. This morning I weighed in at 215 Sunday morning so it was all good. Still sticking to the AG (ALA + Green Tea) regimen and it seems to be working great.

My new weight in tactic just to drive home the point of not looking at the scale is to not look for an entire week. So, after my weigh in on Tuesday for measure day, I will stay away from the scale until the next one.
Stay tuned!

Occam A workout today and a change in cold plans

2011-03-04T01:51:00.000-05:00

Occam A
I had a headache walking into the gym today. Added to that I had a 2pm phone appointment and it was 1:30 when I walked in. The headache really prevented me from getting a good workout in. Just not a good mindset to have when wanting a good workout. The pressure built up bigtime as the workout began and you can tell how it affected my results.

Pull Down - 130lb 7 reps - this is too heavy. I increased the weight either too much or too early. Going back down to the 120 next time. While I did do 7 reps, they were not a good solid 7. Maybe more like 5.5 or 6. Headache maybe.

Shoulder Press - 80 lb for 6 reps. I still am hitting a wall here. This is by far my weakest muscle set, but I can say with certainty my headache really affected this exercise.

Lat Pull down - 120 for 5 reps. Again the headache here was in full force and the weight was too heavy. When adding the new exercises I am wiling to give them 1-3 workouts to find a good weight to use. I should have stopped due to my exploding head, but I wanted to keep going for the sake of the experiment.

Bosu crunch - 18 reps - these I did until failure. Hoping for 22 next time.

Change in cold plans
My school schedule is beginning to get pretty hectic. This means less time for other things, like a 15 minute shower in the morning. I have 24 days of data with a 10 minute cold shower and 3 showers at a minimum of 5 minutes. Some of those 10 minuters were 11 or 12 minutes too, so it could average out ok. Needless to say, I have a decent data set to work with.

I have decided for the month of March to do the cold pack every other night for 20 minutes and compare the results. I just got a new replacement pack from Kaz Incorporated - the one we bought had a leak from day one - and its about 16 inches long and 5 inches wide. It goes all across my back, so I know coverage is ample.

My first day of the cold pack was 3/2/2011.

New books

2011-03-02T16:57:00.001-05:00

Just purchased a number of new books over the past 30 days and will be critiquing these as I finish them. Obviously, this may take some time.

Chaos:Making a New Science
Drive: The Surprising Truth About what Motivates Us
Leading Change
Selling the Wheel
The Personal MBA
Rigged - Started 3/1/2011
The Big Short - yea I know I am late to the party
Blink
Outliers
Linchpin
The Paradox of Choice
One Up On Wall Street

27 days of cold showers...

2011-03-01T22:26:00.002-05:00

Body fat measure video

Body fat measure site

Another body fat measure site

Here are my results for Week 4 in case you dont want to watch the video.
Measurements - Week 3 ** Week 4
Chest - 43.00 ** 44.00
Right Bicep - 14.5 ** 15.00
Left Bicep - 15.00 ** 15.00
2" above navel - 41.00 ** 41.00
Navel - 45.00 ** 44.00
2" below navel - 43.00 ** 43.00
Hips - 45.00 ** 45.00
Right Thigh - 26.00 ** 27.00
Left Thigh - 26.00 ** 27.00
Total Inches - 301.00
Inches Lost - (2.5)
Skin Fold - 00 ** 30
Ab - 40mm
Sup - 30mm
Tri - 20mm
Thigh - 30mm
Body Fat % - 27.25 @ 5'10" 215lbs
Total Fat - 000.00 ** 58.7lbs
Total Lean mass - 000.00 ** 156.8

What a workout!

2011-02-28T15:12:00.000-05:00

Sheesh. Anyone who says this is an easy workout or not enough of a workout is a fool or a liar.

Occam Protocol B
Treadmil - 5 min 2.7 speed 1 elevation

Incline bench (free weightish machine - stack plates)
120lbs x 8 reps *** Went up 20lbs!! And this is the machine I have been using for all but one workout. Remember, last Occam B was done at a different gym. Pretty psyched about this!

Seated Preacher Curl - not the free weight one, but not a machine either. You still stack plates on it.
50lbs x 8 reps -- I can barely type right now... no idea how I will drive to class later.

Squats -
185lbs x 8 reps - still not 10 but close. I think I am hindered here by not having a spotter. Perhaps it's all mental right now, and perhaps I started with too heavy of a weight. Oh well.

Biked for 5 mins around 80rpm on level 6.

Still recovering...and Occam's Protocol B today

2011-02-28T09:01:00.000-05:00

Recovery
Yesterday I must have had a 1.5 gallons of water to drink. I took a short cold shower (4 mins) because I was hung over and had a headache. I figure one day is not going to ruin the entire experiment. I felt so dehydrated and beat down. I cannot believe how little I had to drink over 4 hours and how much it messed me up. Additionally, how on earth did I survive my 20's?

At least today is leg day! I weighed in this morning at 216. I know its 1 lb more than yesterday, but read my earlier sentence. Back to the hobo diet and damn it - my brothers birthday party is this weekend. I was going to skip a binge day this week, but we shall see. Birthday cake is a crazy thing.

For those interested, breakfast was 2 hb eggs, some pinto beans + kraut + coffee.

Occam's Protocol B today.
Squats, Incline bench, and the newly added preacher curl. I will update later with weights and reps, but I expect the squat weight to be 185 and around 8 reps. Still closing in on 10.

The aftermath of binge day 4

2011-02-27T10:33:00.002-05:00

I don't recommend drinking alcohol.... It made my foods after 10pm all awful choices. Weighed in this morning at 215.5. Considering all the alcohol I had, I will take the 1lb gain. Ugh.....

4th binge day food

2011-02-26T15:52:00.001-05:00

Weight - 214.5lbs
10:30am - 10oz cold water + AGG stack (300mg, 325mg, 200mg)
11:30am - Breakfast - 3 3 minute eggs + black beans

2:00pm - 10 minute cold shower
3:00pm - AGG stack (900mg, 325mg, 200mg)
3:25pm - 40 air squats, 20 wall presses
3:30pm - 2 regular Arby's roast beef (I took the meat from one and put it on the other, so only one bun), the meat + cheese from a ham and cheddar melt, 2 loaded potato bites, 1 Trefoil and 1 Thin Mint girl scout cookie.

5:00pm - AGG stack (900mg, 325mg, 200mg)
5:25pm - 40 air squats, 20 wall presses
5:30pm - 1/2 snack bag of Doritos - I had to go to the pharmacy and I am a sucker for Doritos.
6:00pm - 2oz cheese filled ravioli + tomato sauce, 3 oz penne + 1oz of alfredo, 3oz macaroni + tomato sauce, 1 garlic breadstick
6:15pm - 1 small scoop Coffee ice cream, 2 thin mints

7:30pm - 10:00 - 3 miller lite beers
10:30pm - 11:00pm - 2 vodka tonics + 2 pieces of pizza + 1/2 snack bag of Doritos + 1 slice of swiss cheese

11:45 - bed...... I know I said it wasnt a "Anything I can shovel in" type of day, but.... I dont think it really ended up that way, it just may seem that way to me due to how I have been eating lately. I think in a normal day, this would have been a normal-ish eating day. Plus, I didnt start my first "off" meal until 3ish, and it was BARELY off. Here's to the weigh in tomorrow!

4th Binge Day and updates

2011-02-26T13:42:00.002-05:00

Video update #1 - Four Hour Body Progress

2011-02-24T16:28:00.001-05:00

Best roast beef ever...

2011-02-24T11:54:00.000-05:00

My brother gave me cooking method for his beef roasts and it's awesome, so I thought I'd share. For this particular roast, it was a 4.5lb rump roast (the one with the string on it). In a perfect world I would have done a higher cut of meat, but I am a broke grad student and it's all I can afford right now.

Get the meat home, unpack it, and dry it off. Then put your rub into a large ziplock baggie and coat it throughly. If you dont have a rub to use, you can use mine which is below, it's awesome.

RUB - 1 tbs of each: Garlic Powder, Ground Mustard, Black Pepper, Salt

Take your roast out of the baggie - I put a baggie on my hand and just grabbed it - and put it on the roasting pan, FAT SIDE UP. You want the fat side up so the fat will cook during the process and send flavor inward.

Take a meat thermometer and place it as center as possible to the roast. Once inserted into the beef, make sure its as close to the middle as possible.

Take 2 cups of beef broth and about 1-3 tbs of red wine vinegar and put them at the bottom of your roasting pan. This will allow the roast to stay moist and provide you with an au jus if you want one for later.

Let the roast sit for 3 hours. Yes that's right 3 hours. You want the roast to warm up about 10 degrees. You'll know this because the temp on the beef will go up. Mine was around 38 degrees when I put my thermometer in, and when I put it in the oven, it was around 47. This will cut a good amount of time off of your cook time. Do not worry about it 'going bad' or anything like that. Aged beef is left out for days!

Now, the temps are VERY important, and please do keep in mind the size of your roast. This one cooked fast at about 2 hours, start to eating. Set your oven to 480. Once preheated, put your roast in and leave it at that temp for about 10 minutes. If your roast is larger or you like a more crispy crust, go longer. After how mine came out, I probably should have gone for 15 minutes. I wouldnt go over 15 tough.

Once you hit the 10 minute mark, turn your oven down to 220 and leave it until your roast hits the desired temp. The desired temps are tricky. This roast was a 4lb roast and I waited until it hit 120 because I like my meat medium rare. The larger the roast, the lower the temp for a medium rare meat. So if you have a 20 lb roast, maybe something like 105 is best. Remember, these a large pieces of beef and continue to cook for up to 30 minutes after you remove them from the oven.

Once your desired temp is achieved, take the roast out of the oven, but leave it in the roasting pan. Flip the roast so the fat side is now down.

Let the roast sit for about 20 minutes. This will allow for it to cool down a bit. If you cut into the meat too early, all the moisture in the meat will drain out.

As you can see, mine came out pretty good, with the outside 1/4 inch crusty.

I like mine with Heinze Horseradish sauce. Pretty awesome.

New belt soon....

2011-02-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

I bought a new belt in November. When I started using the belt, there were 2 holes still available if I slimmed down. Then the Holidays hit and that number grew to 3. Now there are ZERO! Yup. Last hole on the belt. Not too shabby.

In the last 10 days or so, my net weight loss is .5 lbs as I weighed in today at 217. However, if you look at my inches lost results, you will see they are increasing. I expect some losses again next week. I have decided my goal is 210 by April 1. I think I can hit it.

Yesterdays Occam B workout wasn't too bad. I can actually walk today from the squats, but, I could only do 7, not the prescribed 10. I don't want to change the weight, because I did one more than last week. I think I can get the 10 next week, considering I can walk today and last week I was sore for 3 days after. I also could have done more on the incline, but I wouldn't read too much into that as I was at a different gym on a different machine, and that difference in machine could be the 'increased strength' I felt. Why was I at a different gym? To show my dad how its done.

Life is a game of inches...no really..

2011-02-22T11:23:00.000-05:00

So my dad tapped out. He was trying the diet and the Occam Protocol, and he decided to add 30 minutes of cardio and go back to the traditional Atkins diet. "I haven't lost any weight since Friday/Saturday." That was his reason for the switch.

Then, 10 minutes later in the conversation, he said "I put my jeans on and I thought they were my 'fat' jeans, but they were my skinny jeans. And Laura said I lost my belly." My response was "Listen to what you just said. Is your goal to make the numbers on the scale go down, or to become smaller?" He wants to make the number go down.... I will still help him.

Here are my measurements from week 2 to week 3. Kim is doing the measuring, and we are doing each one 2-3 times to make sure its correct.

Area - W2; W3
Chest - 44.0; 43.0
Right Bicep - 14.5; 14.5
Left Bicep - 14.5; 14.5
2 " above navel - 40.5; 41
Navel - 45; 45
2" below navel - 42.5; 43
Hips - 45; 45
Right thigh - 27.5; 26.0

Left thigh - 27.5; 26.0

Total Inches - 301; 298.5

Inches Loss - 3; 2.5

Weight 217.5; 217.5

So as you can see, my weight stayed the same, but my total inches was 2.5 less than I was last week. I am happy with my progress!

Body fat measurements

2011-02-21T23:47:00.000-05:00

Picked this up today. I know I should have done them from the start, but I figure not having them for only 4 of 16 weeks wouldnt be too bad.

Tomorrow morning is measurement day and Occam B protocol workout. I will post the measurements.

Post binge day - 3rd week & Occam's Protocol

2011-02-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

I had a one year olds birthday party and a family dinner yesterday, so, my binge day was a little more than I really wanted, and I didnt do all the exercises that I wanted to before meals, but I did go to the gym in the morning for my Occam workout A.

9:00am - Weigh in 217.5

9:45am - AGG

10:00am Bfast - Hobo diet = 2 HB eggs, black beans, kraut

10:30am Occam A - These are an export from my iPhone app iFitness.

19-Feb-11 | Machine shoulder press 80 lb 5 reps to failure

19-Feb-11 | Machine lateral pull-down 120 lb 7 reps to failure

19-Feb-11 Bosu crunch 15 reps

19-Feb-11 Treadmill 2.7 speed 1 incline 5 minutes

11:00am - 11 minute cold shower

12:30pm - AGG

1:15pm - Lunch - 1 piece ham+pineapple pizza, 1 piece sausage pizza, 1 piece square pepperoni pizza, 4oz antipasto salad, 1 diet Pepsi, and 1 piece of vanilla.

6:30pm - 2 FULL DOSES OF Alpha liopic acid + GG

7:00pm - Rolling appetizers with french bread, oil & spices for dipping, spinach & artichoke dip, and chips and cheese.

8:00pm - Teriyaki Chicken, red and orange peppers, onions, mushrooms, shrimp, and some white rice.

9:00pm - 1 slice of Boston Creme Pie

9:45pm - 3 Girl Scout Cookies - I am a sucker for these - 1 Terfoil, Thin Mint, and Tagalong.

Weigh in this morning 2/20/2011

217.5

I know its the same, but I will take it. Please note, I did not want TMI on here, but from 4pm yesterday and noon today, 11 movements took place.

PAGG Stack...For me, just AGG stack + 5 Hour Energy vs Red Thunder

2011-02-19T01:25:00.003-05:00

AGG Stack
As noted in an earlier post, I am omitting the Polascinol from my stack.

Wednesdays are my days off, as its in between my off days, and the week of Feb 28th will be my week off of all supplements.

Here are the supplements I bought the second time around. My first supply was from "The Vitamin Shoppe" and expensive in comparison. I bought 1 bottle of alpha lipoic acid and egcg on Amazon for half what I paid at "The Vitamin Shoppe". What a ripoff.

I bought these on Amazon, and they may not be the cheapest per item, but I have Amazon Prime, so I figure that into the equation. Many of the items in these categories have a high per item ship cost, and their window of delivery is huge. I dont mind paying $3 extra to get it asap over 14 days, at least right now. I decided to add the garlic into the mix. I found a good deal.

GarliPure Maximum Allicin 600mg - 100 - Tablet although I think they started looking around because I paid $7.14 per bottle, and now they are up to $14 per bottle and got 2.

*****I have dropped the Garlic as of Feb 25. NOT worth the garlic odor from your body and mouth. They lie when they say odor controlled. *****

Good N Natural - Standardized Green Tea Extract 500 mg (800 mg Polyphenols, 350mg EGCG) - 120 Caps - I paid $11.50 per bottle and got 2.

Alpha Lipoic Acid 300 mg 60 caps - they have since added the 120 cap bottle, which I would have gotten instead. I bought 3 bottles at $4.59 each. I can stand taking 300mg at a time, and more, so why get the 100mg tabs?

5 Hour Energy vs Red Thunder Energy Shot

Additionally, I take a 5 hour energy every two days or so, to get the vitamin B. I also like them a lot. I bought two 12 packs at costco for $35, and then found just about the EXACT SAME THING a week later at Aldi for $24. Their brand is called "Red Thunder Energy Shot" and is .99 per bottle.

Here are the ingredients:

5 Hour Energy **** VS Red Thunder

Niacin - 30mg **** Niacin - 30 mg

Vitamin B6 - 40mg **** Vitamin B6 - 40mg

Folic Acid - 400 MCG (.4 mg) **** Folic Acid - 400 MCG (.4 mg)

B 12 - 500 MCG (.5mg) **** B 12 - 500 MCG (.5mg)

Sodium - 18mg

**** Red Thunder has 80 mg of Vitamin C and zero calories, while 5 hour energy has 4 calories (Red Thunder marketing could claim 5 hour has 400% more calories!) and zero vitamin C.

Energy Blend - 1870mg **** 1580 mg - I wont list them all, but between the two products, they are the same ingredients, just different amounts, and I am sure that's the "proprietary blend".

Enjoy the cash I just saved you.

Busy

2011-02-18T21:13:00.000-05:00

I am still doing the slow carb diet, cold showers, and Occam's Protocol. I havent updated lately because I am quite busy with school/client work, and this weekend is busy as well. I will post my next updates about the diet and how its going on Monday (2/21/2011).

BTW - Weighed in at 217.5 today. Shivering getting worse in the showers, and as previously stated, I think its because I am losing fat.

See ya!

Measurements - Week 3

2011-02-15T13:58:00.000-05:00

Week 1(1/31/2010)
Chest - 43.0
Right Arm - 15.0
Left Arm - 15.0
2" Above Navel - 43.0
Navel - 45.5
2" Below Navel - 44.5
Hips (widest point) - 45.0
Right Thigh - 27.0
Left Thigh - 27.0
Total Inches - 305.0
Inches (loss) NA
Weight - 223.0

Week 3 (2/15/2010)

Chest - 44.0

Right Arm - 14.5

Left Arm - 14.5

2" Above Navel - 40.5

Navel - 45.0

2" Below Navel - 42.5

Hips (widest point) - 45.0

Right Thigh - 27.5

Left Thigh - 27.5

Total Inches - 301.0

Inches (loss) 3

Weight - 217.5

Cold Therapy Tips

2011-02-14T16:35:00.000-05:00

So today's 11 min shower was the first where I actually shivered forcibly. I think that's a sign that I am losing more fat?

Anyways, there seems to be little "how to" out there, and without giving a video post - nobody wants to see that again - this is my technique/process. Not saying it's the right one, but its what I use and it gets the job done.

I do the glass of cold water first thing, plus my AG stack and other supplement (Fish oil) and my meds. 30 minutes later I eat - usually 2 hb eggs + beans + kraut. 30 minutes later, the cold begins.

I have an iTouch, and I downloaded Timer+ because my GF was probably sick of me screaming "HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT!?". I made a few different timers for my showers as I was starting out at 5 minutes (1/31/2011) and working my way up to longer showers like todays 11 minutes. I use a timer for 16 minutes, 5 minutes to shower with normal warm/hot water, and 11 for the cold. Why limit yourself to a 2 minute shower? Just make sure you set your auto-lock in your general settings to "Never" or else you will have no idea how much time is left after it locks, which sucks. Also, i didn't like playing music, because I knew how long most of the songs were, and I couldn't focus.

I set my iTouch on the closed toilet lid, and peek out every few minutes to see how much time I have left. 90% of the time, the water is on my back, just below my neck. I do a SLOW count to 60, and every count to 30 I do a SLOW 360. I think my 60 count is around 3 minutes. I know it seems lame, but, I have found that by picking one area on the wall to stare at gives me an excellent focus point.

That's pretty much it. For the evenings, because I have classes from 6-9 most nights, I try to do a cold pack before I leave from 4:30 - 5 or whenever I get home. It doesn't happen all the time. I have noticed lately that I am REALLY hot around bedtime and I think a cold shower just before bed is needed.

Weight and eating + lifting + the world and night owls

2011-02-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

Weight & Eating
Weighed in at 218 today. Measurement day is tomorrow (Tuesday) so stay tuned. I am expecting some interesting results.

Eating is an issue though. I can barely eat. I have NO appetite. Even on my binge day I had a tough time getting food down my gullet. 2 HB eggs and some beans this morning felt like a turkey day feast. Even as I am writing this, one egg and some beans are staring up at me, challenging me to eat them. And its a challenge that is tough. I will win though.

Lifting
Lifting yesterday was fun. And short. I am thinking of adding one exercise to each protocol, but I keep reading Tim's suggestion to resist to do more. It's just the eyes of the people at the front desk judging me as I leave after 20 minutes thats pushing for more. Stupid peer pressure.

Protocol A
Pull Downs - palms facing me this time - 7 x 100lbs - I would say I did this to failureish. Again it was my hands that failed, not my back. I did another set, only 5 reps though.

Shoulder Press - 80 for 6.5 reps - till failure for sure. There were 2 meat heads watching me and laughing when I stalled out on the 7th rep and came down with it slow. I was about 15 seconds from puking. Don't read too much into the difference in weight. One of the aforementioned meat heads was on the machine I used last time, so I had to switch to a more traditional press machine with pulleys. The one I did last time was with plates. I will use this press from now on though, as I like the movement much better.

Night Owls
Why does the rest of the world have to conform to the early birds? Why can't there be a week or month where they conform to our schedule? It has nothing to do with being lazy, I just get much more done between 10pm and 2am. I always have. Additionally, when I get home from class around 9:30 - 10:00pm, its tough to go right to bed. Do you go to bed an hour after you get home from work? No. You have dinner, a drink, watch some tv, read a book, whatever. This being my FINAL SEMESTER of school FOR EVER (no PhD - I think), my thinking may change one day. But for now, it stays as a challenge to the rest of the world. Give it a shot.

2nd binge day

2011-02-13T13:02:00.000-05:00

10:30 am - weighed in at 220.5 - I've been hovering around this weight for a while, but I know I am losing inches.

11:00am - AG stack (400 mg, 750mg)11 minute cold shower

11:15 - 2 HB eggs, pinto beans, + kraut

1:15 - 40 air squats + AG stack (600 mg, 750mg)

1:30pm - Six inch Subway chicken sandwich + small bag of Doritos. I couldn't finish the sandwich. Still have another 6 inch in the fridge. Looks like its Kim's! I also had a single bite from three different doughnuts.

3:30 - 30 sit ups and 20 air squats

3:45 - 1 swiss cake roll

6:30 - AG stack (500 mg, 750 mg)
7:00 - 1 cup brown rice + chicken + vegetables + teriyaki sauce

7:30 - 1 fork-full red velvet cake, 5oz ice cream - I bought 4 of the little 5oz ice creams of varying flavors and had 1/4 each.

8:45 - 5oz white cheddar popcorn

9:00pm - 2 chocolate + shortbread cookies

11:00am 2/13/2010 - 219.5lbs

The Hobo Diet - slow carb diet

2011-02-10T13:38:00.000-05:00

Kim has amazingly labeled this diet as "The Hobo Diet". Pretty awesome.

So here is the pic of my Hobo lunch.

As you can see, some lean beef, beans, kraut, and spinach. Not too bad at all.

I did Protocol B today at the gym, and I can barely walk. But it only took 20 minutes!

10 minute cold showers are a breeze now. No biggie.

Weight, diet, lifting

2011-02-08T10:19:00.001-05:00

Weighed in a 220 today. I guess I have been 220-223 for the past week or so, but, considering my super bowl sunday meal, I am ok with that. I will get some measurements done later today though cause its measurement day!

Diets been consistent, although I am still going through some cheese that was bought just before I read Tims suggestion of not allowing it. Once that's all gone, I will be cheese free.

The cold shower was actually fantastic after the gym yesterday. 10 minute no problem. I think I am getting used to them.

My lifting routine will be the Occam's Protocol A & B Tim suggests starting out with. My little brother is coming along for the ride too. I will try to get him to get his measurements etc. asap.
I used the 5 seconds down/5 seconds up approach to failure.

Weight is individual dependent. Mine will probably change, especially in the pull-down because my hands have no callouses (computer nerd), so my hands almost gave up before my back did.

Protocol A (Monday)
Pull-down: 12 reps x 40 lbs --> 8x 60 lbs
Machine Shoulder Press: 12 reps 25 lbs --> 8 reps x 50 lbs

Protocol B (Thursday 2/10/2011)
Incline Press - machine - TBD
Seated leg press - TBD
Stationary bike - 3 mins 85 rpm for lactic acid reduction

***Added 2/11/2010***
Turns out I am not as good at skimming as I once thought. I "read" the protocol 3 minutes before I left the gym and somehow the ONE SET UNTIL FAILURE didnt sink in. I did 2. FOR BOTH PROTOCOLS. I could barely walk today after the leg routine. Quite sore in the AM I am sure. ***

What a day....maybe a little less skeptical too!

2011-02-07T09:41:00.001-05:00

Super Bowl Sunday - seems like the best cheat/binge day ever right?

I weighed in yesterday morning at 223.5. Not too bad.

10:45am - Breakfast - 2 hb eggs, a few fork fulls of kraut, some black beans
11:15am - Cold shower - 8 min
11:30am - 40 standing squats
1:15pm - Started the AG stack. See previous post as to why just AG.
1:45pm - Lunch - 5 pieces of Hungry Howies pizza and a chocolate cruller doughnut- does it really matter what was on it?
3:30pm - 40 squats, 30 push ups, 30 sit ups
5:00pm - AG stack
6:00pm - 7:00pm- 15/20 blue corn tortilla chips dipped in hot nacho cheese with ground turkey
7:00pm - 2 more pizza slices, 1/2 creme filled doughnut
7:30 - 8:00 - Ice pack
8:30 - 1 swiss cake roll

I have no idea how many calories I ate, but I did not drink any. I did eat way more than I usually would. I somewhat felt gross.

Weighed in this morning at......220! I was shocked!

PAGG stack... hmm....

2011-02-06T12:33:00.003-05:00

So obviously the next step in this 4HB experiment is the PAGG stack right? Not for me.
Being a graduate student, funds are hard to come by, plus, I am quite skeptical of most supplements - fish oil for my triglycerides and and potassium for my sodium sensitivity is ok, recommended by my doctor.

I did my own research on these supplements. Some are good and from what I have found, some may be a waste of money. There are ZERO medical trials, information, etc about these being taken in conjunction. Having said that, this is what I found.

Policosanol - Despite a number of studies funded by the Cuban government, which produces and markets the drug, independent clinical trials have found no evidence of the efficacy of policosanol.

Alpha-lipoic acid - Does what he says it does, "...helps you store the carbs you eat in muscle or in your liver as opposed to in fat."

Green tea favanols - hate to say it, but it does what he claims it will do. "...inhibits GLUT-4 recruitment in fat cells."

Garlic extract - Claims this helps GLUT-4. I didnt find any information about it doing that, and this seems to be a whipping boy of the supplement industry. If you find something, leave a comment.

While I found ZERO medical tests about the stack as a whole, this is what I found about them individually. They may have the desired effect when used together, I dont know. Just showing you what I found.

I emailed my doctor and the reply was different than I expected.

Hi Jeff,
I do not see anything in these supplements that is harmful or will interact with any of your medications. Looks like a pretty good supplement regimen actually.
Hope that helps!
Dr. B.

Still hitting the cold showers though...

10 minute mark - Shower # 4

2011-02-05T13:58:00.001-05:00

For those of you still curious, as soon as you really get under the cold water, you almost get tunnel vision and start to hyper ventilate. Past that, adrenaline gets pushed out, your heart beast fast, and you really wake up. Keep breathing!

Yesterday I pushed my shower to six minutes, thirty seconds. I have added a 360 spin with my head directly under the water stream every 2 minutes or so. That really wakes me up, plus, it gets me so cold so fast. I did 2 cold pack applications, 30 minutes each, one later in the day, and the final, around 9pm. I used my cold pack for the early application, and a bag of frozen peas for the evening application. The peas worked real well. Might just stick to those.

Today, I went the full 10 minutes. Once you get to 6 minutes, there's really no difference between 6 and 10. What a difference afterward though. I was still cold 90 minutes later. Not super uncomfortable, but every 20 minutes or so my body would shiver.

I will be adding a second shower later in the day into the routine.

As to the food, 2 hard boiled eggs, and some black beans. Lunch was a can of tuna and a small salad.

Dinner to be determined.

Also, I may start doing video updates. Got the new camera and why not?

Weight, Diet, and a cold shower

2011-02-03T11:11:00.004-05:00

Clocked in this morning at 221. I had already eaten breakfast and had my 2 glasses of cold water. I would assume my weight as soon as I got up (the time I usually weigh in) weight was closer to 219, but for the sake of honesty, its 221 today.

My eating has been about the same for the past few days, weeks in fact. 2-3 eggs in the morning, salad and protein (tuna, beef, chicken, fish), some almonds or a south beach bar for a snack, and about the same for dinner.

Now onto what you really read this thing for, the cold showers. I didn't take one Feb 1 for personal reasons, and Feb 2 I just wimped out. Today is another story. I went 6 minutes. Video below -- its clean -- hello, I'm taking a shower! No really. SFW.

Books

2011-02-01T13:38:00.003-05:00

I read a lot, either for school, professional skills, or just enjoyment, so in casual conversation, I tend to recommend books often. If it's for enjoyment, I usually go with an audible book. They really bring a good fiction to life, plus you cannot beat the price - $15/mo.

Here are my current recommendations, with links to Amazon to purchase.

Free Agent Nation - great breakdown of how things are shaping up economically in the PSTS (professional, scientific, technical services) economy.

Linchpin - Some hyperbole, but after you get through that and see the forest through the trees, the message is still sound - be the best you can be at something, and make sure you are indispensable.

4 hour work week - I don't like the name anymore than you do. Tim has a very matter-of-fact tone, and I like it. He doesn't take excuses and doesn't put up with those that accept mediocrity in their life. Is this all original material? No. Is this applicable 100% to everyone? Absolutely not. But what's here does have great value. For instance, Tim's time management strategy involving interruptions dances around the TOC explanation of it. He's so close to nailing his explanation.

I've read MANY reviews, blog posts, etc of people bashing Ferriss, all the while stating they haven't read the book.

The Goal - I don't think any one book has changed my thinking and direction in life more than this. For me, it all starts here. Say what you will about TOC - "Its just JIT", or "It's too subjective." Ok. No book sells as much as this and has a critical following in production globally and is just JIT. I have a number of other TOC books I can recommend, but they are primarily academic so I recommend them with caution.

Critical Chain - I am a TOC junkie, as noted above. I've read almost every book from Goldratt and company. I use TOC for management & strategy development. TOC is based in production, but I dont work in that field, so I apply its tools to management, perhaps at a journeyman level. This book is great for anyone who is a project manager or wants some help at time management. It's written in novel form, which makes for easy reading and comprehension of difficult material.

Thinking Strategically - This one is on game theory. It's a dry read, but its the best I found without getting super-academic. I would recommend reading the first 2 chapters then flipping through to see what you might be interested in.

Influence - This is more a book on how your emotions/brain interpret situations. I found the info about reciprocity to be the most interesting. I would say this is the science behind "Achieving Success Through Social Capital" or any other book on social capital.

Emotions Revealed - Ekman will probably be given his due after he dies. This guy is amazing. Is this subjective? Maybe. His science has been sensationalized by the Fox show "Lie to Me", which I do love. Having said that, the story of his science and how this happened is amazing.

Freakonomics - If you haven't read this yet, read it. It's informative and fun. The podcast is cool too.

Flawless Consulting - With the "Free Agent Nation" upon us, this book is a great resource. If you are going into consulting, its invaluable. I have completed around 12 consulting jobs thus far, and after reading this, I see exactly how problems could have been averted or jobs saved. It was a required reading in a consulting course. One of the few books that was required that I have found to have actionable information.

Outliers - I liked this one the best of all of Gladwells books.

Diet, Weight, Measurements & Cold

2011-01-31T13:10:00.004-05:00

Diet

Breakfast

1 glass of cold water, 16oz

About 30 minutes later, 2 hard boiled eggs

1/2 5 hour energy

Lunch

8 oz roast beef

3oz broccoli/cauliflower
8oz coffee

Snack
2oz coco-roasted almonds

Dinner#1
Small dinner salad
6oz baked perch
5oz peas
2nd 1/2 of the 5 hour energy

Dinner#2 - after class with a friend
10 hot wings
2 glasses of Cabernet

Around midnight I did a ketosis test and was back to 40 mg/dL, proving that you can have a little off of the diet and not get totally messed up.

Weight & Measurements

1/31/2011

223lbs

Right bicep - 15 in

Left bicep - 15in

Chest - 43in

Belly - I did this going over my belly button - 45.5in

Waist -42in

Waist around butt -45in

Right thigh - 27in

Left thigh - 27in

This is a good starting point, because we will be able to see possibly how much fat I am losing and muscle gaining.

Cold
Hell yes the shower was cold today. I tried to get more cold water all over to induce the shivers, but it was tough. The hardest part is breathing - make sure you breathe! Just a 5 minute one today. I did do the cold pack on my traps yesterday, 2x for 30 minutes each with about 3 hours in between treatments. No cold pack today though. Class then catching up with an old friend.

Slow Carb Diet and Ice Therapy

2011-01-30T11:44:00.013-05:00

I recently purchased Tim Ferriss' book "The Four Hour Body". I agree, the title may be bunk, but, I can tell you that out of the chapters I have read it makes sense, especially his slow-carb diet. His slow carb diet is the south beach diet, minus cheese, and add one reset day for your glycemic index. Once I read that, it really clicked for me.

A little background on me, my health, and dieting history to understand my quick buy in to his diet. I currently weight about 220 and am 5ft 10. Why south beach or Atkins? Because I had crazy high triglycerides and my cholesterol was out of whack. I was on medication for the triglycerides, and I can say thanks to a smarter diet and lost weight, I am off the gemfibrozil. I do however still have an apparent sodium sensitivity, meaning if I eat salty foods, pizza, beef jerky, soup, many other high but not crazy high sodium high foods, I get a terrible headache and my day is ruined. So my doctor, along with some medications, recommended South Beach two years ago, and here we are. Also to note, I like to think of myself as a person who goes to the gym a lot, but I dont. I make it about once a week. 30 minutes of cardio, work on my glamor muscles , and I am out. So you can achieve good results with little workout on those diets.

I am considering trying the kettlebell workout in Tim's book. Here's two videos I found, one to make your own kettlebell, and the other a 4 minute workout.

I have been doing the South Beach Diet for 3 (1/10/11) weeks and have had decent weight loss. I have done Atkins many times (once a year for 3+months for 6 years) with great short term (6months) success, and the South Beach (last 2 years) with similar success as well. I do like the south beach food options much better since there is so much more you can eat. Last year I did the south beach and went from 259 down to 220 in about 3 months. I have stayed around 220 since then, but over the holidays I got up to 227.

During the times when I am on these diets, I have noticed that every three weeks or so, I seem to plateau and need to "reset" by what many claim is "going off the diet." I am going to try to not go so long this time around for a "reset" and give myself 12 hours to eat whatever I want, like Tim suggests in his book. During these diets I use Ketone strips to monitor my level of Ketosis - the phase your body goes into when its starved of carbs and starts burning body fat - and I can tell you that once you lock your body into ketosis, you can have a few meals and it may not ever get knocked out.

Case in point, last night for dinner I had:

1 dinner roll
1 Jonny Walker Black/rocks
Split a fried calamari with my better half
2 tbs cream of chicken soup (I didn't want to stuff myself)
Dinner salad
1/2 slab of bbq ribs
1/2 smallish baked potato with sour cream
One sugar free red bull/vodka after dinner

When I came home I used a ketone strip and I had actually gone from "moderate" - 40 mg/dL to "large" - 80 mg/dL. This morning I did get pushed back to the moderate phase, but, even with all that I ate I was still in ketosis. Pretty encouraging.

***Update 2/11/2010***
After years of using Ketone strips, I just found out that when you drink alcohol, your body still produces ketones, so its a false positive when drinking. However, if you were in ketosis before the drinking, all drinking will do is pause your fat burning process. Basically, your liver chooses to handle the alcohol first, then the fat, because the alcohol is easier to break down.

Ice Therapy

Now, onto one of the more controversial parts of Tim's book, the Ice Therapy fat burning method. In 2009 through the use of PET scans, PhD Bruce Spiegelman and his team of researchers found they could manipulate cells to become brown fat cells, or BAT. In fact, up until brown fat showed up on PET scans, doctors and researchers alike believed that only babies and small animals (mice) had brown fat. Spiegelman's methods and intent involve developing a drug to induce the creation of brown fat to help reduce the number of people with diabetes and obesity.

Move forward to January 2010, and Dr. Aaron Cypress starts looking at brown fat. He found a difference in the amounts of brown fat in men and women.

Here is the link for the original article, and in here is why a cold pack on your neck works.

"...women are twice as likely as men to have significant amounts of active brown fat—perhaps because with less muscle mass, they need brown fat to stay warm." Did you catch that last part?

It continues - " temperature seems to be an important controller of brown fat activity. ...found that when subjects spent 2 hours in a cold room wearing thin clothing and intermittently soaking their feet in ice water, their brown fat burned 15 times more energy than it did at room temperature. "

"Until a pill becomes available, there are ways for people to rev up their brown fat activity. “I don’t think you could get a lot of people to put up with [cold] therapy,” Enerbäck says, but it could help to turn down your home’s central heating and to spend some time outside in the fall and winter. Studies suggest that people who work outdoors have higher brown fat activity than average, so it’s not absurd to think that walking to work on a brisk day could boost your metabolism. "

****Added on 2/11/2010
Additionally, I should note that cold water pulls heat off of your body at a much more effective rate than cold air. The idea is not to create brown fat with this, its just an added possible bonus. The idea is to cool your body to a slightly lower temperature, then have your body work to heat you back up, essentially increasing your RMR (resting metabolic rate) throughout the day. This doesn't happen all at once, but after a few days, say 10, the rate will increase. This is why on the rest day or "binge" day, you still burn through a good amount of what you eat. ****

Now, if you read Tim's section on ice therapy after you read these documents, it will make a lot more sense to you skeptics. His method is just really aggressive.

I took my first 5 minute shower today.
Was it cold? Hell yes.
Did it suck? Only for the first minute or so.

It actually wasn't as bad as I expected, but it was still bad. Having been a athlete when I was younger, I have had my share of ice baths. Tim suggests the ice bath as a more aggressive mode, but I think it may be easier. Really. The shower was tough.

Later tonight I will do the icepack on my neck, and start over again in the morning.

I will keep you posted, but I am only doing weekly weigh ins. So no update until next week. And maybe a picture. I am going to be looking for a job soon, and I don't know if I want a pic of me all fat online.

***Please look at my other posts concerning these cold showers as I have kept with this for a while now.***

Also, I am not a doctor and I don't pretend to be, so be careful and talk to your doctor about what you are doing. It's the responsible thing to do.

My Car

2009-10-20T13:07:00.001-04:00

Good bye car. I miss you. Please know that you were worth much more than the $4,677.50 State Farm said you were worth.

NEW SKILLS!?

2009-10-07T14:36:00.003-04:00

I am going to be graduating in December, so I decided to tweak up the ol' resume and see what's out there. I ventured onto Monster, and they have really added some great tools. Under "Work Experience" in their profile builder, they have a section for skills. Just begin typing something, and a list of possible skills pops up.

It wasn't until I did this I actually realized all the things I do at my current place of employment.

They are:

Access database design and development - seriously? there isn't a day that goes by where I don't do some type of development in one of the 5 dbs we have!

Access - database management - Again, there are 5 dbs to manage, one all my own doing!

Financial Modeling - I have created and managed some different financial projections for shipping using various formulas and statistical methods.

Financial Statement Analysis - Each week I run/analyze the P&L for the Internet division. I understand that this may not be the traditional definition of Financial Statement, but, its pretty close to an income statement.

Customer Relationship Management - currently I run the Customer Satisfaction Survey, and do all follow-up communication with unhappy customers.

UPS Online Shipping - each week I match up the UPS invoice with our orders for that week and comb through it for money or training issues. Thus far for the year, I have found nearly $8k!

Logistics - I create and manage the supply schedule for all of our shipping material with the controller

Data Analysis and Presentation - I create and run various financial and inside data reports and present findings. Latest report was on the shipping department and possible lost business due to the old shipping containers.

Mainframe and internal financial systems - I have written and administer various financial reports that are run each week.

SQL - while my knowledge may be basic, its still pretty good.

Operations Problem Solving - My job has a real broad direction. I basically look for problems and fix them.

Not really sure what my current job is called, since I have so much freedom and wear so many hats. Originally, I was thinking my job was Quality Control Manager, because that's what I was told I was. BUT I do so much more than just Quality Control. I decided that Data and Operations Analyst fit much better.

I am sure that there are more, but for now, this is it!!

Updates

2009-06-23T21:51:00.002-04:00

Ok. Lots has happened. Took the GMAT, got accepted to B School, and am rocking the Accounting world as much as I can in Savitskies ACC 3010 class. More later...

Business: The Ultimate Resource

2009-03-15T14:18:00.002-04:00

I came across this book while doing research for a work. I got it cheaper at bigwords.com

Its unreal. I think its now the largest book it own!

It has great executive summaries of lots of books and academic research articles. It also has about 100 mini biographies on many of MT's favorite people, like Drucker.

The cover says "An MBA between 2 covers" and I really do believe it!

The main sections in the book are

Best Practices - People and Culture, Marketing, Strategy and Competition, Finance, IT/Information Management, Systems, Leadership, Structure, Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance, Renewal and Growth, Productivity, Personal Effectiveness - each of these sections have 15-20 articles or books summarized.

Almost 300 Management Checklists, a Management Library that summarizes lots of great books, a Business thinkers section (Drucker, Deming, Herzberg to name a few), Management Giants (Buffet, Dell, Gillette, Jobs, Welch) and a HUGE dictionary.

This will now be my definitive desk resource on almost anything, along with the casts and forums from here of cour

Nero Hell

2009-03-13T00:26:00.004-04:00

Ok. So i USED to like nero. I hate it. For no reason at all, my dvd burner, an Asus DRW-2014l1T stopped recognizing bland dvds. Everything else worked fine. So I thought it was Nero. I uninstalled it. Then I thought it was my motherboard bios. Looked into flashing that. Didn't feel like going through that at 10pm.

After 2 hours of searching I found someone recommending CCleaner. I tired it once but it didnt work. I finally resigned to re-formatting my computer. I hadnt done it in about a year, so why not.

But, just before I was going to start that process, I decided to run CCleaner again. I noticed that it didn't fix ALL my reg errors the first time. I ran it like 4 times until it couldn't find anymore reg errors.

It totally worked!! I had to run it a few times but it worked. I had uninstalled Nero, but it left a bunch of crap behind.
Now I have to find some Chippy Chap, and go to bed!!

INTERWEB, I LOVE YOU!!

Glenn Beck is a friend of mine....

2009-03-06T00:21:00.003-05:00

My first exposure to Glenn Beck was a piece he did on foreign oil, the large conspiracy by American car companies to purchase and kill those new 'green' technologies, and how important it is for us all to understand this.

I at first thought this was going to be an attack on the evil American car companies by a Liberal nutjob. I was wrong. It was a piece about why its so important to stop the flow of capital into countries that wish ill will on the US. I couldnt beleive that this was CNN. More recentlyl, an analysis in Time Magazine of all the news shows out discussin the bailouts and the economy, Beck had the most economists on to talk about the nuts and bolts, with 22.

He is typically middle of the road and he gets mad at both sides. The He has recently joined Fox News. An insider at CNN stated that negotiations fell apart when CNN decided to stop airing the repeat of his show in the 9pm time slot, and instead, will put Lou Dobbs on.

The first airing of Beck, which is on at 7, gets 375,000 viewers. His 9pm slot gets 485,000. So Lou Dobbs, with his AMAZING personality, will get 500,000? I think not. I think that CNN didnt like the conservative slant that Beck has, even though he goes after everyone fairly. They would rather lose money than have anyone with a conservative thought on their network. And people are up in arms because Fox News is a slant to the right? Please. NBC, CBS (or whats left of it), ABC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR (but not all of the time) slant heavily to the left. 1 against 7. And they are afraid?

Take the money....NO!

2009-02-18T22:57:00.001-05:00

So, some Dems are up in arms that some GO Governors are rejecting some of the bailout money that their states will be receiving.

Deomocrats:
State Democratic Party chairwoman Carol Fowler: "He's (Sanford) so ideological," Fowler said. "He would rather South Carolina do without jobs than take that money, and I think he's looking for a way not to take it."

Republicans:
A spokesman said Sanford, the new head of the Republican Governors Association, is looking at the stimulus bill to figure out how much of it he can control.

"We're going through a 1,200-page bill to determine what our options are," Spokesman Joel Sawyer said. "From there, we'll make decisions."

The issue here is interesting. These are the people elected to run their states. Let them do it. If they dont want the money, its not a political power move, and it's not ideological. This bill was created and passed without ANY republican involvement. How is that bi-partisan?

"Idaho, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said he wasn't interested in stimulus money that would expand programs and boost the state's costs in future years when the federal dollars disappear"

This is an excellent point. What do we expect? This money to be happening all the time? These people are trying it their way. They dont want a handout. Thanks Dad, but I dont need a loan. Sure it will be tough, but we'll get by. I am curious as to how much of this money will be gobbled up by the bureaucracy? It's as if the Governors Association is being yelled at for even reading it.

Democrats of America need to figure it out that the American populous doesnt want a handout. They want a real job. It seems that many of the "jobs" created from this will be working on the infrastructure of America. The skills learned on these jobs, outside of the engineering, are low skill jobs. There is no vertical line to the next level. We are setting ourselves up for this again. We should start an intensive training program for the out of work americans. Training to use their brains, not their bodies.

What we need to do is invest much of this into NASA. Think I am nuts? During the space race of the 1960's, NASA was funded with 1% of the GDP of the US. In 2007 it's less than 1% of 1%.
Think of all the amazing things that have come out of the space program. Computers, cell phones, cable tv, sattelites, velcro, the list goes on and on. This site is awful, but the info is not.

Forgot something

2009-02-18T17:32:00.003-05:00

In a rush to get my post done so I could study for my Operations quiz, I left off a great idea of Peter Ubel's I wanted to have here.

In the interview, he was asked "Are there things we can do to construct markets themselves differently so they actually take human nature into account better than the existing free market system?"

Now, his answer is easy. Very easy. In fact, we started doing this already in places like student loans.

"Sure, lets take things like conflict of interest. Say I am a credit rating agency; if you look at one of the causes of this mortgage its that the credit rating agencies weren't saying these loans were as risky as they were. And one possible explanation of that is they had conflicts of interest. They were working with these banks and mortgage companies, getting OTHER business from them. Its just human nature, when you are in that kind of complicated relationship, that being in one part of the relationship will influence how you work in the other part of the relationship; you are going to be less confrontational. You're not going to want to hurt someones feelings; harm the relationship because its important to your other part of your business. This is something we can regulate."

Feelings. Feelings are another reason why we are in this.

People need to learn and use the Ben Franklin decision tool. Basically, wright your problem at the top of the page, and divide it into two sections. One is the Pro side, the other the Con.

This will help take feelings and emotion out of decisions. Please. Use it!

Mortgage Mess

2009-02-18T16:43:00.002-05:00

As I read about the 75 BILLION that the taxpayers are dishing out to help those facing foreclosure, I found myself asking WHY?!

According to this article, it will be helping some 9 million Americans. Ok. So 9 million people out there are facing foreclosure. (4 million facing it now, 5 million under water) I think some questions need to be asked before the government comes and 'saves' the day.

1. Why are these people facing foreclosure?

If the reason is that they lost their income and have no way of paying for their home, then ok, perhaps they should be helped out a little. My family looked foreclosure in the face once before, and any help would have been great. So, by all means, save the day.

According to Peter Ubel, author of "Free Market Madness" people are FAR too optomistic about their futures. In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, Ubel states that the governments role in a free market is not to protect the citizen from the 'predators', but to protect people from themselves. I say our leaders have failed us then.

Now, if someone is facing foreclosure because they had no business buying the home they purchased, that's a completely different story. Some may scream "Ah, the predatory lenders! They are evil! It was all their fault!" That may be true, however, that wont work with me. Nobody forced these people to accept a mortgage at these terms. The reason why these folks couldnt get better terms for their loans is because they were too great a risk for the banks. Many, including myself, place blame on past Presidents for thier highjacking of the American dream. (See LINK ) This was pure and simple - banks had to loan the money out to high risk families.

Uber also states that "Most people have a hard time comprehending numbers, things like percentiles. If you asked the average American what is 10% of 1000, probably 1 in 3 people wont be able to answer that quesiton correctly. Now, put those same people in front of a mortgage broker who is talking about an adjustable rate mortgage that starts at x percent and goes potentially up to y or z percent. Remeber, these are people who dont understand what a percent is, and we're expecting them to understand ARMs? I think sensable regulation would say that we need to either help make sure people understand things like that better or we need to set acutal limits on how much people would need to put down on a house before they can qualify for a certan type of mortgage to keep them from over-extending themselves. "

This sounds a lot like the way mortgages were done before the multi-national banks, when each city had their own savings and loan.

Not everyone should own a home. Only those of us who have shown over time that we are credit worthy pepole.

Now, back to this mortgage bailout. The next tier of folks to receive some help, are the 5 million under water. I really feel for these people. These are people who's mortgages are for more than their home is worth. One more time. Their property values have fallen, and now they owe more than their home is worth.

Why? Because the housing market has collapesed; the first 4 million who were a litte too optomistic about their incomes lost their shirts.

So now, we have people who pay their bills on time and are otherwise good citizens being dragged down bigtime. This will eventually be felt all the way to the top.

I am all for helping these folks, but, for the ones who caused this, I say
NOTHING. Uncle Sam is closed.

My favorite gadget

2009-02-03T13:50:00.002-05:00

Ok. So its been a while. I seem to say that each time.

Oh well.

I got to use my favorite gadget the other day. The Kenmore Vacum with the Intelli-clean system. It's awesome. It has this colored light system that I was sure was bogus, but, after hours of use, I am sure it works.

Case in point, when I was moving, I vacumed my bedroom with my vacum, then with the Kenmore. This room was an addition onto the house. After I finished with the Kenmore, there was LOTS of drywall dust that the other vacum did not pick up.

I have since used it 2x in my current location and i swear it works like a charm. This may not be the best vacum for stairts, but, wow its awesome.

Check it out!

GREATEST VACUM EVER!

WW Day 3...MMM...FOOD

2008-07-24T09:22:00.001-04:00

lawash 130 2.6
1/2 lawash 70 1.4
shortbread 100 2
cheese it 100 2
ultra lite 221 4.42
ultra lite 221 4.42
1/2 ultra lite 110 2.2
tuna 150 3
popscicle 70 1.4
dinner - veggies & rice 3 cups 700 14
canadian club 140 2.8

Total for day 40.24

Cal for the day 2012

WW Day 2, The Food Strikes Back!

2008-07-24T09:15:00.002-04:00

Heh, ok, so the food didnt strike back. Here is my Tuesday food.

chix soup 220 cal 4.4 pts
noodles 220 cal 4.4 pts
slim jim x2 200 cal 4 pts
lawash, 70 cal + 60 meat + 60 cheese 190 cal 3.8 pts
lawash, 70 cal + 60 meat 130 cal 2.6 pts
ultra combo 221 cal 4.42 pts
ultra combo 221 cal 4.42 pts
assteroids 100 cal 2 pts
2 puddings 120 + 1 100 cal cookie pack 220 cal 4.4 pts
1 popsicle 70 cal 1.4 pts
2 shots 140 cal 2.8 pts

Total for day 38.64
Cal for the day 1932

WW day 1 - Monday July 21, 2008

2008-07-23T12:32:00.002-04:00

This is my first try at the Weight Watchers diet. I did the no carb thing for 2 weeks, lost about 15 pounds, and now that my appetite is smaller, am giving this a try.

I am starting with 40 points a day, then pulling back 1 pt a week till i hit 35.

I havent weighed myself in over a week, but my last weigh in was 244. I will weigh in Wednesday.

So, Day 1 eats are:

turkey, lettice, cheese, tomato sandwhich 360 cal 7.2 pts

turkey, lettice, cheese, tomato sandwhich 360 cal 7.2 pts

Cheetos asteroids 100 cal 2 pts

yogurt parfait 160 cal 3.2 pts

popcorn 100 cal bag 2 pts

Lawash sandwhich 200 cal 4 pts

Rice 200 cal 4 pts

Peas 200 cal 4 pts

Popcorn 300 cal 6 pts

TOTAL FOR DAY: 40 points

missing you

2008-03-06T14:19:00.001-05:00

I don't know your face no more
Or feel your touch that I adore
I don't know your face no more
It's just a place I'm looking for

I noticed tonight that the world has been turning
While I've been stuck here dithering around
Though I know I said I'd wait around till you need me
But I have to go, I hate to let you down
But I can't stop nowI've got troubles of my own

Cause I'm short on time
I'm lonely
And I'm too tired to talk

I noticed tonight that the world has been turning
While I've been stuck here withering away
Though I know I said I wouldn't leave you behind
But I have to go, it breaks my heart to say
That I can't stop nowI've got troubles of my own

Cause I'm short on time
I'm lonely
And I'm too tired to talk To no one back home
I've got troubles of my own

And I can't slow downFor no one in town
And I can't stop now
And I can't slow downFor no one in town
And I can't stop nowFor no one

The motion keeps my heart running
The motion keeps my heart running
The motion keeps my heart running
The motion keeps my heart running

2007-11-05T13:36:00.001-05:00

Away for a while.. sheesh..I'll say..

Does anyone know how to make a cross tab in Access without summing the data? I am trying to trim the number of rows used to display data, and i think a cross tab would work, but i dont really know how to do it. Neither does my boss. So i thought you might.

Didnt get to that summer reading list. In fact, I havent finished a book in a while. WOW has been consuming any freetime i have and that's ok with me.. for now..

Tried to register for the math class that defeated me. It doesnt want to face me again, cause it wont let me in!! Gotta fix that....

stress and reputation

2007-05-22T02:04:00.000-04:00

As a very long day comes to a close, i reflect on what i have learned today. People are measured by their actions over thier lives. Typically, its the bad ones. Thats what many people remember, bad decisions. I think its because "good" decisions never ruffle feathers or rattle cages. Typically, when a good decision is made, everyone just rolls right on with their lives.

Its often these bad decisions that people make in their lives that they are known for, no matter how much they change. The story of the scorpion and the frog comes to mind. I used to think that story was true in life, but i can say its not.

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.

The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

SCORPION I AM NOT!!

When people hear of someones changed attitude, lifestyle, location, job, whatever, for the better, many are quick to downplay this and assert that its just a temporary thing. I think its because they are afraid. Afraid that the changed person did something brave and difficult, and they can't.

When people change for the worse, look out. Everyone is an expert, everyone knew about it, and everyone saw it coming. And boy do they have fun with it...

People can change. I have. Can you? It wasn't easy..the growing pains hurt dearly...

A friend once started dating this person i knew. I told my friend about this persons bad decisions. I am now considered a liar. Sometimes someone elses bad decsions can become yours too...0nly i drowned...

Another friend once made a bad joke with the wrong person. I spoke about this to others. Now, once again, I am considered a liar, when lied i have not. Once again, their bad decision becomes mine...we all drowned...

My heart aches...mostly because i didn't do anything, yet am blamed for it all...

I really do hate the truth, especially when I am the only person who knows it.
My world is round... i think yours is flat.. and the ship is close to the edge...but you cant see it... i think i'll just let you fall next time...

Everyone deserves a second chance...even Judas got his.. he is a saint after all..

cahill out... golf in...

Summer Reading List

2007-05-08T13:28:00.000-04:00

Since my defunct math skills are preventing me from taking any classes this summer, I have begun to complie reading list for the summer. Usually what I do is look up a book that I know I want to read on Amazon, then look at their "Customers who bought this also bought these" list and go from there. I also check out the Modern Librarys Librarian and Readers top novels list. I also check out the non-fiction part occasionally. So far, this system works wonderfully.

I found out about the modern library list when I was lving in San Fran. I was working at Pinnacle Fittness and one of the guests always came in carrying interesting books (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for one). I asked him about them and he said he was a lit prof at SF State and used this list for his students to vote on what they would like to read. He selected 2, they seleceted 2. Very democratic I must say. Anyway, I have been working my way down the list for years.

Modern Library

I am listening to Atlas Shrugged. Listening, becuase I have read it a few times and now its just plain fun. Anytime I am feeling lazy about work, school or life, it's themes provide me the reason and drive to keep churning along.

Freakonomics
Started this one. Uses boring tools from Econ and Stats class to show real resons behind many issues and problems in society. Really really cool...

The World is Flat
One I have heard "I should read". Not really sure who said it, but ok.. I'm game.

On Bullshit
Need I say more

Crime and Punishment
It's on the modern library's list, and one I should probably read. A friend read it and loved it, mostly for the bold speech style.

Kimithica also gave me this one. I can't wait to get going on in, but Freak kinda got in the way of that...its but next.

Ultimately I have more than this to read for the summer, just what I have trown on the list as of now... more to come...

Cahill OUT!!

car insurance craziness

2007-05-08T12:23:00.000-04:00

So i just got off the phone with a nice woman from State Farm who told me that my driving record has 8 points and that my insurance rate would go up. 8 POINTS! I have had 3 speeding tickets in the last 10 years, and one of them, the most recent, was no points just a fine. She told me that while the secretary of state has their point system, the insurance compaines have another. Anything that you get, either points or fines, will make your insurance go up. And their points are more severe than the true legal system. This is insane. They should use the same system that the LAW does, not their own.

Well, now that that's out of my system, I found this great site that helps you get out of tickets. It explains some little legal loopholes.

LINK

NEXT TIME I WILL GET OFF ON ANY TICKET..

Cahill OUT!

Chess Boxing anyone?

2007-05-07T10:31:00.000-04:00

As I watch what has become my generations "Good Morning America", Sportscenter, I see something that for sure shouldn't go together, but has. Chess and Boxing. I guess now you can't say that these guys aren't total idiots. They box for 3 mins, take a 1 min break, play speed chess for 4 mins, then another min break, then back to boxing. Crazy. I don't even know how to play chess. Maybe I should learn... Cahill out...

election thoughts

2007-05-06T18:28:00.000-04:00

I know its early....but... why will anyone vote for Hillary? If its just because she is a woman, is that enough reason to vote for her? Does she have the political experience for the job? First lady, then senator for a state she never lived in, then President? Really? If she does the same thing for the country that she did for flu shots, look out. (Piggybacking from kimithica)

While I am a Republican, own and wear a Bush/Cheney 04 visor, I don't agree with everything that everything Republican does. I merely agree with their economical views, their usual moral standings, and their general idea that involving the government doesn't fix a problem, it usually makes it worse.

Typically, the government will take the profit out of ventures and kill the entreprenureship of a market. After all, ture capitalism is privatley owned and operated. It seems that what happens in todays market is that once a product, service, or idea becomes profitable and is useful or beneficial to the govt, they have to come in a "make it fair" for everyone.

LOOTERS STAY AWAY FROM ME!!