Tag: what the heck

I’ve Lost 28lbs In 2 Months with the @Noom Android App

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Diet, Exercise, Food, Health, Noom, Recipes2 Comments

mid picture

I didn’t think it would be possible for me to be as happy about my body as I am right at this very moment.

My weight loss journey began on January 5th 2013.  I didn’t want to make a cheesy New Years Resolution because every time I do, I don’t keep it.  I was afraid of jinxing myself, so I decided that I wasn’t going to do it.  But then I started thinking about it and figured, what’s the harm in saying I want to lose weight, but not because I feel obligated to make a New Years Resolution, but because I want to lose weight and be healthy.  Not just go on a diet, but try to change my eating habits for good.

As I was looking for a new weight loss app, I found Noom right on the Google Play Store page on my new HTC One V from Virgin Mobile.  It was a free app so I figured what the heck, let’s install it and see what it looks like.  I fell in love with it right away because of all of the things it can do compared with some of the other diet apps I had installed.  I wanted the pro version, so instead of paying a monthly fee for it, I just paid for it for life.  I know, I should have played with it to see how it would work for at least a week or so, but I already knew it was going to help me lose weight, and well, here I am today.

This is only half of my weight loss journey though, not even half yet.  I want to lose 63lbs, so I still have a way to go.

I know people are going to ask what I did to lose 28.4lbs in 2 months.  Well, I logged everything I ate everyday in the Noom app.  They have Green foods, Yellow foods and Red foods.  So say you are eating vegetables like Broccoli or Brussels Sprouts, those are green.  The Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners are green, and that is what I ate for lunch and dinner every day for the last 2 months.  Basically, I’ve been trying to eat anything and everything that is green, but I have been eating a few yellows and reds here and there because you can have them, just not as much as the greens.

Just to note, I am not just going to eat healthy to help me lose weight.  I am changing the way I think about food and I do plan on continuing to eat healthy after I have lost all the weight because I want to stay healthy.  I do not want to gain the weight all over again.  I’ve also been learning what is in the food that I have been eating that made me fat and that is also my motivation to eat healthy.  They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this old dog is learning new tricks everyday and will stick with it.

I have been making my own peanut butter and sugar-free strawberry jam and sugar-free applesauce and even making my own banana ice cream.  I have also been finding recipes for healthy treats like cookies made out of fruit and oatmeal.  Those are really good.  I made a recipes page on my website that I thought I’d share.  I’m still adding more when I find them.

The only thing I have not done yet to help me lose weight is exercise, and I have a very good reason.  I have tried to go for walks, and we went out a few times in the beginning, but I have degenerative disc disease in my lower spine which makes walking very painful.  I can ride the bike because I am sitting down, I just can’t walk for too long.  The back wheel on my bicycle kept deflating because the rim tape broke and I didn’t know it, but I have fabric rim tape on it now and the tube is filled with air so I can finally start riding again.  Thankfully my back doesn’t hurt when I’m on the bike.

So, like I said, I am only halfway there.  I just wanted to give an update of my current progress.  See you again when I have lost all 63lbs.

Noom Weight Loss Coach

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Diet, Health, Weight1 Comment

Noom Logo

Okay so you might say that I am a bit excited about weight loss all of a sudden.  On New Years Eve/Day, I decided that I wasn’t going to make a New Years resolution.  I changed my mind when I had my picture taken at IHOP.  I decided that I would make one, but it isn’t to lose weight, but more to change my eating habits to live a healthier lifestyle which will help me lose weight in the long run.  I don’t want to look at it as a diet, but more of a lifestyle change.

I started looking on the Google Play App Store for weight loss apps and found a few that looked good, but they didn’t really do it for me.  I went to the App store and found Noom on the front page.  Since it was recommended, I figured what the heck, let’s give it a go and see how it works.

It’s a free app, but it has limitations because they want you to pay for the service of using the app.  It’s normally $10 a month to go pro, but they have a holiday special right now for only $2.99 a month, $15 a year or $30 forever.  I was going to do the $2.99 a month, but you know how that works, you pay $2.99 and the next month it goes back to it’s regular price of $10 a month.  I figured I’d probably only do this for 1 year, but you never know.  I just want the full version forever without having to worry about paying a monthly or yearly fee.  I figured the $30 price will go up if I don’t do it now, so I paid for it and I love it.

They don’t pressure you to do things you don’t want to do.  They don’t tell you that you can’t have certain foods because telling you what to eat makes people rebel and eat what they want to out of spite.  That’s just what I think, the app didn’t tell me that.  They do give you some good articles to read with very helpful hints and tips and you get points for everything you do.  I am level 4 now.

Here are a few of the features that I love about it.  When you enter your meals, you have the option of scanning the bar code on the box.  That way you don’t have to type it in.  You might think that is lazy, but not really because sometimes it can take a few minutes for the scanner to read the bar code, so I’m sitting there like a dufus holding the phone up against a bar code and it keeps trying to focus, but doesn’t do anything.  If I place the box on something and steady the phone on a flat surface so I’m not shaking it then it might work better.  But I digress.  You can also type in a word like Banana and it asks you if you are eating the size of a golf ball, a tennis ball, a baseball or a fist.  They don’t ask you how much it weighs, just how much food it is.

We have both really changed our eating habits.  We started buying Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners at Food Maxx for only $1.88 each.  That is a big help because they are nearly twice that at Albertson’s.  We also started buying more fruits and veggies.  I have actually been more motivated to eat fruits and vegetables from Noom.  I took this picture today.

fruit bowl

My problem is that I have a sweet tooth.  I will literally go out and buy candy because I want something sweet all the time.  These don’t compare to candy, but they are sweet and they really help and they are green foods in the Noom app, so they are better.

One of the features of Noom that I really love is the Pedometer.  If I keep my phone on me at all times, either in my hand or my pocket, it counts my steps whether I’m in the app or not.  My phone can be on standby in my pocket and it still counts my steps.  And it has an awesome mapping feature for when I exercise outdoors.  If I go for a walk or a bike ride, it uses the GPS to show me where I am going and it even marks my trail on a map so I know where I went.  That’s really cool.  And it tells me how fast I’m walking or cycling, how many miles and miles per hour and how many calories I’ve burned.  My bicycle computer does that, but what it doesn’t do is show me on the map.  I think when I start cycling again, I’m only going to bring my phone and not the bicycle computer.

Here are some screenshots so you can see what I’m talking about.  If you are looking to lose weight, I strongly recommend Noom.  It’s only available for the Android, sorry iPhone users.

coach logbook history yesterdays meals weight graph  map

Noom is not paying me to write this, I am just very excited about finally having a tool to help me lose weight that actually works without me having to go out of my way to use it.  You don’t have to pay for it, you can still use it for free, but you won’t get all the articles.  It’s a great app, you should try it.

No More Monitor, No More EverQuest :(

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, EverQuest6 Comments

I recently decided that I wanted to make my return to EverQuest after 5 long years, but then my monitor decided it doesn’t want to turn on anymore.  My video card has an HDMI so I can plug my HDTV in so I can still use my computer, but now my issue is that EverQuest crashes before it can begin to load the game.  So much for that idea.

My monitor is a 20.1-inch Sylvania SK2000w-b Widescreen LCD.  What it is doing is when you turn the computer on, the screen doesn’t turn on and the power light turns green and starts blinking over and over.  The screen never actually turns on, it used to turn on after a few minutes, but now it isn’t turning on at all.

I googled the model number and found out that it is fixable.  I found out on the Fixya website that the problem could be that the capacitors have gone bad.  My first thought was, what the heck is a capacitor and how do I fix it?  So I looked at YouTube and they have a video that shows a guy who bought a monitor from a thrift store for only $2.98.  It’s not a Sylvania, but he is showing what a capacitor is and shows you how to identify a bad one and how to remove the old and replace it with new.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02uLSu1Jj5M)
It looks really complicated, but I’m sure that once you figure out how to remove the solder from the capacitor and are able to replace the first one, the rest are a cake walk.  Hey, if it works then I get my monitor back and I can play EverQuest again, but if it doesn’t then I still have a 20.1-inch paperweight, so really, what is the worst that could happen?  I mean sure I could buy a new monitor, but who has that kind of cash?  I could pay someone to fix it for me but they would end up charging me half of what a new monitor would end up costing me.  I can pick the parts up at Radio Shack and fix it myself.
I think that if I can build a computer, I can replace a capacitor, right?  Yeah… easier said that done, but we’ll see how it works out.
My concern about EverQuest is that I will have to cancel it before they charge me for another month, but I haven’t really had that much time to play with it anyway and I don’t want to keep paying for something I’m probably not going to be able to play very often.  I may as well cancel my account and go back to it when my monitor has been fixed.  I waited 5 years, I’m sure I could wait a little bit longer until I can fix it.  Who knows, I may be back in the game by the weekend.  I think I can afford to spend up to $10 on capacitors rather than $200 for a new monitor.

My Return to EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest3 Comments

 

I stopped playing EverQuest in 2007 because something tragic happened in my life and I just couldn’t justify playing a video game while shit was hitting the fan, so I quit.  I had paid for a whole year and I didn’t want to waste it so I forced myself to play out of principle, but I found that I had lost all of my enthusiasm for the game after playing for 6 years.

It has been 5 years since I’ve played and I’ve wanted to get back into it for so long, but I couldn’t really justify spending $15 a month to play a game when I could play Lord of the Rings Online for free.  I have already started getting bored with LOTRO so I haven’t really been playing that anyway.  I wanted to get back into EQ so I did.

A few days ago I started playing again and I got on my character named Xanapus and walked around for a bit to look at all of the places that I had missed all those years just to see if anything had changed, and it hadn’t.

I decided that I really didn’t know what the heck I was doing anymore.  You would think it’s like riding a bike, you never really forget, but I have.  I’m sure I will get the hang of it again, but it will take time to relearn my class and which spells are appropriate for which region and which mobs etc.

Instead of playing my main character that I missed so dearly, I thought I’d get on one of my newbie characters that I created but never really progressed.  His name was Voldamort, but someone apparently took that name over the last 5 years so it had an X on the end.  I logged into the account and it said I was eligible for a name change.  What better time to add an “Evilxanapus” character lol.  People joke that Xanapus is evil some days because I accidentally killed the mob that I wasn’t supposed to kill during someones EPIC quest.  Oopsie!  This level 12 necromancer is now my evil guy.

I managed to level him to 16 in just a few days of playing, which back in the day wouldn’t have been possible, but I guess it’s easier to do now.  I swear, it took me at least 6 months to get Xanapus to level 16, so it is a bit frustrating that I got this necromancer from 12 to 16 in just days.

My old guild is still active, but nobody is ever online.  There are maybe 2 or 3 active players, but they aren’t on everyday.  I don’t think that I will leave my guild that I have been absent from for 5 years, but at the same time it’s lonely in there all by myself.  I don’t really know if I will be playing the game full time or if this is just a 1 month thing.  I want to play full time again, but I have too many things to do in my real life to focus on a game.  I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.  Being in an active guild with people who want to play with me and talk to me would justify me paying $15 a month that I would normally spend on something more useful, like oh I don’t know, a small bag of groceries.

EverQuest is fun and all, but their graphics don’t even compare to LOTRO’s.  I forgot how much I hated “zoning” in EQ.  There are only a few times in LOTRO when you have to actually “zone” so it was quite annoying having to zone every time I went from Crescent Reach to Blightfire Moors and to the Plane of Knowledge.  Ah memories of time wasted zoning lol.

I am playing this game for two reasons, one because I missed it and wanted to play it again, and two for research for a book I want to write.  I think it would be worth my time playing if I had some people to play with to give me ideas on a story or plot. Playing by myself isn’t going to give me any ideas for content.  Although I already know what the book will be about, I just want to add more interesting stories and conversations that I actually have with people.  Playing the game gives me inspiration, but playing it with people is where my story comes from.  We will see how it goes.

Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 3

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

I didn’t watch Season 1 of the Real Housewives of New Jersey because I was taking a stand against the real housewives reality shows because I hated the OC housewives.  Once I started watching Season 2 of NJ I loved it and changed my mind about the whole thing.  That’s how good these ladies were, they converted me.

After all of the Danielle drama I decided that season 2 was enough drama for me and that I wouldn’t watch it again.  They have already had a few episodes that I haven’t watched but this morning I got my Hulu email with new shows and episode 1 of the new season of the Real Housewives of New Jersey was in there so I thought what the heck, I’ll check it out.

Edit: In the past it has taken Hulu a few weeks to show the first episode of the Bravo shows so I was wrong, they haven’t had a few episodes already.

I’m not surprised that there would be as much drama as there was but I wasn’t expecting it would come from Teresa’s Brother Joe.  I mean, I don’t know him but I kind of figured that if there was going to be some drama it would have come from his wife, not him.  I mean, the show isn’t about the husbands, it’s about the wives.  It seems like he has hijacked the show on the very first episode and I don’t really care to see the rest of the season because of him.

All he did in the entire episode was bitch and complain like a spoiled little brat about how his sister ignores him.  Oh boo freakin’ hoo, grow up!  He sat at the table at the reception at his baby boys christening whining and complaining about his sister.  It’s your son’s day, not yours or your sisters, give it a rest and enjoy yourself, don’t sit there bitching about your sister when you should be focusing all of your energy on your son.

It’s too bad I won’t be watching it because I really love the Manzo’s and Teresa and Jacqueline and I really would have liked to see them in this new season.  I follow most of them on Twitter, Albie, Chris, Caroline and Teresa, I even follow Danielle lol.  I’ve even tried responding to some of the things that Albie and Chris tweet but have gotten no response which isn’t surprising even though Kyle Richards used to tweet me back all the time but whatever.

So, no more housewives for me, I’m done.  I like some of the people on the show, I just can’t handle the drama emotionally, you know?  It breaks my heart to see these people being verbally and physically abusive with each other.  I know its real life but why does real life have to be so violent?

I think the reason it hurts me so much to watch is because that is how my childhood was and I hated every second of it so I have taken a stand against violence by not inviting it into my life and by watching these violent people on tv, it’s inviting it in and I just have to kick it out.  I still love the people, I just don’t want to see them beat each other up every week.

Taste the @Twimbow

On By Michel McDonaldIn TwitterLeave a comment

A few days ago I was searching for something that had to do with rainbows, I think I was looking for an image. I really don’t remember but in my Google search I found Twimbow. It said it was in pre-Alpha so in order for me to use Twinbow I had to sign up and wait for approval. Well, I got an email today with my approval.

When I found it on Google I read that it was a new Twitter application so I thought what the heck, I could always use a new way to go on twitter. I’m not really much of a twit er wait no that came out wrong… or did it? I don’t get into twittering as much as a lot of people do so I don’t really use it. The problem with Twitter is that I am following so many people and I look away for 5 seconds and there are 20 more tweets. I look away for 5 minutes and there are 500 new tweets. It’s overwhelming so I don’t use Twitter as much as I would like to.

Twimbow is a bit different in the respect that you can choose what tweets you want to look at. Look at this image, this is the main page. The left column has direct messages, your mentions and people mentioning you, all color coded. The middle column are everyone’s tweets that you are following and the right column are the Twimbow mentions.

What I would love to see happen next is being able to either block certain people’s tweets or only show certain people’s tweets. That way you can block out all the spam tweets from people you really don’t know who you follow that advertise a lot.

The problem is, I follow everyone who follows me whether I know them or not. So because of that my twitter page is overwhelmed with tons of new tweets. I don’t want to unfollow those people but I don’t want to read their spam tweets either lol. And some of the people I follow are speaking in Russian. I can’t even read their tweets.

I said earlier that you can choose what tweets you see, this is what I mean. In the image above you might have noticed at the bottom it said Monitor. Well, if you click that you can type in some key words or phrases and anyone who tweets those words or phrases will show up under that word.

For this example I typed in 4 words, Nook, Kindle, Ebook and Gay. So every time someone says those words I will know it. You can also move those boxes around. When I typed them all out they were all vertical on the left side, I moved them so they are horizontal to see the tweets in them.

You could also type in certain people’s names like if I only want to look at Kathy Griffins tweets or any time someone said her name then those will be the only tweets I see. I typed Xanapus and my last tweet came up but because nobody ever says my name 😦 that won’t have any new tweets.

I would like to only follow certain people’s tweets like I said Kathy Griffin but also Alyssa Milano, Bethany, BravoAndy, hello Ross and a few other celebrities. I only want to look at friend tweets and celebrity tweets.

I like Twimbow because their site looks way cooler than Twitters does. Hopefully they will have ways of blocking or only allowing certain people so I can enjoy it even more.

Farscape DVD’s

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

I just found out tonight from a friend that Ben Browder and Claudia Black from Stargate SG-1 were in Farscape.

When we first got our cable in 2000 I wasn’t really that into watching the Sci-Fi channel because I was addicted to Comedy Central.  But then after a couple of years I started watching the Sci-Fi channel.  I did see a couple of episodes of Farscape but I figured I was too late watching it because I didn’t have cable when it started and I didn’t want to watch something in the middle and wonder what the heck is going on.

But I’ve been watching Stargate SG-1 religiously every day at 3pm (Sci-Fi HD channel here is East Coast, then the regular Sci-Fi channel is West Coast so then I get to see it again at 6pm).  When I really started getting into watching Stargate SG-1 it was about the same time Ben Browder and Claudia Black came into the show.  I figure yeah I missed a lot of the earlier seasons but it’s on 5 days a week, I’m sure they will get to the end soon and then start over from the very beginning.

I was figuring I was going to buy the complete Stargate SG-1 series on DVD’s for $130 from Amazon so even if they didn’t repeat it again I’d have the DVD’s so no biggy.

Well, when my friend told me today about Farscape I googled the show and went to the farscape website where I learned they had 4 seasons from 1998 to 2002.  So I figured ok I’ll go to amazon and see how much it cost per season.  OMG They are so expensive.  Like $130 for the first season.  Hello?  Season 2 is $78.37, Season 3 is $99.91 and Season 4 is $126.99.

Holy crap dude!  Are you sure about those prices?  Then I went to see how much the entire series is with all 4 seasons, it’s frickin $484.99.  I can’t believe it’s that expensive.  I’m not buying that.  I could never afford that much money.

So, I guess I’ll have to just imagine how good of a show it was.  Maybe the dvd’s are made out of gold and diamonds.  Maybe that’s why they are so much money.  Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.

Caylee Anthony Memorial

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

The Caylee Anthony memorial was today and Casey had the opportunity to watch it on tv but she didn’t even ask for it.  What the heck is wrong with this woman?  Is she that deranged that she won’t even watch her own daughters funeral service?

Doesn’t she know that every action has a consequence?  By not requesting to watch it on tv she is implicating herself even more because had she watched it and cried the jury would see that she has at least some remorse for murdering her own daughter and they wouldn’t be so harsh on her.  Or it would’ve shown the jury that maybe she didn’t do it.  Who knows.

At least by watching it she would’ve shown the jury and the public that she doesn’t have a heart of stone or ice.

Paranormal State

On By Michel McDonaldIn Ghosts, Paranormal, TVLeave a comment

I was laying in bed watching tv and I had the History channel on most of the day watching these shows about the universe, about space and technology etc.  But that marathon ended and I didn’t want to watch what was on afterwards so I looked at the guide and found Paranormal State on A&E so I changed it to that.

I think there was maybe 2 hours that I saw, 4 episodes.  It was ok, a bit too much for me though.  I much prefer watching Ghost Hunters and GHI.  At one point in the basement of a church this guy was in the bathroom and all of a sudden the guy fell, like he was pushed I guess, I don’t know but you could see the camera falling with him.  He was so freaked out that he couldn’t even speak when they asked him if he’s ok.

I’ve been there I guess, you are just in shock, you can’t move, you can’t even speak, your brain is working overtime trying to figure out what the heck just happened to me that you can’t form the words.  You just need a minute or 2.  I probably would’ve been all HELLO!  HELLO!  CAN YOU HEAR ME?  LOL I’m a jerk.  But if that happened to me and I couldn’t speak I’d actually like someone to snap me out of it so I can tell them what happened.

I guess it’s a good show, I just prefer watching Ghost Hunters.