Measuring Progress

How do you measure that you are getting fitter ? Tim Ferris, in the 4 Hour Work Body, talks about TI, or total inches, which is possibly a better way to see if you are getting fit and in shape. Basically you measure your arms, legs, waist & chest, and sum up all the numbers to get your TI number. Nonetheless tracking your weight will also show you your level of progress to a certain level of accuracy. There is of course a lower limit that this will approach, so you should also check out the chart for your ideal weight for your height. BMI is another metric that’s often thrown out, where anything under 25 is considered ‘healthy’. It’s calculated by the following forumla

BMI = ( Weight in Kilograms / ( Height in Meters x Height in Meters ) )

My January chart is displayed below, and as you can see I’m just on the tip of the overweight / ideal weight border.

Overall I’m happy with the progress, but I don’t track my progress just by my weight. Other aspects like energy levels or time for a 5km run are other ways of seeing how you are progress.

So once again I will say that this is the year that I get fit. Who knows I might even push myself into doing a 10km run somewhere in the summer.

A look at 2011

Below is my weight chart from last year, and as you can see that when last July I posted my progess, I was on track to hitting the 75kg mark in September. But as you can see here, that really didn’t happen.

2011 Weight chart

The gray dots are some of the measured points, and the blue line is the average weight and predicted time I shall hit my goal.

You can see a lot of improvement in the early days & weeks, but after a while it started to slow down. The challenge here for me was to keep motivated and to push on, especially when I was starting to see some real results. You can see here that towards the end of the summer the weight started to creep up. It probably wasn’t helped with being at the Oktoberfest 8 times either

Also throw in the mix in November was a new scales, which miraculously added 2kgs to me. I updated from a mechanical scales to an electronic one, that also does body fat measurements & water weight.

While this result is a bit saddening, it’s also important to note that people’s weights do change in the seasons. It’s the same for athletes, they go through different cycles of building muscle and loosing fat and then recuperating. Now I’m not saying this is what I’ve done, but maybe some of the re-weight gain was due to this natural body craving to store up some fat for the winter.

Life Changes

Besides going to the gym, I’ve started to take a closer look at what I eat, and how much I eat. Portion control is key, and it comes back to the title, calorie accountancy. There is a simple formula to loosing weight, basically you need to use / expel more calories every day than you’ve consumed. If you can manage that, you will loose weight. There’s no magic secret to getting fit / loosing weight, it’s just you have to do it.

Useful Tools

In 2011 I started using the fantastic Weightbot app by Tapbots to record my weight. Generally I try to record at least 3 weights each week, with at least one at the weekend. During the year I picked up, and am still going through, Tim Ferris’ book the Four Hour Body on this recommendation.

I’ve also been inspired by some other people doing the same, reading Pat, Michele, Paul & James on twitter and their blogs has helped me to stay focussed, and has reminded me that there are indeed other people working hard to get fit out there, that I’m not the only one.

Back to the grinding stone

This year I’ve been hitting the gym a lot more often. For the past 3 weeks I’ve been going 4-5 times a week. The results have been good, I’ve lost 3kgs enough so far, but again it’s not the quick fixes that are needed. 74kgs is a more long term goal I know.

This year's progress

The plan for this year is to do at least a small update on my progress every 3 months. So see you in March !

This morning I was greeted with another one, from Sam who was looking for his father. What’s interesting is that Sam sent the invite to gmail to a gmail address, wft ? Either way, Sam I’m not your father….

About Tweet up in a Brewery

A few English speaking tweeters in Munich have come together and decided to have an informal tweet up. It’s open to everyone, the language is generally English, but most of us speak-the-german too. Think of it as an open coffee club meeting with beer ! We generally meet after work in a central bar / brewery in Munich and chat about a whole host of topics.

A quick thanks to equinux who sponsored a few beers at tub3. They showed off their new prodcuct Tizi, which turns your iPad into a digital receiver, and picked up the tab while we oooh and awwwed over it.

Details of TUB4

• Date : Thursday, January 20th 2011
• Time : 18:30 (6:30pm CET)
• Location : Max Emanuel Brauerei (www.max-emanuel-brauerei.de) - chosen by Adrian Thomas
• Address : Adalbertstraße 33, 80799 Munich

Signup for TUB4

The event have ended - no more registrations are allowed.
Upon sign up you’ll be send to the twitter search results page.
Total Attendees: 7

#	Name
1.	Carlo
2.	Geoff Teale
3.	paul savage
4.	Adrian Thomas
5.	Mike
6.	Haentz
7.	Jason

Previous Tweet up in a Brewery

This is the 4th meeting in the series. [1] [2] [3]

HashTag for the event : #tub4, a list of some previous attendees can be found here.
See you there !

Travel for work can be fun, but it can als be a little over rated, it’s great to get to see these places & meet people face to face, but besides that, there generally isn’t such a great attraction to travelling for work. More often than not, travelling for work is done on tight schedules, so you don’t always get a full feel for a place, like you would on holidays. On the other hand, trips are a great change from working in an office on your own, where after a while the walls start to get a little too familiar.

Later on in the month I will try to do a post with my favorite picture form each place I took. But for now there is just a list.

The trips taken in 2010

• Cork, Ireland
• Boston, US
• Florida, US
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Austria
• Rome, Italy
• Paris, France
• Valetta, Malta
• Dublin, Ireland
• Krackow
• Galway, Ireland
• Skopje, Macedonia (Former Republic of)
• Tallinn, Estonia
• Belgrade, Serbia
• Florida, US
• Jamaica
• Dublin, Ireland
• Cork, Ireland

I’ve started to put some of the trips on Dopplr, (my profile) if you are bothered to look. What does 2011 have in store for itself ?

Update : 18/2/2011 There is another email doing the rounds, this time from http://www.revenue.ie.casefileform.com/refund.php?form=19294030 Again it is a phishing attempt to get you fill in your details. On the 2nd page it take you to a page where they ask you for your credit card details. The from email address is listed as service@revenue.ie

Some random couple at the space needle in Seattle just sent me their picture. I don’t know who these people, but they fall into the category of people who email me although I don’t know them. Either way they look like they are having a great time.
So if you are a Paul Savage and are googling yourself, maybe you can let me know who the couple is.

Pictures of Munich

Here are some of the images I took on the trip. Despite it being an overcast day, we still managed to work with the light that was there, and in some pictures used it to a good effect.

We went through all the different modes of my Canon, and we tested out some of the more advance things I tended to avoid in the past, such as Exposure compensation, and when to use shutter vs. aperture priority.

Dave climbing to get that picture

So if you are looking for interesting things to do in Munich, I would advise you to check the tour out.

My Ballymaloe

Here is a picture of my latest haul !

Review of Flannerys Hotel Galway

Keeping in mind it’s a 3 star hotel, I would say it was still below satisfactory. I was staying in one of the non renovated rooms, which really could have done with a sprucing up. The bathroom is from the 80′s or 70′s. The bed was comfortable, but the linen looks like it was past its best. In a hotel when the linen starts piling it should be thrown out.

Interestingly enough these guys give you a RTÉ Guide for your incredibly small TV. One positive is that there is free WiFi everywhere, not just in the lobby as advertised.

Breakfast is less than average. The buffet style is not really a buffet style, as someone puts together your Irish breakfast for you. I’m guessing this is a cost saving idea (rather than a safety issue). The fruit salad was no great shakes either, as it was mostly apple chopped up, no bananas, berries or anything else. Don’t attempt to drink the coffee, as it tasted either like it was instant coffee, or it had been standing in a metal pot for a 1/2 hour. A Nespresso machine, that costs about €0.30 per cup would go a LONG way. Thankfully on my 2nd morning I wasn’t even offered coffee, but sadly I missed out on the toast too. The selection of juices was nice (apple, orange, cranberry and pineapple), but they failed to offer water as a drink. The breads and few pastries weren’t tested.

Food at the restaurant wasn’t anything spectacular to report, and the attitude of one barman would lead you to think that you were putting him out when ordering drinks or meals. Prices for food were around the €12-€18 range, and simply not worth it for the level of service offered. I offered to pay my bill when ordering at the bar, but instead, I get interrupted while eating, and a bill is put on the table instead. I’m guessing the bar staff could do with a bit of re-training.

The verdict

Would I go back ? No, probably not. The price to service is certainly not something I was entirely happy with.

It’s located at Claude-Lorrain-Straße 24, 81543 München, and the nearest U-Bahn is the U1/U2 at Kolumbusplatz.


Above is a picture of the kids pool with a slide and below is the adults pool, with a lane market for the serious swimmers. The Schyrenbad is open daily from 9am-6pm, and on warm days it should be open until 8pm. I’m not 100% sure as to what constitutes a “warm day”. Entrance fee is €3.50 for adults. As far as I could see the pool is only slightly heated, so it’s not for the faint hearted.
It’s worth a visit on those hot summer days !

Maria Einsiedel

Another great outdoor pool is Sommerbad Maria Einsiedel which is located at Zentralländstraße 28, 81379 München. This is to the south of Munich near the Thalkirchen (Tierpark) U-bahn station on the U3 line. Maria Einsiedel has a stream running through it which you can jump into and will carry you through the park attached to it. The stream has been split off from the Isar, and is quite refreshing.