Fitness: Geek Style
About 2 months ago I decided that I needed to do something to improve my fitness. I was about 40 lbs above what I consider my ideal weight, and about 20 lbs above my acceptable weight range. I needed a solution that would be easy to stick to, and something that would keep me entertained at the same time. I needed something that would appeal to my geek sensibilities.
Below I will go into a little detail about what I found, and how it works, and how these things interact.
Tracking Weight (Withings.com - $159.99 for scale)
One of the best tips I have had to improve weight loss, is to weigh yourself regularly and record the progress. Enter the ultimate geek scale, The Withings Scale.
The scale is not cheap at $159.99 but it certainly is a great product. It is wifi connected, and it automatically records your weight and provides tools to graph it and produce reports. Setup was incredibly easy, simply connect it via USB to a computer with an internet connection and it took care of the rest. It can track up to 8 people, and has been entirely problem free for the 2 months I have had it. There are mobile apps for Android, iPhone/iPad as well as a web version. These apps all some to have some quirks that I wish they would work out, but they seem to be 4/5. Beyond standard weight, the scale also tracks Body Fat% and BMI. For athletes who have a tough time getting accurate body fat readings, there are various different models that can be used for tracking body composition.
Withings Scale
Tracking Fitness (Endomondo.com - Free)
I have spent this summer doing a lot of biking. Again it is nice to chart and track this information; to do this I have been using an iPhone (and just about any mobile you have) app called Endomondo. This is a free GPS app, that tracks your routes (and calories), in real time while you work out. The usage is simple, you start the app, enter type of workout you are doing, wait for a strong GPS signal and press start. After that you can throw your phone in your pocket or backpack and you are good to go. For the most part it has been very accurate in terms of tracking my location.
In order for it to track your calories it needs to know your weight. Thankfully Endomondo recently announced integration with Withings so your weight is automatically updated in your profile.
Endomondo also offers a variety of social features that allow you track friends, send live pep talks (you can send a message to someone who is working out and it will be read out to them through text-to-speech), and there are various messages.
A sample workout:
Putting It All Together (DailyBurn.com - Free)
To put it all together, I needed something that would track my calorie input, calories burned, and my dietary goals. For this I have been using DailyBurn. It is a general health and wellness site, that does a decent, but not fabulous job at making it easy to track calories. It has mobile apps, and a good webpage that allow you to enter the foods that you eat to track your calories consumed. It has a very extensive database of woods with nutritional information, which makes it pretty easy to track all the calories you consume. For any foods that are lacking, you do have the ability to add your own foods.
As well as tracking your calories, you also enter in your weight, and desired weight and activity level and it will give you caloric consumption goals and a time frame to reach your goal weight. This allows you to know how you are doing in regards to eating the right amount of calories. Thankfully DailyBurn is linked to Withings so your weight is automatically updated.
DailyBurn - Calories Consumed
Beyond daily activity you can also enter exercises that you have done and calories burned. If you don't know how many calories you have burned it will estimate. Unfortunately there is currently no integration between DailyBurn and Endomondo, which is my biggest current functionality gap.
Like Endomondo there are various social features including challenges. One of the nice features of the challenges are that a good number are Everyone Wins challenges. Such as the goal is to lose 10lbs, and everyone who loses 10lbs wins, not just the first person.
Putting these 3 apps together has made it very easy to stay motivated in my fitness endeavors, not to mention tracking my progress towards my fitness goals. For anyone eager to chart and track their workouts and fitness I highly recommend this trifecta of tools.
Where Did My Google Chrome Bookmarks Go?
One of the best features of Google Chrome is that it can sync your bookmarks between instances.
It is super convenient that when I would add a bookmark to my browser at work, it was instantly on my computer at home. One of the other features that I absolutely loved was that all of my bookmarks also appeared in a read-only folder in my Google Docs. This was super convenient if I was on a computer that was not synced to my google account.
Well when Google updated the docs app with Collections as opposed to Folders we somehow lost access to all of the bookmarks. For something that is synced in the cloud, I absolutely need browser based access to it. So where to get it now? If someone has a good way to get browser based access to my bookmarks please let me know.
Eugene Melnyk Wants Chris Neil Banned For Life!
Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the Ottawa Senators, has taken the hardest line stance on head hits of anyone in the NHL. He has recently said that intentional hits to the head should result in lifetime bans from the sport of hockey.
If it's an accidental hit that could be have been avoided, just because you're stupid and you just skated the wrong way, but you hit the guy, fine, 20-game suspension, If it's truly accidental and the guy just ran into you, you know what? Give the guy a break. But, if it's a deliberate hit you should not be in any game of hockey.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Melnyk+wants+head+hunters+life/4446520/story.html#ixzz1Gs90NvNu
Well the now hypocritical Melnyk has one of the offenders, who under his terms should be banned for life, on his own team! Witness two seperate incidents of Chris Neil head hunting:
Well Melnyk should practice what he preaches. If he honestly believes that this sort of action should result in a lifetime ban, then he should at a minimum trade/waive Neil and say that he won't tolerate it on his team.
I’ve Been Crappy/Some Biking
Haven't posted in a while... So wow! JUST WOW!
A Hill in Spain from chris akrigg on Vimeo.
Missing! Google Reader Safety Settings
Google Reader is my favourite web app, well second favourite after GMail. But it is missing a very very key feature. Safety settings!
Google search is smart enough to provide such settings.
These settings are browser instance specific, not account specific. This means I can have different settings at work and at home. What I need is to have this kind of filtering on Google Reader; either to have it intelligently filter items, or to have the ability to mark certain blogs as inappropriate.
Currently I have a NSFW folder in reader, and I put blogs that always or occasionally have questionable content in that folder. I then avoid those items while on public computers or at work. It would be much less painful if that folder just wasn't present on that browser. And they would only show up on my home machine. It would prevent accidental clicks, or curiosity from opening those items.
Mountain Biking Again
It's been a multi-year layoff, but I'm happy to be back at it. Which means that I have been watching way too many videos. Trials riding still blows my mind! Like this video:
I love this movie…
Quick, simple, very cool.
Memoirs of a Scanner (Martinibomb Version) from Damon Stea on Vimeo.
Apparently Ikea Got The Message!
Like clockwork. Mere hours after I posted about my hatred for Ottawa's Ikea, it was publicly announced that Ottawa was getting Canada's largest ikea.
2011 seems like a longways off though.
Operation IKEA Ottawa SUCKS! is under way
The suckage of the Ottawa IKEA store has pushed my patience and my geekdom past its natural breaking point. So I have entered into a small project to detail just how terrible the Ottawa IKEA is.
The problem
It seems that the Ikea in Ottawa is always out of stock of everything I could possibly wish to purchase. I recently sent this email to Ikea:
I am very dismayed by how poor the Ottawa location is, particularly the stock situation.
In the past year I have had to return (in some cases numerous times) to attain the the following items because they were perpetually out of stock. In some cases I have not been able to purchase them at all:
Benjamin Stool
Ribba Frame (black) 70cm x 100cm
Lerberg Wall Shelf (Black)
Lagan Counter Top (96 7/8 ")
Vika Furuskog (78 3/4 ")
Vika Byske
Vika Fintorp
Vika LindvedThe following items I am interested in, but are not even carried at the Ottawa store:
Vika Leif
Alve secretary
Jonas secretary
BÖJA Pendant lamp
RUTBO Pendant lampI must say that my experience with the Ikea in Ottawa has been horribly sub par, and is no where near the service that is provided at other locations I have visited.
The response I received was this:
Hello Tyler,
Thank you for contacting IKEA Canada via email. In regards to your inquiry, please note that our products selection may vary by store. Furthermore, please know that IKEA Ottawa is the smallest of the eleven IKEA stores in Canada. Given the store's restricted storage space, the managers have to be selective about the items the store carries. The store reviews its product selection regularly based on popularity and customer demand.
Please note that your comments will be shared with the appropriate department for review.
If you have additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you for choosing IKEA for your home furnishing needs.
Best Regards,
IKEA Canada Customer Service
Basically they admit that Ottawa sucks, but how badly does it really suck? I intend to find out.
The Experiment
I have picked one product that I would like to consider purchasing and I am going to track its availability according to the Ikea website in each of the Canadian stores. I have picked the Vika Fintorp desk leg. It is a $10 item, and it is carried at the Ottawa store, it is just out of stock. Ikea will tell you on the website if a product is not available at a given store. (See: Alve Secretary)
I do not expect to remember to check the stock levels of every store everyday, so I am using a new feature of Google Reader where it will track a page without a feed for you. So I have added a feed for all Canadian stores stock page for the desk leg. I will track it it here: Vika Fintorp Leg Availability. Notice that the page does have a feed if you want to track it. I will also post updates on my Twitter.
Day 1: Results
One of the reasons that I picked this item is because it is available at all Canadian stores and has been out of stock in Ottawa for a while. Knowing my luck it will quickly become available in Ottawa, but I will track it for a while and see.
Boucherville: 52
Burlington: 27
Calgary: 15
Coquitlam: 14
Edmonton: 40
Etobicoke: 12
Montreal: 25
North York: 33
Ottawa: 0
Richmond: 17
Vaughan: 10
SSD For Laptop
I would love to have a SSD for my laptop, but unfortunately that just isn't in the realm of my pocket book. 512gb drives are still in excess of $1000 at the low end! Ugggh.
Here is something that I may try to get me a speed boost for a few hundred dollars:
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My Reading
- Video: Whistler Trail Riding
- Ladd Mitchell and Miles Parkhill (ex-Park) announce Tiger Tank
- Colour zap
- Lower priced Airborne Bicycles for 2012? Hells Yeah!
- Momi, I want one too!!!
- Reeder for Chrome Transforms Google Reader into a Clean Feed Reading Experience [Chrome Extensions]
- Keep Microwave-Reheated Pizza Crispy with a Sheet of Parchment Paper [Food Hacks]
- DC passes Marvel in comic sales
- 29 global banks deemed 'too big to fail'
- Photo
My Listening
Comments
- Steve on My iPad Killer App – Video Player
- Don W on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
- The Langer Group on The Shoetiful Disaster
- matt on The Student Loan Interest Swindle: CRA Style
- Bree on Answering The Age Old Question: Dell u2711 or Apple iMac27
- fady on Where Did My Google Chrome Bookmarks Go?
- Leo Derm on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
- Leo Derm on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
- Vancouver Wedding Photographer on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
- Chris on Peaksaver: Big Brother Genius or Big Brother Lazyness?