I got a Facebook comment on a recent Body Bugg update (3944 calories burned, 2958 calories consumed, and a 986 deficit). The question: “How do you burn so many calories, must have the secret…”

This was my response (written first thing in the morning, so bear with me):

I wish I could say it’s all muscle, but that only accounts for maybe an extra quarter calorie per minute (225 calories over 15 hours)**. I burn ~2750 calories a day at an idle, so that extra 500-1000 comes from deliberate daily exercise. 30m on the treadmill, a couple 15 minute brisk walks, etc. The 4500 calorie days are a Zumba class or a combination of weights and some intervals.

I’ve had a couple surplus days though – no exercise and usual intake. That’s good food, too. After tracking with a Body Bugg like this it’s really easy to see how tossing a Double Bacon Western Cheeseburger in the mix (or something similar) would EASILY pack on the pounds.

So, why 3000 calories at an idle instead of 2000 (USDA break-even calorie number)**? I’m carrying 100 lbs of extra ballast. I’m used to carrying it, so it’s like a workout you do for too long and plateau.

If I had to guess I’d say 2000 is a average, 2500 (extra 500 for the muscle composition), and then an extra 250 for carrying the extra weight brings us to 2750.

So the secret is to either be 100 lbs overweight (I really don’t recommend this one!) and/or lift weights to get the added benefit of the extra burn.

** This is a complete WAG (wild @$$ guess) based on what I’ve been heard from other bodybugg users who average 1-1.5 calories/min at an idle.

Weigh In

• Steve’s Progress this Month – 360

• Jason’s Progress this Month – 229 lbs

Content!

• Steve:
  • 100 books in 2010: 5 so far, plan on catching up on the road.
  • Upcoming travel for Steven: Austin, Virginia (Kris!!), and St. Paul, MN.
  • Meetup dot com @ Sci-Fi Group: read The Time Machine, and Perdido Street Station.

• Jason:
  • Birthday party, went ice skating
  • Rollerblading at the park with my daughter while she was learning to ride her bike.

• Step Aerobics – Nancy
  • Zumba (www.zumba.com) [d]
    Zumba: Jennifer S., Shawna, Rachelle, Ginger G., Tiffany
    Using a mic? Visual cues? Type of music? 16 count or more freestyle?

• Accel Human Performance [d]
  Uses the TRX for group classes, machines, free weights, and kettlebells.Books read?
• LibraryThing dot Com
• Enter The Kettlebell! Strength Secret of The Soviet Supermen [d]
  As you go through the book learning Swings, Get-Ups, the Clean, the Press, and the Snatch, he takes you through intermediate steps to master the entire movement. It would be like learning how to drive a car by first practicing getting in and out of the driver’s seat. Once you have that down, you move on to the over-the-shoulder reach to retrieve your seat belt to put it on. Then the key-into-the-ignition maneuver.
• The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle [d]
  6 movements: Squat, Dead lift, Lunge, Push, Pull, Twist, and Combo Moves (the 8th movement)

Promo – The GeekCast

@GeekFit Twitter bot

Product reviews

• Walkmeter App – Steve & Jason – [d]
  The KML links for your walk are very cool and are mapped over Google Maps. Each walk can be associated with a route, or not; there’s an ‘All Walks’ bucket that unmatched routes will go into. If you walk the same route multiple times, associating them with a route gives you best and worst times for your walk. You have the ability to start a walk, stop it for a time (going in to buy something, for example) and then start again. The walk doesn’t conclude until you hit ‘Done’ when it’s uploaded and a message sent to Twitter. We both liked this app.

• EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale w/ Extra Large Backlit 3.5″ Display and Oversize Platform – Steve [d]
  Easy to read display, gives you your weight in 10ths of a pound. Wide enough to get both feet on easily. 330lb limit, so I made my sister Amanda play guinea pig.

Your Mission

This weeks mission, leave us an iTunes review and tell someone about us, we tell people about you all the time!
http://www.itunes.com/podcast/geekfitpodcast [Link loads in iTunes]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

Disclosure What the heck is this [d] thing? We’ll be using this mark to indicate our full disclosure with the product we review. Click the link and its shows our disclosure. Its it overkill? Sure but we don’t wanna get sued.

Beginning 12/1/2009 bloggers, advertisers and their agencies need to disclose when they have marketing arrangements or other material connections. Review copies, samples, paid posts, affiliate links and paid posts are the most common examples. If you are reviewing or endorsing products and you are being given products or compensation relating to those posts, you must disclose those relationships. [read more]

Weigh In

• Steve’s Progress this Month – 360

• Jason’s Progress this Month – 229 lbs

Content!

• Steve:
  • 100 books in 2010: 5 so far, plan on catching up on the road.
  • Upcoming travel for Steven: Austin, Virginia (Kris!!), and St. Paul, MN.
  • Meetup dot com @ Sci-Fi Group: read The Time Machine, and Perdido Street Station.

• Jason:
  • Birthday party, went ice skating
  • Rollerblading at the park with my daughter while she was learning to ride her bike.

• Step Aerobics – Nancy
  • Zumba (www.zumba.com) [d]
    Zumba: Jennifer S., Shawna, Rachelle, Ginger G., Tiffany
    Using a mic? Visual cues? Type of music? 16 count or more freestyle?

• Accel Human Performance [d]
  Uses the TRX for group classes, machines, free weights, and kettlebells.Books read?
• LibraryThing dot Com
• Enter The Kettlebell! Strength Secret of The Soviet Supermen [d]
  As you go through the book learning Swings, Get-Ups, the Clean, the Press, and the Snatch, he takes you through intermediate steps to master the entire movement.  It would be like learning how to drive a car by first practicing getting in and out of the driver’s seat.  Once you have that down, you move on to the over-the-shoulder reach to retrieve your seat belt to put it on.  Then the key-into-the-ignition maneuver.
• The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle [d]
  6 movements: Squat, Dead lift, Lunge, Push, Pull, Twist, and Combo Moves (the 8th movement)

Promo – The GeekCast

@GeekFit Twitter bot

Product reviews

• Walkmeter App – Steve & Jason – [d]
  The KML links for your walk are very cool and are mapped over Google Maps.  Each walk can be associated with a route, or not; there’s an ‘All Walks’ bucket that unmatched routes will go into.  If you walk the same route multiple times, associating them with a route gives you best and worst times for your walk. You have the ability to start a walk, stop it for a time (going in to buy something, for example) and then start again.  The walk doesn’t conclude until you hit ‘Done’ when it’s uploaded and a message sent to Twitter. We both liked this app.

• EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale w/ Extra Large Backlit 3.5″ Display and Oversize Platform – Steve [d]
  Easy to read display, gives you your weight in 10ths of a pound.  Wide enough to get both feet on easily.  330lb limit, so I made my sister Amanda play guinea pig.

Your Mission

This weeks mission, leave us an iTunes review and tell someone about us, we tell people about you all the time!
http://www.itunes.com/podcast/geekfitpodcast [Link loads in iTunes]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

Quick note regarding this episode. We recorded this episode over Skype video and will be posting the video version first with an audio version the following day. Soon we will be providing both an audio and video feed but for the time being this will have to do – Jason

Disclosure What the heck is this [d] thing? We’ll be using this mark to indicate our full disclosure with the product we review. Click the link and its shows our disclosure. Its it overkill? Sure but we don’t wanna get sued.

Beginning 12/1/2009 bloggers, advertisers and their agencies need to disclose when they have marketing arrangements or other material connections. Review copies, samples, paid posts, affiliate links and paid posts are the most common examples. If you are reviewing or endorsing products and you are being given products or compensation relating to those posts, you must disclose those relationships. [read more]

• [from Jason Tucker] Scientists Say Half Of All Soda Fountains Harbor Fecal Bacteria
• [from Jason Tucker] Fun Infographic Helps You Eat Locally and Shop Seasonally : TreeHugger
• [from Jason Tucker] It’s Not Scary to Swap Take-Out for Home Cooking With NoTakeOut Meal Planner

• [from Jason Tucker] Fun Infographic Helps You Eat Locally and Shop Seasonally : TreeHugger
• [from Jason Tucker] It’s Not Scary to Swap Take-Out for Home Cooking With NoTakeOut Meal Planner
• [from Jason Tucker] Banish Up to 350 Extra Calories a Day with a Tap of Your Foot [Fitness]
• [from Jason Tucker] Pedal Brain’s Gadget Turns Your iPhone Into A Powerful Cycling Computer
• [from Jason Tucker] What to Wear for Runners: Runner’s World
• [from Jason Tucker] Would You Try The Taco Bell Diet?
• [from Jason Tucker] Happy New Year! FoodScanner on Sale for $0.99!
• [from Jason Tucker] Adidas miCoach
• [from Jason Tucker] David Rock: Are Our Minds Going The Way Of Our Waists?
• [from Jason Tucker] How to keep a New Year’s resolution
• [from Jason Tucker] MyFoodapedia Serves up Nutritional Stats on Hundreds of Foods

It’s the end of the year and we’re interested in who our listeners are. We have our assumptions but being geeks we want to know the hard facts, look at charts and graphs and calculate things for no real reason because we can. Heck we may even install linux on a toaster oven and have it do the calculations for us just because we can.  Anyhow if you don’t mind, provide us with a little insight into who you are by answering our anonymous 14 question quiz. Thanks, we appreciate it!

GeekFit Listener Survey

• [from Jason Tucker] DIY Big Mac Tastes Great, Causes Less Guilt [Recipes]

Steve – The Lightening

• Paula’s 30 Day Challenge continues to rock – stay accountable! [I'm Steve]
• Steve talks about hitting the Smith and how it kicked his butt
• Jason discusses his daily walks and how scary it is walking near his work.
• Walking with others and how annoying it is for a music / podcast listening.
• Return of the McRib! (ick!), Jason mentions In-in-Out and how awesome it is.
• Talking in mixed company we almost shared to much!
• Steve’s weight update from the month in Dallas. Treadmills, stairs and low carbs Oh My!
• Low carb is the way to go, Steve’s trying it.
• Thanksgiving recap, we both did pretty well staying away from the overeating.
• Living the Fit Life [link] [link] [link] DC’s Toughest Trainer @livinthefitlife
• The BodyBugg tweets now and its personal network
• Being scared of taking a class at the gym, neither of us have done it
• Steve mentions Zumba [link] [link]
• Jason wants to have Strong Sarah on the show. He’s very curious about Kettlebells @strongsarah [link]
• New Grip gloves Steve loves these: no bunching & no hurt!
• Internet connected scales: [Daily Burn - Wifi Body Scale] [Withings] [Body Trace] we’d love to test either of these.
• Steve wants to be able to use the Wii Fit.
• Our review of the New Balance 1906 we’re both pretty impressed with them. We both like the fact that these shoes “breathe” and have great support. We love that they are jam packed full of tech!
• Swing by the website we’ve done some redesigning!
• Audio on this recording was wonky, sorry about that!
• Got an app, website or product you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him.

• [from Jason Tucker] Obese air passenger in economy seat has picture taken – Telegraph
• [from Jason Tucker] Obese Students Forced To Take Fitness Class To Graduate
• [from Jason Tucker] AMC Theater Chain Bans All Outside Snacks
  This really does not help the healthy eaters at all.
• [from Jason Tucker] Use Basic Fat Math to Lose Extra Weight [Weight Loss]
• [from Jason Tucker] How to Eat a Pomegranate Frustration Free [Food Hacks]

@pseymour is hosting a 30 Day Challenge and I’ve been participating. Everyone’s been very supportive and I’ve gotten a few solid fitness-minded folks on twitter which I always dig.

Here’s my latest post to their forum:

I’d been hitting the cardio pretty hard and I decided to get some weight lifting in.

Now, I used to lift weights all through that run from 420 to 300. I did squats, and bench pressed, and did all those macho things the big tough guys did. So when I return to the weight room it only makes sense for me to jump right back in. Eh, not so much.

My legs are pretty strong, but I forget that not all muscles are created equal. Just because a few muscles that are employed to get me from A to B are strong doesn’t mean they’re the same muscles used in, let’s say, a squat in a smith with 20 lbs thrown on for good measure. All day yesterday everything from my hips to my toes were screaming. Today it’s worse. Tomorrow – well let’s just not think about tomorrow.

Oh, on top of that I did a shoulder workout. Dumbbell shoulder presses, lateral raises, front raises, and shrugs. They’re sore too and I’m still getting a little leftover DOMS from the chest/back workout a couple days ago.

On the upside, my feet feel better. The balls of my feet were pretty ouchy all day yesterday, hence the push to do resistance instead of getting back on the treadmill. All in all, I’ve been going at this every day and hereby declare today my day of rest. Tomorrow morning I’m back at it, DOMS or not – even if I have to “ouch” *step* “ouch” *step* “ouch” to get there.

I spent a month on the road working in Dallas, TX. Before I left I made sure to weigh in and post the results (384 lbs) to Daily Burn so I could check my progress throughout the trip. I had forgotten that unfortunately most scales don’t weigh anyone over 350 lbs (the big weight to 300 and the smaller weight to 50). So blindly I pressed on, enjoying progress checks via other methods: my belt loosening and having to drop down twice to another hole, being able to double-time it up 7 flights of stairs before I got winded, my clothes generally feeling looser, and the seat on Southwest not squishing me quite so much on each round-trip to Austin on the weekends.

Last Saturday I flew home, 6 hours in total, and was eager to weigh myself Sunday morning. I came in at 366 lbs, netting me a loss of 18 lbs. On a hunch I weighed in again this morning and was at 362 lbs for a total loss of 22 lbs. That’s some Biggest Loser weigh-in progress, y’all.

So, what changed? I had been working out half-heartedly, eating “alright” and avoiding the major pitfalls, but not really pressing in any particular direction. I had maintained the 370-375 range until late August when, unchecked for a bit, jumped up to 384. That set off all the bells & alarms. I wasn’t quite back where I had started, but my “eh, it’s maintaining” attitude went out the window. Something had to change, and like now.

Around the same time I had been reading up on carbohydrates, protein, and procrastination in general. That gave me some interesting insights to what starches and carbs would do to my overall intake for the day. I started preferring protein over carbs, veg over starch, and worked out every day. The stairs were the other big thing. I was on the 6th floor of the hotel for a while and then the last couple weeks they had me up on the 7th floor. I took the stairs every time I had to go to/from my room. The only exception being heading down for breakfast in the morning. I was already plenty worked up from the rush of getting out of the shower, getting ready, getting dressed, and then packing out the door with my backpack on.

All in all it was a good trip. I got a lot of work done and kicked my fitness into high-gear. I think I made the most progress on the cardio and now I’ve got to bring the resistance training up a few notches.

• [from Jason Tucker] Movie Popcorn Is Really, Really Bad For You [Pop Goes The Diet]

• [from Jason Tucker] Eat Breakfast Like an Olympian with “Super” Oatmeal [Diet]
• [from Jason Tucker] Klean Kanteen
• [from Jason Tucker] ‘Food’ Causes Obesity, Warn Scientists [Juicing]
• [from Jason Tucker] One morning in a fitness boot camp
• [from Jason Tucker] Withings WiFi body Scale Gets Social Aspect
• [from Jason Tucker] Train Your Mind to Keep Exercising in Winter [Winter]
• [from Jason Tucker] Fitbit Fitness and Sleep Tracker
• [from Jason Tucker] Japan Outlaws Fatties
• [from Jason Tucker] Researchers Conclude Wii Fit Produces ‘Underwhelming Results’ [Science Vs. Marketing]

This ingenious little device may look like it’s merely holding your iPhone/iTouch, but oh no kiddies, it does so much more. I had an opportunity to review this over the last few weeks. Here are my notes:

Southwest Flight to Austin

Tried seat buddy on the southwest flight. The straps let you roll the display into whatever angle you want. The clown in front of me decided to lean back and that didn’t work so well, so I tried it on the adjoining seat. Having the independent lengths helped – I was able to use the tray on the seat back next to me, kind of at an angle so that the strap closest to me was tucked all the way in while the furthest was pulled out a bit.

Halloween DJing

We headed into Austin to check out the crazy costumes. Of course I fancy myself an iPod DJ so I had my iPhone mounted using the seat buddy in the glove box in front of me while I found music on my friend’s iPhone. I’d swap the audio cable back and forth between the two phones – only having to hold on to the one seat buddy-less.

Teenager-Proof Anchoring

More iPhone DJ’ing at a Halloween party. It made me nervous to put my iPhone next to the stereo where some hapless kid could knock it down. Again, the seat buddy came in useful. Two heavy books atop the straps held it in place while I plugged into the sound system providing the music for the festivities.

Check it out at TheSeatBuddy.com.

• [from Jason Tucker] The Steelcase Walkstation: Why this is cool and learn how you can win one!
• [from Jason Tucker] So, Do Calorie Counts On Menus Help People Make Better Choices? Or Not? [Fast Food]

For our next episode of GeekFit we’re going to try out using Google Wave as a way to collaborate, source data and build the show notes for the next episode… using google wave.

You can locate the wave by going here if you have an account already:  https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252Bn9h-dQIyB.1

and if you need an invite direct message @jasontucker or @mrxinu on twitter.

[wave id="googlewave.com!w+n9h-dQIyB" color="#050505" width="100%" height="800"]

• [from Jason Tucker] Run Like a Hunter For Injury-Free Workouts [Fitness]
• [from Jason Tucker] Tony’s Losing It » Blog Archive » TLI Episode 043: October 21, 2009
• [from Jason Tucker] ‘Smart Choices’ Food Labeling Loses Support – NYTimes.com

• [from Jason Tucker] ‘Smart Choices’ Food Labeling Loses Support – NYTimes.com
• [from Jason Tucker] The 10 Riskiest Foods That Aren’t Meat Or Poultry [Safety]
• [from Jason Tucker] New York continues to wage a battle against bulge
• [from Jason Tucker] Bigben Interactive introduces new fitness accessories for the Nintendo Wii
• [from Jason Tucker] Meet Burgerville’s Awesome New Nutritional Info Receipt
• [from Jason Tucker] People Ate More After Calories Got Posted At Fast Food Joints [Health]
• [from Jason Tucker] Coke’s 90-Calorie Can Will Still Have 5 Teaspoons Of Sugar [Sugar Water]

• Steve on the road – next stops are Seattle, Dallas, and Austin (weekends).
• Jason negotiates for a 26″ unicycle upgrade.
• eBay is evil, but y’know, useful when you need it.
• Brutally honest responses to the Fat2Fit interview.
• Steve suffers a nasty carb hangover while starting a high-protein/low-carb diet.
• Upcoming shoe reviews.
• USDA pyramid is same mix that pig farmers use to fatten their stock.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him.

• [from Jason Tucker] The Freshman 15 – College Humor – YouTube
  The Verve Pipe’s famous song puts on a few more pounds of tragedy.
• [from Jason Tucker] I have a plan – Tony’s losing it
• [from Jason Tucker] Move Those Buns!: Getting People To Use The Stairs Instead Of The Escalator
• [from Jason Tucker] Diet Ads No Longer Able To Use “Results Not Typical” To Get Away With BS-ing You
• [from Jason Tucker] Five Best Weight-Management Tools [Hive Five]
• [from Jason Tucker] Honey Peanut Butter Cookies
• [from Jason Tucker] Sandwich Price Calculator Shows the Cost of Each Lunch

Both Steve and I are fans of DailyBurn and today they released a new iPhone application called FoodScanner. FoodScanner uses the iPhone built-in camera to take pictures of the barcode on food that you eat to help you keep track of what you are eating.

Below is a slide show of some screenshots that I did today while eating lunch. Once I got back to the office I started scanning my co-workers food too. I finally did find one item that did not come up based on the barcode but was in their database after searching for it.

After you input all the food items you have eaten (water bottles work too!) you can load see how many calories and other food facts from their website or the DailyBurn iPhone app.

DailyBurn’s FoodScanner is by far the best app I’ve used to date to collect the data that I need to calculate my daily intake. FoodScanner is like a magic wand for calorie counters, no extra effort is required.

Daily Burn – FoodScanner – $2.99 in the iPhone App Store

FoodScanner main screen
Take a picture of the barcode
Line up the barcode
Searching
Product Found
Display the product you scanned
I ate this
Date you ate this item
Item is now saved
Press the (i) icon
Login
Press sign in
Syncing account
Scanning odd color and shape test
Searching…
Found items
Item details
Number of servings
When did you eat it?
More scans
Yoplait detail
Item not found
Inputing item info to search
Item found
Item details
Food I ate today
Logging into DailyBurn via their free app
Checking on the info I just submitted.
The food info that I submitted is being displayed
List of food I submitted today
Today’s Stats

Steve visits the GeekFit south studios and records with Jason live in studio! Steve was also on the Fat2Fit Radio show, speaking about his Southwest Airlines overweight incident. We’ve embedded the interview but so be sure to check out their podcast too!

Links:

• Case-mate iPhone 3G / 3GS ID Credit Card Cases
• Fat2Fit Radio
• Got an app, website or product you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him.

It had been a week since the debacle with Southwest and it was time for me to fly back home. This time instead of being confronted at the gate I decided to be proactive about being what Southwest considers “[a] customer of size.”

Again I checked my bag, went through security, and arrived at my gate with ~45 minutes to spare. I walked up to the attendant at the booth and smiled.

Me: “Hey there – I’m a customer of size. Do I need a pre-boarding slip?”
Agent: “Do you have [indecipherable]… ?”
Me: “I have nothing but my ticket here – I just know I get singled out and wanted to get ahead of the curve.”
Agent: “Do you think you need a second seat?”
Me: “I don’t think I need one, but there was food in Ohio, so can’t be sure. I didn’t need one coming out here.”
Agent: “Oh okay, then you don’t need a second ticket then.”

She was nice about it, but it looks like there’s nothing I can do to control when and how I get picked out for being overweight short of presenting myself for inspection at the gate every time I fly. Leave it to the airlines to invent a new flavor of profiling.

I had heard about the upset airlines were causing by charging their larger passengers for an extra seat, but it hadn’t happened to anyone I knew. That is, until last Sunday morning.

My first Southwest flight was a 3.5 hour stretch from Oregon to Chicago. I arrived early as always, checked my bags, went through security, and got to my gate. I was sitting a stone’s throw from gate with about 45m to spare when one of the airline staff walked up and sat right next to me.

“Do you have a ticket for this flight?” he asked. I had no idea what was going on. My first thought was they might have oversold the flight and were going to offer me something above what they normally did for giving up my seat and didn’t want to make an announcement. I was excited because I didn’t need to be there as early as I’d planned and that meant Ivy would have a freebie trip somewhere.

“Yes sir, I do.” I said, ready to hear about my proposed reward.

“Well there’s a policy that if you don’t fit comfortably in a seat with the arms down that you’ll have to buy a second ticket. Do you think you can?” he asked.

I felt sick. There were 100 things I would have said had I not kicked into self-preservation mode. I just wanted the exchange to be over.

“Yes, I can sit in a seat with the arm down.” I said, hoping he would accept it on my word and go away. Of course it wouldn’t be comfortable, but I’d taken full flights before and sat squished into a seat with the arms down. I even made a game of it in my head—I’d pretend I was in a space craft designed for a smaller being. If I got too uncomfortable I could always stand for a bit at the back of the plane; no problem.

“It’s a 4 hour flight. You can sit comfortably with the arms down for the entire flight?” he asked, doubt in his voice. Still gripped with embarrassment I couldn’t even think straight.

“Yes, I can.” I reiterated.

“Okay, we’re going to take you down to the plane shortly to let you get settled and make sure.” he said, finally.

I felt mad, embarrassed, and scared all at once. I made my living traveling. There was no way I could ask my company (or the customer) to eat a second ticket because I was overweight. I worked out what a second last-minute ticket for this flight was going to run me and felt sick.

He came back and took me down to the plane. I stuffed my carry-ons into the overhead and slid into the middle seat, pulling down the arms and showing that I could indeed squish myself between them. At that point I got a bunch of “we’re sorry, but you understand I’m sure” from the attendant who brought me up and the ones working the flight.

So, now you know someone who has come close to getting charged for a second ticket.

Guidelines for Customers of Size

Customer of Size Q&A

MetaFilter: Forced to buy second seat on Southwest Airlines?

Southwest Trial Begins

Token Fat Girl – United Airlines: Too Fat To Fly?

Today we’re announcing a new feature to GeekFit, @geekfit the twitter bot. “Twitter? What’s twitter?” you say, well its a way of telling the world what your doing in 140 charecters or less. What Steve and I are doing with @geekfit – the twitter bot is sending a twitter post on our own accounts @jasontucker @mrxinu including “#geekfit” (sans quotes) somethere in the “tweet”. The @geekfit bot is constantly scanning for #geekfit in its friends tweets and then collecting them. Every 30 minutes he’ll “retweet” all the collected tweets so his friends can see them. His friends are our listeners. So now all of our listeners can see each others tweets even if they arn’t friends.

So what does this do for you? Well, Steve and I are tweeting about all the achievements we’re doing in health and fitness. Sometimes its a picture of what were eating, or a status update on our weight change. It really could be anything you want to share with the world. For instance I could say:

Went for a walk in the park at lunch, 2.5miles #geekfit

or something like

Wow, this sandwich is great, I gotta talk about it on the next #geekfit podcast.

The goal for this is that people can see what others are doing in the GeekFit community and can comment on other peoples actions. We call these pats on the back. We’re hoping if someone in the community tweets about something related to health and fitness and puts #geekfit in the tweet on twitter then someone will comment on that persons accomplishment.

Below are what some of the people have said including #geekfit in their twitter posts:

[HTML1]

I decided to drag the TRX to the gym and got some pretty neat reactions. It worked out really well strung up from the bars. Forgive the close-up of my backside – I didn’t have a proper camera man.

Jason breaking a sweat riding his 24″ Torker unicycle around. After a few back and forths he stops to show how a unicycle works and the various parts of one. Do you unicycle or workout with something unconventional? We want to hear about it.

Follow Jason on twitter @jasontucker

Quick update on the training I’ve been getting at Accel Human Performance.

Steve and Jason return with a very special GeekFit presented in both Audio and Video for your enjoyment.

• Steve weight: 370
• Jason weight: 235
• Jason talks about walking at work
• Steve talks about going to the gym and how they are selling their equipment to stay afloat
• Steve is thinking about leaving Ballys and my join 24 Hour Fitness
• Jason shows off his Unicycle and talks about how rough it is getting back into riding one
• Steve talked about his TRX Essentials and the video he recorded (shown in the video version of this podcast episode)
• Got an app, website or product you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message steve when you add him.

Steve and Jason return with a very special GeekFit presented in both Audio and Video for your enjoyment.

• Steve weight: 370
• Jason weight: 235
• Jason talks about walking at work
• Steve talks about going to the gym and how they are selling their equipment to stay afloat
• Steve is thinking about leaving Ballys and my join 24 Hour Fitness
• Jason shows off his Unicycle and talks about how rough it is getting back into riding one
• Steve talked about his TRX Essentials and the video he recorded (shown in the video version of this podcast episode)
• Got an app, website or product you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message steve when you add him.

• Steve talks about travel for work and how much harder it is for a larger person
• Jason hasn’t flown in the last 2 years
• Airports go from version 1.0 to version 2.0 as you fly west
• Security woes at the airport
• Steve talks about his gym progress
• Apparently shoveling snow counts as a workout.. Jason hasn’t lived in snow yet.
• Jason is looking for work and is trying to continue his daily walks
• Jason is looking to buy some sort of attachment for dragging his 3 year old around with him while bike riding
• Playing at the park is a decent workout
• Steve spills hand sanitizer all over his desk and Jason didn’t edit it out of the show!
• Gyminee – mrxinu and mrsxinu oh yeah, jasontucker is on there as well.
• Steve compares Gyminee to another site and talks about the nutrition area of Gyminee
• Steve talks about various Challenges that Gyminee runs on their site
  • Lose 5 Pounds
  • Lose 20 Pounds
  • Couch to 5k
  • 500 Miles
  • … listen to 10 GeekFit Podcasts
• GeekFit Workout Group – parkerk, brewere, mrsxinu, herbcat, cest_la_vie, jeffreyheinen, xxloserboy76xx, bjmingle, LdyFaile, TriNorm, slpenney, pjfranz , FlyinRoe, ehogue, crysohara , jadielady, jasontucker, mrxinu
• Letter grades on gyminee
• GeekFit Tattoo, please don’t unless they are photoshopped
• Gyminee and the iPhone

Stuff We’re Checking Out:

• squawkfox.com – Printable workout sheets
• More twitter madness
• Home Body Fat Test
• Verve Energy Drink
  Steve likes the mango taste but the taste really comes out when they are VERY cold.
  72 cals for the normal and 4 cals for the diet. 1 serving per can, none of this multiplier stuff going on.

• Got an app you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message steve when you add him.

We’ve talked about Gyminee’s clean interface and positive reinforcement via the virtual “gym buddy” system on the show recently. This evening I created a GeekFit group so we can connect up and really push that group total of pounds lost, calories burned, and miles traveled.

http://www.gyminee.com/groups/1133-GeekFit-Podcast

Marielle did in fact get her kidney! She’s on the mend and looking great. Read more over at Domestic Diva’s blog at the link below:

http://thedomesticdiva.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/all-in-the-family/

• Mr Xinu gets confused for someone else.
• Jason’s been going to the park chasing his 3 year old girl
• Killer ducks at the park
• Marielle Carroccio got a kidney, we’ll be monitoring how things go with this.
• New visitors to our site and some great emails / comments
• DJ Steve Boyett spoke at OC Podcasters – Podrunner
• Listeners site: Andrew is Getting Fit
• Listeners site: Norm.net
• Jason talks about the food he at on Christmas and the awesome breakfast on New Years Day. [Picture]
• Steve talks about the method he used to not over eat at parties.
• No power during the holidays for Steve at the party they went to.
• Steve and Jason are now Norm’s biggest fans.
• Jason asks: How do they photos get taken at marathons?
• Molly Wilson’s article over at soloflex blog with Mr Universe
• Steve comes up with way to remember our VM number.
• Steve wants to have a NikeID contest with GeekFit on them.
• Comments on Jumbo Rigatoni posting.
  
• Molly talks about coking food with plastic containers and microwaves.
• Human Gear and capCAP – we love these water bottle caps.
• Klean Kanteen bottles rule and stay super cold.
• Jason lives in SoCal, where it doesn’t snow. Jason thinks its snows
• Hacking twitter
• Steve’s Project Awesome [search.twitter.com results]
• Too many billboards for the same lap band company on Jason’s commute. Jason recorded a video showing them, 6 billboards going southbound on the 605 in a 12 mile trip.
• GeekFit Flickr Pool – Join and add some photos
• Jason wants to ride his bike more
• Steve wants to Ice Skate
• More on AndrewE’s website.
• GeekFit Twitter Bot
• Gyminee
• Shoveling snow and how much it hurts
• Walking and being Awesome doing it!
• Steve’s iPhone woes
• WeightBot for the iPhone
• Nasty SEO tricks being used on iTunes, annoying.
• Got an app you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message steve when you add him.

I’m curious what your thoughts are on this video I recorded which shows the 6 (of 12 total) billboard on the 605 freeway advertising a lap band company. Do you think 12 (6 both ways) is excessive… for a 12 mile stretch? I see these 12 billboards daily and I’m not sure what to think about it.

Let me know…

I was over on Domestic Diva’s Disasters reading up on the latest on Marielle (she’s scheduled for a transplant!) and saw her mention NikeID sneakers. One of the hospital staff had a pair with “HEMOBOB” on the back.

What does everyone think about a contest with a prize of some new Nike kicks with “GEEKFIT” emblazoned on the heel?

Mmm, Lean Cuisine Jumbo Rigatoni. Two thumbs way up!

The holidays have been wreaking havoc on my diet, so I’m going back to a regular food log which you can find at the link below. So far my breakfast was a train wreck, but the goal today is to eat every 3–4 hours. Stay tuned… another show this weekend.

https://xinu.backpackit.com/pub/1650066 (RSS feed)

I haven’t really talked about my involvement in the new media space all that much here on GeekFit. I’m the President of the OC Podcasters in Southern California, the group meets monthly in Costa Mesa and discusses podcasting, new media, social media and all things audio video. Tonight we have a guest that I’ve been wanting to have talk at our meeting for some time now DJ Steve Boyett who does the Podrunner Podcast. I’ve known DJ Steve Boy for a while now, we’d see each other at various LA events and at the most recent one we were talking about the unique way he got into podcasting. Steve has a unique way he got into podcasting and how he runs his podcasts and he kinda went off on his own way of putting his show together. He also pays dearly for the rights to use the music that he plays on his show. Tonight we’re going to have him talk about all of that at tonights meeting and I wanted to tell you all about it.

If you’ve ever wondered where that awesome music you listen to during your workout comes from I invite you to come watch the live stream tonight (or the archive once we release it) over at the OC Podcasters Live site. The live stream start at 7:00pm PST (-0800 UTC), tune in a bit early to catch us setting things up. Also if you have any questions you want me to relay to Steve you can leave a comment here on this blog post or you can ask him in the uStream chat yourself tonight.

http://www.ocpodcasters.com/live

Whenever I look at pictures of myself at lower weights I feel this surge of inspiration. It works for a while, but then it goes away, so it’s always good to have pictures of yourself, role models, or whatever else stokes that fire for you.

This is a picture of me at 300 even standing in front of a newly-remodeled bathroom. It’s a picture I return to for that jolt when I really need it, so I emailed the URL to my lovely wife and asked her to print a copy for me. I’d planned on tacking it to the wall with a pin, but she went the extra mile and framed it.

The best part, for me, are the words: You did it before… you can do it again! (click for a larger version)

If you use LinkedIn, we’ve got a community there now. Click the link below to be spirited off to the group invite page.

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1404377

This just in, well recently anyway. Marielle may have herself a donor after all. The jury is still out, but the tests they’ve run thusfar have come back positive. More details after the jump.

Direct article link: http://thedomesticdiva.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/sew-many-amazing-things-are-happening-here/

This morning I saw a re-tweet from Jason this article talking about Marielle Carroccio and her battle with kidney failure. You can’t help but feel pangs of sympathy for this poor girl as you read through the details. The most recent post in the same blog has pictures of Marielle sitting up in a hospital bed getting dialysis, which is, and this is really pains me even to type, only delaying the inevitable. Unless a suitable donor can be found…

Anyone who knows me knows that I’d give them my right arm if they needed it, but would I give a kidney?

I downloaded the questionnaire for the Compatible Living Donor program and filled it out. I attached it to an email and before I could hit send I sat here at my desk just kind of staring at the screen. Surgery is scary. Needles are scary. Death is scary. If I was evaluated and it turned out I was a match, could I go through with it? Would I be able to live with myself if Marielle, or any human being for that matter, passed on and I could have done something to prevent it?

I hit send.

I wouldn’t fault anyone for not jumping onto a hospital gurney without giving it a lot of serious thought, but if you don’t get evaluated, please at least forward the message on. Hopes, prayers, and warm fuzzy thoughts go a long way, too.

Direct Article Link: http://thedomesticdiva.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/sew-urgent-help-save-my-daughters-life/

If you’re on twitter please click here to retweet the message and help spread the word.

We’ve all had this problem where we’re trying to do real good on our diets or healthy living choices yet things around us get in our way and try to make us fail. This photo on failblog captures that exact thing in just one picture.

What keeps you going? What helps you block out the negative indulgences around you? Leave a comment and let us know.

• Our twitter accomplishment (and confession box) bot, @geekfit read more about it in our previous post.
• BarcampLA and the battle of the bots.
• Steve’s podcast playlist.
• Jason talks about listening to his ipod in the car, to and from workouts.
• Quick Review: DLO Transdock Direct quick review.
• Mono podcasts vs stereo.
• Indoor swimming in cold weather.
• Steve’s shoulder and recovery.
• Review: Healthy Choice – Fresh Mixers.
  • Steve explains the problems with the box top instructions.
  • Jason bashes Steve not RTFM correctly.
• Steve’s co-worker Carl Davis, and his response to us mentioning him.
• Garmin Forerunner 305
• trail.motionbased.com that works with Garmin devices, doesn’t work well on macs with firefox though.
• iPhone apps: iMapmyrun, Weightbot.
• Steve talks about Gymanee and the services they provide. Steve’s Profile, Jason’s Profile.
  • We compare Sparkpeople.com & Traineo.com to Gymanee.com.
  • Steve’s shirtless images on Gymanee.
  • Gymanee and the iPhone, works great. Son Of Krypton teaches Steve about the iPhone and memory.
• CleanHealthyLiving.com
• GeekThug.com

Podcasts Mentioned:

• For Whatever Reason
• The Life of SpaGuysWife
• Fat Guy Radio
• Podrunner

Vote for us at the Podcast Awards:

Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker

http://twitter.com/mrxinu

Today we’re announcing a new feature to GeekFit, @geekfit the twitter bot. “Twitter? What’s twitter?” you say, well its a way of telling the world what your doing in 140 charecters or less. What Steve and I are doing with @geekfit – the twitter bot is sending a twitter post on our own accounts @jasontucker & @mrxinu including “#geekfit” (sans quotes) somewhere in the “tweet”. The @geekfit bot is constantly scanning for #geekfit in its friends tweets and then collecting them. Every 30 minutes he’ll “retweet” or repost all the collected tweets so his friends can see them. Mind you his friends are our listeners, people like you. So now all of our listeners can see each others tweets geekfit related tweets even if they aren’t friends… yet.

So what does this do for you? Well, Steve and I are tweeting about all the achievements we’re doing in health and fitness. Sometimes its a picture of what were eating, or a status update on our weight change. It really could be anything you want to share with the world. For instance I could say:

“Went for a walk in the park at lunch, 2.5miles #geekfit”

or something like

“Wow, this sandwich is great, I gotta talk about it on the next #geekfit podcast.”

The goal for this is that people can see what others are doing in the GeekFit community and can comment on other peoples actions. We call these pats on the back. We’re hoping if someone in the community tweets about something related to health and fitness and puts #geekfit in the tweet on twitter then someone will comment on that persons accomplishment.

So what do you do now? First get a twitter account by going to http://twitter.com if you already have one Go follow geekfit on twitter then make your first posting using the #geekfit tag.

Below are what some of the people have said including #geekfit in their twitter posts:

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• Steve makes hamburger meat of his rotator cuff.
• Our Natural Life Podcast.
• Mastering the crock pot for slow cooking.
• Weightbot iPhone App $1.99 – What a great looking application for something so simple.
• Audio Recorder for the iPhone.
• Jason’s new job.
• Steve mentioned Remember The Milk for remembering various tasks via email and SMS.
• Addon for google reader for RTM cow icon.
• Jason’s weight… gain
• Stress Eating
• Steve’s co-worker and his dramatic weight loss
• PodRunner
• Steve’s co-worker spreads the work of Geekfit
• Mapmywalk.com Mapmyrun.com an the new iPhone app called iMapMyRun
• Another co-worker and his tips on using Kashi TLC bars and Detour Bars as a breakfast replacement.
• Jason asks Steve if he would eat Kashi bars or Detour bars purchased from ebay. Would you?
• Jason’s dealing with work provided breakfast 2 times a week.
• Posting pictures to flickr of food we’re eating. Should we post them on geekfit?

Vote for us at the Podcast Awards:

Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jasontucker

http://twitter.com/mrxinu

Jason and I are going to take the opportunity this week while he’s home to knock out a couple shows. Stay tuned!

Thanks to JrMint for answering the call to talk about his weightloss routine. He writes about his workout routine in his latest article:

I think a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of benefit in losing weight and working out comes from not being repetitive.

Original Article

GeekFit was interviewed in Forbes Magazine today, in an article centered around the health of Apple’s Steve Jobs. In the piece, GeekFit’s Steve Klassen and Jason Tucker discuss everything from how being a geek affects eating patterns to how the iPhone can help. Read the full Forbes article at this link: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/07/24/steve-jobs-diet-tech-personal-cx_bc_0724jobs.html

We hadn’t heard from Minty in a while due to his lack of journal updates but yesterday he finally put pen to virtual paper. Even having been down with a surgery for a time he’s back at the gym and continuing to shed the pounds. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m inspired. Here’s an excerpt from his McBlog:

I am happy to say I hit 193.8 pounds today, thats 30 pounds of weight loss in about 7 weeks. If I hadn’t missed those 2.5 or so weeks of workouts I’m confident I’d have dropped to 190 or lower, but thats okay, just gotta stay ramped up.

Its hard to miss multiple days in a row and keep motivated. My wife hit an amazing 125 today and is still working with her trainer, she looks and feels great.

Amazing job, man. You and your wife are tearing it up in a big way. Keep it up!

JrMint’s update says it all. He is now part of the sub-200 club. Way to go!

198.6 (finally broke 200!) and 21.8% body fat. Bitchin.

I knew that once I stopped going out to eat when I travel that there was going to be trade offs. The up side: I’d have time to hit the gym, and I’d be eating store bought food. The down side: nearly total lack of social interaction.

My routine so far for this trip:

• wake up at 6am
• get ready for work
• have breakfast in the room
• work for 8–12 hours
• head directly to the gym
• cardio or weights, alternating days
• back to the hotel & shower
• dress in comfy clothes

At that point it’s 8 or 9pm. I figure I have 2–3 hours of time I could spend filling the gaps. On a “school night” some TV in the room, a video on my laptop, or something else I can turn off when it’s time to sleep is probably a good idea.

What about Friday night through Sunday?

Yesterday I decided to pick up a pedometer. I was reading through the documentation this morning before attaching it to my bod and noticed it “auto adjusts from walking to running strides.”

My first thought: “only if someone’s chasing me with a large knife.”

I’ll track my steps per day and update again when I’ve gotten some details to talk about. So far I can’t hardly tell I’m wearing the thing.

In this episode Steve interviews Lori Barnett of Soul Escape, a graduate of Body Mind College with focus in holistic healing, and advanced EFT. We talk about how EFT can be used to eliminate specific cravings, and most importantly, address the underlying emotional currents that got us overweight in the first place.

You can read more about EFT on Lori’s website along with signing up for her newsletter which I would definitely recommend. It’s well put together, informative, and offers some great insight.

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jasontucker

http://twitter.com/mrxinu

There’s a particularly awesome trainer at my local Ballys. Her physique reminds me of Demi Moore in 1997’s GI Jane. The sum of our interaction since 2005 has been a wave and a smile and the occasional, “are you still using this?” when she’s training someone out on the weight room floor.

Yesterday I was laying on my back doing my ab workout and she walked right over to me.

“Want a tip?” she asked, and walked over to grab one of the half-circle balance platforms and placed it under my feet.

I had been doing leg lifts and touching my heels all the way back to the ground before pulling them back up to my chest. She put the balance platform under my heels and it made a big difference. I wasn’t bouncing when I hit the floor any more and there was a lot more control in the motion.

I thanked her for the tidbit and we got to chatting about my struggle with losing weight, what kinds of things I’d been doing, and of course, the GeekFit Podcast. She was really nice about everything; said she’d noticed how hard I’d been working and that she remembered where I was when I started at Bally years ago.

It was a really nice bit of motivation and one that was perfectly timed with me heading to Chicago for 3 weeks this Sunday. I’m armed with my national gym membership, a reservation at an extended stay, and a determination to return either 6–8 lbs lighter or 1.5 – 2% lower in body fat. It’s going to be awesome.

Another update from McBlog on JrMint’s transformation. Keep it going!

Today marks the 30th day of my “official” start of my new workout program and my new diet. After weighing and measuring up with my trainer today, I’m totally stoked to say that I’ve lost 18 pounds (down from 220 to 202), my body fat has lowered from 28.8% to 23.2%, I’ve dropped 1.6&Prime off my waist, 1% off my neck and about a 1/2% each off all the other areas (legs, thigh, etc…). Needless to say I’m very happy, and plan on continuing on with things until I reach my first goal weight of 192 and a body fat under 20%. I’ll regroup and set new goals there.

The last few years I’ve tried just about every Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers frozen meals the local supermarket had to offer. Some of them were pretty tasty, and others, not so much. There are times when I’ll try one and it’s really bad. I’m talking about veggies that don’t taste like their fresh counterparts, meat that I can’t quite put in any of the major categories, and bread that comes out tasting more like styrofoam.

So I ate the 300–400 calorie meal. Yes, there was food. Yes, there were calories taken in, but they were really bad tasting calories. I just blew a perfectly good meal trying to expand my options. Do you ever get this overwhelming urge to declare a “do over”?

Two things seem to keep me from pulling the trigger on that “do over” meal that puts my total calories at double, if not more:

1. Eating small meals 5–6x a day, the next one is only 3 hrs away.
2. I can punt with fruit, nuts, or if I’m really feeling ripped off, a spoon of peanut butter.

The most effective trick I’ve learned is just getting the taste out of your mouth by brushing your teeth. It works twofold in that you have alien food taste away from your taste buds and you have minty breath to boot.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what conditions led to my putting the weight back on. I guess it’s one part moaning about where I am now, and two parts trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The short list was the new job, the travel, and the all-you-can-eat expense account, but I think it started even earlier than that. I’m almost sure of it because I remember being a little uncomfortable in my interview clothes for my current job.

Thinking back, I remember hitting 300 lbs. I felt great and clothes fit that hadn’t in a really long time. I can’t quite pin-point what brought on the backslide, but it’s not hard to guess how it snow-balled. It just takes a couple days to fall back into the old routine. It’s unfair, and it sucks – oh how it sucks – but that’s just how it goes. You would think that if you were doing something for 2 years it’d take a little longer to revert, but it just doesn’t.

Cheating once or twice a week, doing things in moderation, but keeping the routine going is the only way to truly make a lifestyle change.

A quick progress update for a friend of ours who recently started the great weight loss journey. He posted this on his blog this morning:

Okay thats the workout update. Weighed in at 210.1 today. Thats down over 10 pounds in 2 weeks, so i’m quite happy. My current goal with my trainer is 192 by mid july. The diet is definitely helping out…I’m on a pretty regular 6 small meals a day and I keep it right at my 33 weight watchers points. I don’t feel hungry all the time and I’m eating stuff that I like so that doesn’t make me grumpy like most peoples diets do. Also doing 64-96oz of water a day. [] I feel better then I have in a long time…..so I guess as long as this doesn’t kill me or I give up I should be doing great in month or so. Here’s to no early cardiac arrest!

We’re sure he’s not alone, so shoot us a message about your updates!

Hey Reed! Thanks for leaving us a voicemail. You didn’t leave an email, so aside from calling you during dinner time (or worse, sleep!) this was the next best thing.

We’ll be sure to splice your suggestions into our next show. Thanks for listening!

This episode Steve is still in an extended stay up near Seattle and Jason is holding it down in southern California as usual. The discussion kind of bounces around (hey ma, look, no script!) but we cover the following.

• Day 3 of the healthy road warrior routine. Steve talks about techniques that he has found useful in dealing with traditional hotels and extended stay hotels. He also explains the differences of the two as well as the pros and cons of each for someone wanting to lose weight.
• Jason carries Jessalyn in the pool. She’s still learning how to swim.
• 90 degree weather can die now, please.
• Water bottles that kill you? We talk about SIGG, Naglene, leaching chemical water bottles, Bisphenol-A and BPA. We also suggest some alternatives to these water bottles including steel bottles.
• Podcast Peers Award Winner Spring 2008 “Best Geek Podcast“

The company I work for is VERY family friendly and we try to make everyone feel at home here. For the 3 plus years I’ve worked here each month they throw a small birthday party celebrating everyone’s birthday for that month. Since I started GeekFit with Steve I’ve walked out of the room after being social with my co-workers and before they begin cutting and handing out the cake. It’s to the point now that if they have the cake precut they just skip me when they start handing it out.

I bet most people that have vendors attempting to get you to buy their product will try to buy you lunch. I hear this tactic is VERY popular in the health industry (ironically)! Donuts, cookies and cakes are quite popular in these instances.

What things happen in your workplace that you have to resist the urge to indulge? What tactics do you use to resist?

Email, leave a comment in the post us or give us a call 360-450-5026

I was looking through some personal blog posts at xinu.org and came across the first mention of Geekfit:

…then I started writing about the new podcast that Jason and I are trying to get off the ground. We decided to call it geekfit.com but we’re still working on the format. For my part I want to talk about how it’s possible to be a geek (read: sedentary lifestyle) and be fit at the same time.

Original story: http://blog.xinu.org/2006/04/05/92/

The extended stay routine has kept me away from restaurants. Mostly. Tonight my buddy Rob Schricker came through and picked me up we went into Seattle to meet up with some friends of his.

The challenge: french fries.

I don’t know what it is about french fries. I can choose the chicken sandwich over the burger. I can even pass on the ranch and stick with ketchup. French fries get me every time. I didn’t avoid them tonight, but I think in the future I’m definitely going to have to either opt for fruit or something.

What would you do? Shoot me an email and help me out.

My buddy Jacob has a health and fitness website called This Is Not a Diet where he is documenting the journey of some of his friends and family losing weight and living healthy.  Their tagline is: “It’s a year long mission to break the habits that make us unhealthy and overweight”. Currently they have thirteen people involved in this project, they document their struggles and achievements in the form of words, video, audio and pictures. I plan to get him on the show to discuss what they are doing over there and how everyone is progressing.

ThisIsNotADiet.org

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Lunch

• Weight Watchers – Smart Ones – Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli & Chicken
• Fruit Leather
• Diet Coke

3pm Snack

• Cookies
• Fruit Leather

Starting today I’m going to attempt to post 1 picture each day to our GeekFit Flickr Group. My goal is to post what I’m eating for lunch each day. I’d like to invite you to join in on this as well by uploading a picture of something to our flickr group. It could be your scale showing your current weight, the food you will be eating, something that motivates you to get out an exercise or even your awesome new equipment.

Below is a video showing you one of the ways to go about submitting a photo or video to the GeekFit Flickr Group. Let me know if you have any questions.

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Show Notes:

Steve and Jason pick up the baton and keep running with the fitness discussion.

• Steve tries to stay in shape as a road-warrior (round isn’t a shape?)
• Jason is still walking 2.5 miles/day
• Steve and Jason discuss the game plan for taking the weight back off
• Hotel workouts when the available gym sucks

Voicemail: (360) 450-5026
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jasontucker

http://twitter.com/mrxinu

We want to know, what do you do at work that is fitness related? Take a walk? Ride your bike? Hit the Gym? Let us know via a comment here, voicemail or reply to the utterz posting below.

Mobile post sent by jasontucker using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

I already touched on this a bit in a previous utter on GeekFit, but I wanted to elaborate a little here after I’d had some time to think about it.

Last week I was going to the gym pretty regularly and I could tell that I was feeling better. It was the usual batch of progress: more energy, less stressed, looking forward to my next trip. Then something happens and I’m moved to take a day off from the gym. It could be I stayed up too late and a morning gym trip is unreasonable or the afternoon was busy and I didn’t have time to go then. The really interesting thing happens the day after the day off from working out which I’m calling Second Day Syndrome (SDS).

Like I’m constantly trying to convince my wife, my memory is terrible. I can pretty well remember yesterday, sort of recall the day before, but beyond that it’s a good thing I take notes well. During SDS the memory of going to the gym and not going to the gym are both fresh in my mind. Not going to the gym is a slightly fresher memory so I’ll say that a workout has about 40/60 chance of happening. On the next day the odds drop to 30/70. Add that to the guilt of not having gone now for 3 days and you have a recipe for disaster.

So what do we do about the dreaded SDS? If your memory is as bad as mine you might want to follow a steadfast rule of “no more than one day off in a row.” I’m going to give it a try and see how I do. If this is all I needed to do to stay consistent I’m going to be relieved and upset I hadn’t done it sooner.