Why I Did It.
My dad was diagnosed with diabetes. This is a life-changing illness that requires you to drastically alter your diet and rely on insulin shots for the rest of your life. I’ve educated myself more on the subject in an effort to help my dad with his diet.

I have helped my dad with his grocery shopping. We reduced his sugar intake substantially. The result was 20 pounds of weight loss and less reliance on insulin. His biggest vice was pop. We’ve introduced him to Crystal Light. I know. I know. This is full of aspartame. Baby steps. This is better than sugar. Especially with diabetes.

Fat on the belly for a man puts him at much higher risk of developing: diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, high triglycerides, low levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol.

I’ve been told that high blood pressure and heart disease are common in my family. I also know that lack of education regarding nutrition and poor choices are just as common.

I’m now constantly educating myself to offer help and guidance to my dad and to continue a healthier lifestyle for myself.

I have to take a moment here and commend my wife. She has done an outstanding job making sure our kids eat healthy food. She also educates them and makes sure they understand the importance of making eating healthy and limiting sugar a lifestyle.

My wife has always led a healthy lifestyle and is great at moderating with food and exercise. I am typically more extreme, but I’m getting better at maintenance.

Thank you, babe.

How I Did It.
I lost 27 pounds by changing my habits and sticking to a plan. I decided that for ten weeks, I would completely cut out carbohydrates and eat natural foods. I worked out on a regular basis while also watching my diet.

The Results.
The results were not at all what I expected. The weight kept coming off. I started off at 213 pounds. The heaviest I’d ever been. It’s interesting how and where fat accumulates on your body. With my clothes on, I appeared to look “normal.” With my shirt off, I could see lots of fat accumulating on my lower back and abdomen.

My plan was to get my weight down to 195. At the end of 10 weeks I was down to 186. At that point I decided to maintain my weight. I didn’t have my body fat checked, but I’m pretty sure I gained muscle weight during the 10 weeks.

I am now wearing size 33 waist jeans with a belt. Before I started, I was wearing 36’s and they were becoming tight.

What I Experienced.
Boundless energy. I felt like I was in high school again. People worried that I wouldn’t have the energy from being malnourished. It was the opposite! My body was getting everything it needed and nothing it didn’t need.

What I Ate.
Salmon. Chicken breast. Tuna. Eggs. Vegetables. Cheese.

Some vegetables are more starchy than others and, therefore, have more carbs than others. Avoid corn; carrots are higher in carbs due to the starch..

My go-to meal was: a can of tuna and a bag of steamer veggies. This was usally my lunch and cost no more than $3.20.

For breakfast, I mostly ate omelets. We did find a Special K Protein cereal that had more protein and less carbs. This did require me to drink a little milk. Sometimes, I had to if I had too many eggs that week.

For dinner, my wife already does an awesome job at preparing nutritious meals for our family. During my 10 week phase, I would avoid bread and pasta in our dinner meals.

What Not To Eat.
Bread is the WORST. Whole grain bread is fine, but be sure it’s real whole grain bread and not dyed-brown refined-flour bread. Beer is like liquid bread. Fruit is full of sugar. Regular yogurt has lots of sugar. Try greek yogurt. Beef jerky can be deceiving. Look closely at the sugar content of it. Milk has TONS of sugar!

Basically, check the carb content of everything you eat for the first few weeks. You’ll probably be surprised at how many carbs there are in many of the usual items you eat.

Should You Exercise?
Yes. It’s good for your heart. It strengthens the heart muscle and improves the flow of blood to the heart. Exercise is also great for your mind. I think much clearer after a hard workout. Whenever I’m done with a workout, I have such a feeling of accomplishment. It’s a great way to start the day on a positive note.

Exercise also does a couple of other things. It burns calories; it makes you hungry. It’s easy to break even when you burn some calories, then replace them because you are hungry. It’s much more difficult to get rid of calories versus consuming them. After exercising, make sure you take in “smart” calories. If I work out at lunchtime, I’ll come home and have a protein shake. Dumb calories would be eating a chocolate shake and taking in 100+ grams of sugar.

I did 2 - 3 exercises per week. I LOVE group fitness classes at the gym. My most favorite is boxing. This is an intense cardio workout that burns nearly 1000 calories in one hour.

I would occasionally go for a run or play pick-up basketball. I would also do one to two intense weight training workouts per week. I cover all major muscle groups during these workouts. This helped to shape my body when all the fat went away.

Convenience.
Fast food is convenient. It’s much easier to run out and get a value meal while you are out running errands. This happens most often at lunch time. It turns out it’s even more convenient to buy food ahead of time and bring it with you to work or have it on hand while you are at home.

I frequently peruse the frozen veggies aisle looking for a great deal on the steamer veggies that I like. When I see a good deal, I’ll snag up 5-6 bags of the veggies and store them in the work freezer. This helps cut down the total cost of lunch per day.

What I Learned.
I learned you can skin a cat hundreds of different ways. You can count calories if you want. You can count carbs if you want. You can decide to not count anything. Education is key. The more you learn about different foods, the easier it gets. People tend to burn out because they try to keep a written log of what they eat and be precise when counting calories. If you miss a day, you feel like you’ve failed and it’s easier to just say: screw it, I’m done.

Sometimes you need to take extreme measures to get where you need to be.

An airline pilot will ascend quickly to get to the proper cruising altitude. Get it?

I decided to completely cut out sugar and starch for 10 weeks. This included fruit and any products with flour. Whole grains were fine, but hard to come by. There’s tons of deception in advertising when it comes to true whole grains.

Some consider that extreme. I see it as getting to a maintainable level quickly and healthily.

Controlling the urge to crush a bag of chips was difficult for the first couple of days. I made sure to have non/low-carb snacks around when I had an urge. Some of things I had on hand were: cheese sticks, almonds.

Consistency is key. Simplicity is essential.

On most days, at work, I would eat a bag of vegetables that I steam in the microwave and a can of tuna or a chicken breast.

What helped me most was going as basic as I could. This means: nothing processed and everything as natural as it can be. Natural being: vegetables and a piece of meat. I know most chicken shouldn’t be considered natural with how it’s grown, but hey, I can’t afford “organic”, so that had to do.

Getting To Automatic.
This is the point where you can go on autopilot. Through research, trial and repetition, you’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. In this case, I no longer had to look at packaging and count carbs. I knew exactly what I was getting and what I needed. Keeping things simple helps. I have a select number of foods that I’ll use for my meals. Sometimes I mix and match, but, for the most part, I stick to that core group of items that I know works.

Maintenance.
Maintenance has been fun. I now consistently weigh around 190. I have been able to experiment with preparing other foods and I’ve reintroduced fruits and other vegetables in. It can be easy to fall off the wagon, just like it can be with any other diet. I’ve decided that I’ll stay fairly strict with 2 out of 3 meals during the day. Maybe I’ll have eggs for breakfast, tuna and vegetables for lunch, then splurge on some bread during dinner. Following this has kept me at my current weight.

Everything needs maintenance.

Cars need maintenance. Your home needs maintenance. Finances need maintenance. There are plenty of areas in my life where I need to apply the maintenance principles I’m now talking about. I’m working on that.

In order to maintain good/great health, you must stay consistent with diet and exercise. Sometimes, to get to a maintainable level quickly, you have to have extra focus.

Conclusion.
Many of the topics I have covered deserve more attention. I’ll post more to the blog that gets into specifics of diabetes, working out, diet, etc.

I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do know that when you give something focused attention and stick with it, you will become more knowledgeable and be able to speak about what works and what doesn’t.

My goal here is to share my knowledge and hopefully help others with my simple solution.

Now, go get yourself a can of tuna and enjoy!

When your logo was designed did your designer take into consideration if your logo could withstand the test of time?

Do you feel that your logo truly represents the present and future goals of your business?

Did your designer explain to you why he chose the typography he did? Did he choose a typeface or type style that will be strong for a great length of time or is it something more trendy that EVERY designer decides to use and only become unpopular in the coming months?

Does the icon (if any) of your logo symbolize something that your business stands for?

Was your icon crafted well enough to last for years and years?

These are all questions that ALL business owners should consider. Sadly, people will spend a great deal of time and money and decide on a logo that wasn’t given much detailed time and attention.

Logos should not explain what a business is all about. A logo should be considered an identifier of a business. The logo should, when viewed, be an instant identifiable mark. Many business owners want the logo to explain every facet of a business. Unfortunately, this only makes identifying the business behind the logo more of a challenge.

In this post I will touch on common attributes and characteristics of logos and identity systems that can have great impact on how your business is perceived.

How memorable is your logo? Is there anything about your logo that helps lock it into the memory of whoever sees it?

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “less is more.” This statement is what most good graphic designers wish their clients would understand. To stand out from your competition your logo must be different in some way. You must imprint your brand into the minds of your customers or potential customers so they only think of YOU when it’s time to make a buying decision.

It’s possible to distinguish your business from the competition. Two effective methods of distinguishing your business from the rest are using thought-provoking colors and appropriate shapes.

How was the color of your logo chosen? In design everything that is created should have a reason behind its creation. Much research should be done in the beginning stages of logo and design development. One important research criteria is color. Different colors have different meanings in different parts of the world. For instance, in the United States, the following colors can have these subsequent meanings.

• Red - Passion, Anger, Stop
• Yellow - Joy, Intellect, Caution
• Green - Fertility, Money, Healing
• White - Perfection, Purity, Wedding
• Blue - Knowledge, Tranquility, Calm
• Black - Fear, Negativity, Death
• Purple - Royalty, Wisdom, Spirtuality
• Orange - Creativity, Invigoration, Unique
• Grey - Neutrality, Uncommitted, Uncertain

Does the shape of your logo or icon truly represent your business? Powerful logos are generally reduced down to the simplest shape possible. Elements within the logo design will generally involve a shape that directly relates to the business or business goals.

Color and shape are only two of many different ways to differentiate a business logo or identity. Other ways you can differentiate a logo from the next are through typographic choice, typographic treatment, letter orientation, etc.

There are thousands of possibilities in each case and it’s a graphic designer’s job to explore the possibilities.

Look at some of these logo examples and try to see if the designer clearly differentiated the businesses they are attached to by using color or shape.

In future posts concerning logo and identity design, I will touch on different pitfalls of amateurish logo design including scalability, multi-channel implementation, brand standards and many more insightful topics.

Some information that I gathered for this post can be found in an excellent resource I use titled, Logo Design Workbook by Rockport

As a photographer, do you rely on local business to stay in business?

Do you own a photography studio and thrive on local business to come walking through your door? What methods do you use to advertise your local services?

Newspaper? Fliers? Mailers?

You’re probably thinking that the only way you can get business from people in your area is if you advertise specifically and directly to the people in your area.

Did you know that by writing frequent free blog posts you can increase your exposure on a local level with more effectiveness than a lame mailer that COSTS MONEY?

I’ve said it before that search engines LOVE blogs. If you don’t have a blog, get one right away. If you do, start including information about your local business. Be sure to include keywords and key phrases in your blog posts that refer to your local business.

For instance, if you own a photography studio in Kansas City that specializes in black and white portraits, you could say this in a blog post, “We are a  Photography Studio in Kansas City that specializes in Black and White Portraits.”

Be sure to repeat the information at a normal level throughout your postings. Also be sure to take advantage of the Tags and Categories in your blogging platform to insert keywords as well.

Please comment and be sure to subscribe to receive future posts on how to have a more impactful web presence.

Photographers can gain an advantage by establishing a blog.

1. Search Engines LOVE them

Google is a big fan of blogs along with all other major search engines. The main reason is the constantly updated content. (That is if you update your blog) Blogs make it easy to keep your clients and potential clients informed on what you are up to.

You can carefully craft your blog to ensure that search engines are in tune to exactly what you are posting exactly when you do it. You can also make minor modifications to your blog to take complete advantage of how a search engine views your website and indexes your information. Pretty soon, after you have made some posts to your blog, you will begin to get visitors that are coming from internet searches.

I will write a follow up blog post that will show you a great free service that will allow you to analyze your web traffic and find out how people are getting to your site, where they are coming from, what they look at and how long they stay.

By the way that you write your content and format your blog, you can gain tons of valuable, localized and targeted search traffic. ALL FOR FREE!

2. It’s Not ALL About the Pictures

Potential clients want to get to know you. Many consumers do research online before ever making a phone call when purchasing or inquiring about products or services. The more information you can offer to these visitors, the better.

With a blog, you can inform visitors of what you are up to, offer up some great advice and give detailed information about photo shoots. By doing this you open the door to a conversation by allowing visitors to comment on your blog posts. This allows the potential client to gain further trust in you and your services. People LOVE to read testimonials and praise.

3. Create a Following

Once your blog is established you can begin to create a following in a variety of ways. One great way is to inform all of your past and current clients of your new blog. You can utilize great email/newsletter software to keep people updated on new blog posts.

With a blog you can allow people to subscribe to your RSS feed. With RSS, clients can follow you by getting your blog posts instantly in their feed readers. I will explain email and RSS in much more detail in a follow up post.

Another IMPORTANT step is to establish accounts at various social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter and have them connected to your blog. Again, more detailed information will be coming soon in a future post.

4. Inform Your Following

I’ve seen some great examples of photographers keeping their followers up-to-date on what is happening with the studio.

a.h.p., wedding photographers out of Denver, CO does a great job at keeping their following engaged and interested in what they are doing.

isaac alongi studios out of Fairway, KS offers insight into what’s happening at his studio in addition to offering great tips and advice for budding photographers. (Offering up free advice is a great idea on your blog. )

5. It’s ALL About the Details

When potential clients find your site from a referral or search they are hoping to learn a little bit more about you. They will be pleased to see the details you have included on each blog post about client shoots, equipment you use, or advice that you offer.

It’s ok to “give” information. Don’t worry about the competition coming by and snatching up your ideas. Your main concern should be potential clients passing you by when they come to your site and there is no information.

People want information and want to connect as much as they want to see your great work!

Stay tuned for more posts on this subject as I’ll teach you how to carefully craft a blog that will make you a cinch for the next client hoping to build a relationship with you.

Please comment and be sure to subscribe to receive future posts on how to have a more impactful web presence.

Photo credit: Joakim_kna

You need more than just a portfolio site these days to succeed as a photographer.

It’s not just about burn and dodge.

Are you a photographer that is interested in getting more business?

Have you perfected your portfolio website, but the emails and calls are not coming in?

If you want to remain competitive it’s critical that you not only have your great portfolio website, but you have a blog established as well.

Your potential clients probably LOVE your work. They probably think you’ve taken the best photographs of kids or wedding receptions that they’ve ever looked at.

There’s just one problem.

The same potential client has been reading the blog of your competitor and has fallen in love with their personality.

They have also been reading the gushing comments left by other clients which further boosts their confidence in hiring that photographer.

This photographer, although their imagery isn’t as perfectly cropped, focused, burned or dodged, or desaturated as yours, sounds more competent than you because of the insightful blog posts that they periodically update their site with.

Are you alarmed yet?

Guess what…

It’s more about the relationship you build and less about the perfect dodge or burn on a photo.

What’s your experience with having a blog as a photographer? Is it helping you build your business and strengthen relationships? Do you need a blog and don’t know where to begin. Contact me if you would like more info.

Stay tuned for more posts on this subject as I’ll teach you how to carefully craft a blog that will make you a cinch for the next client hoping to build a relationship with you.

Please comment and be sure to subscribe to receive future posts.

Photo credit: rain_foursix

Color code Post-Its to help organize your life.

We all have ways of keeping ourselves organized and staying productive. Some of us keep a planner and keep nice detailed notes about what we have to get done. Others use Tasks in their email client of choice and keep track of what they do that way.

I’m the type that needs visual reminders in front of me or I’ll forget or leave notes lying around.

I have devised a method that I call Post-It Productivity that has helped me stay organized and give me a visual picture of what I have to do while giving certain items priority.

I know some people may disagree with the paper that I am using, but it keeps me organized and on task. At this point, I’d rather waste paper than time.

I’m going to outline my method for staying productive using post-it notes.

Pretty Colors

I categorize my life using different colored Post-Its. I use lavender for any work-related action that needs to be taken care of. Green is used for any writing idea that I have. Blue represents personal projects that need to get done like getting a tire fixed, or organizing an outing for my son’s scout troop.

Power In Order

Now that the categories are defined by color I use a vertical ordering system that lends importance to the top of the list. I love the flexibility of this system as I can move things around if need be.

Power In Pulling

There’s no better feeling than crossing a to-do item off of your list! Well, that’s not entirely true. To be able to pull a completed item off of a wall and crumble it up or rip apart makes me feel ferociously accomplished!

Post-Its For Projects

I also use Post-Its to keep track of complex projects. If I am developing a new website there are hundreds of steps in doing so including purchasing a domain, setting up hosting, finalizing design, deciding on site structure, developing seo’ed content, etc.

How do you stay organized and make sure nothing falls through the cracks? I’d love to hear!

Please comment below and be sure to subscribe to receive future posts.

Finding a poorly SEO'ed website on the web is like finding a library book without a card catalog system.

This post is Part Two in a series helping you figure out if your website is worthless.

Do you know if your website is currently search engine optimized correctly?

An easy way to find out is check your website stats and find out what people are searching for.

If people are coming to your site and buying your products and services or engaging with you in conversation, then stop reading. If you aren’t to sure or if you get only a handful of visitors per month, then keep reading.

Many people design a website and throw it up on the web without a search engine optimization strategy. Did you know that you can slightly tweak your web content with keywords and phrases and rapidly turn your web traffic numbers around?

Our goal is to help you get more relevant and targeted web traffic with a few simple steps.

Step 1: Determine keywords and keyphrases you would want potential customers typing in to find your site.

Let’s say you owned a wedding photography business in Kansas City. Pretend you are a potential client and think about what you would type in to find your services. Create a list of keywords and phrases. Here’s a short list I came up with: wedding photography kansas city, kansas city wedding photographer, photography studio kansas city.

Step 2: Determine how often search terms are searched.

I’m going to share with you a remarkable and free tool I use to check on how often search terms are searched. The Google Adwords: Keyword Tool will give you incredible information on how often search keywords are being searched.

I’ll start by looking up ‘Wedding Photography Kansas City’. You can quickly scroll down the list and see what other similar search terms are typed in and the frequency they are searched each month. The exact phrase wedding photography kansas city is searched 1000 times in April!

Step 3: Check out the competition for this search term.

By doing this search in Google I find out that 319,000 results. This is actually very low and would be a great search phrase to optimize your site for!

Step 4: Insert this search phrase into your content.

You can now begin placing this search phrase into your web content. Try to not over do it by inserting the search phrase too often. This can actually worsen your position in search engines. Be sure the search phrase is located in the title of your web page and included in the content of your web page. Try to not use the keyword or phrase more than once per paragraph.

By applying these steps when you write web or blog pages you can actively begin increasing your organic search traffic and gain relevant and targeted traffic.

This post is Part Two in a Series entitled, Is Your Website Worthless. Here is a list of upcoming future posts that will help you achieve value from your search engine marketing.

• Is your website properly search engine optimized?
• What purpose does your website serve? Is it an information repository?
• Do you have clients that visit your website to gain value information or insight?
• Has your website sat there untouched for many years with the same old content?
• What is your website’s purpose?
• Are you actively keeping your website up-to-date with new and interesting content?
• What is your goal with your website?
• Do you have marketing objectives?
• Do you have a mechanism to allow people to subscribe to your content?
• Do you have a way to notify interested parties of new content or products on your site?
• Is your website easy to navigate? When your visitors get there can they find the information they need easily?

Can your website be found by potential clients? Do you need help figuring this out? I’d love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions you may have about your own website! Please comment below and be sure to subscribe to receive future posts.

Thanks for reading!

photo credit: MSU Library

All Flash sites can blind your customers

Want to know a great way to blind your customers and keep them from EVER viewing your amazing photography?

Create an all Flash website!

Don’t get me wrong… I’m a HUGE fan of Flash. I used to develop all Flash sites for my clients. I agree that Flash definitely has its place on the web.

I want to arm you with 5 reasons why you should presenting your best work using an all Flash format.

1) Mobile compatibility

It’s hard for many old-school photographers to grasp this thought, but it’s true: Your prospective clients are using their cell phones to view your work. Many cell phones do not come pre-equipped with Flash players and are next to impossible to get a Flash player installed.

Guess what.

Your prospective client just hit back on their cell phone browser and went to the next available photographer.

2) Attention span

Enough said? Good. Move on.

3) Directional URL’s

Email from Prospective Client:  “Hi, I would like to get more information on your studio portrait services.”

Reply from Hopeful Photographer:   “Sure. Go to AllFlashPhotosite.com and roll over About, then roll over Services when that appears, then click on Portraits when that appears, but make sure you wait for it to appear.”

Let’s see how a photographer without an all Flash site would handle it.

Email from Email from Prospective Client:  “Hi, I would like to get more information on your studio portrait services.”

Reply from Smart Photographer without all flash site: “Hi, no problem. Just click this link. http://SweetNotAllFlashSite.com/services/portraits

See the difference there?

4) Accessibility

Again, not all people have Flash players installed on their computers and it’s irresponsible to say, “If they don’t have Flash, then the shouldn’t be on the web.”

Additionally, some people use screen readers to access web information. I feel a barrage of rude comments coming for this one, but seriously…

5) Search Engine Unoptimization

Do you like when people can easily find you on the web by searching for photographers in your area? If not, get an all flash website.

I am discouraging photographers from building all Flash websites for the above reasons.

So, what’s the alternative?

I encourage photographers to use a mix of XHTML and Flash or Flash not at all. Obviously, XHTML and accessibility go hand-in-hand and many more people are using their mobile phones to peruse the web and make purchasing decisions.

In the next week I will be rolling out a design for a remarkable photographer that uses XHTML and Flash together.

What are your thoughts on all Flash websites? Do you have one? Do you run into the troubles that I have mentioned above?

Subscribe to learn more tips on website and graphic design.

photo credit: jgs4309976

Is your website worthless?

How do we define worthless?

In Part 1 of  a series let’s answer that question by determining why people decide to create websites in the first place.

Most commonly, business owners decide to put up a website to give a little background and information about their company.

The business owner is typically highly motivated and wants to publish information as soon as possible.  In most cases, the business owner does no research about his competition and doesn’t truly consider what types of information his consumers would be searching for.

This is the most important part of the process when establishing a web presence. If you don’t do research and develop content that will #1:  please your visitors and prompt them to take action or plan to revisit your site and #2:  get indexed by search engines so consumers that search for your products will be able to find it.

Why are most websites worthless? They have crap content will never draw in the right visitors or once the visitors arrive, the content is not engaging and doesn’t hook the visitors.

This is Part 1 in a series that will help you reevaluate your web strategy and help you decide what steps you need to take to get the right people to your website using the right content. Here is a list of future posts that will enable you to turn your worthless website around!

• Is your website properly search engine optimized?
• What purpose does your website serve? Is it an information repository?
• Do you have clients that visit your website to gain value information or insight?
• Has your website sat there untouched for many years with the same old content?
• What is your website’s purpose?
• Are you actively keeping your website up-to-date with new and interesting content?
• What is your goal with your website?
• Do you have marketing objectives?
• Do you have a mechanism to allow people to subscribe to your content?
• Do you have a way to notify interested parties of new content or products on your site?
• Is your website easy to navigate? When your visitors get there can they find the information they need easily?

Is your website worthless? I’d love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions you may have about your own website! Please comment below and be sure to subscribe to receive future posts.

Photo courtesy of McQuinn via Flickr

Remember elementary school trying to decide who you would sit by or wondering, wishing, hoping certain people would sit by you?

As we got older we began settling into certain groups or clicks. We formed friendships and relationships that usually had something to do with common interests. There were jocks, goth kids, dorks, smart kids, popular kids, unpopular kids, the special ed kids.

Isn’t it interesting how Twitter could be considered one big lunch room and how our conversations are similar to elementary or high school lunch chatter?

What is your goal with social media? Are you trying to sit at the wrong lunch tables or are you sitting where your voice and your opinions will have the most impact?

Think about it. It could impact your business in a good way when you sit with the right crowd.