I have just had a couple of challenging days in succession where sticking to a healthy meal programme has been severely challenged. This all started on Friday, which is Little Nannas birthday. As is tradition the birthday celebrant gets to choose what meal is on the cards. Little Nanna chose a Chinese meal. Instantly any chance of maintaining my healthy eating ways was put on the back foot.

Today was also challenged by a road trip to Canberra. Whilst I chose a sandwich it did have brie cheese on it. On it’s own not a problem, however I compounded the problem with a flavoured milk and a milk tea. Dinner was also cleaning up some of the left overs from Friday, so doubly screwed.

Across both days I have burnt 1000+ calories to counteract, in part, the intake. Time will tell if that has been enough.

I never thought that I would, but today I joined a gym. I now have access to some serious workout gear, and in time spin classes. The gym is Just Move located at the Warilla Bowls and Recreation Club. The gym is a relatively small gym, but has enough equipment and classes to get me going.

I am expecting a call shortly to arrange the first of 3 personal training sessions to set me up with a workout program and eating guide. Looking forward to it as Bobbie has also joined. Will be good getting all hot and sweaty together!

I guess the benefit of having a gym at the bowl-o is I can get a beer post workout … just kidding.

I have now established a reasonable change and am going for daily walks and paying greater attention to what I am eating. This start to my lifestyle transformation has now expanded to some added activities and investments.

First of these is that I am participating in the 1 Million Kilo Challenge. This is a 10 week challenge that is aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle. Basically on the challenge I will receive free advice on health, nutrition, and exercise through regular e-mail and a website. In reality I will be continuing to do what I have started. However, will look at the plan suggestions and where it makes sense adopt them into my routine.

The next expansion is in the investment in a range of exercise equipment. This investment is in our lives together, and it is time to get serious.

Fitness Investment 1

Fitness Investment 2

Fitness Investment 3

Now the trick will be to turn this small investment into a profitable lifestyle change.

I have been doing a bit of digging around MyFitnessPal and found “The Heart Calculator”. The facts it produces are pretty amazing. Take a look here.

The Meat and Livestock Australia board have long enlisted aged former AFL player Sam Kekovich to flog its core product around Australia Day. The campaign of 2006 was funny, and centred around Sam shelving the politically correct phrasing and telling us to eat lamb in no uncertain terms. It appealed to the twisted Australian humour like no other advertisement earlier. It is by far the best of the campaigns.

The 2007 campaign was also a good campaign. It followed in the same manner of the 2006 campaign.

However it is fair to say that with each year the wit has dissipated and the effectiveness of the campaign must be fading. In desperation it seems that this year the MLA has decided Sam needs help from fellow D-List celebrities. Sam has been joined by:

• A plastic looking Melissa Tkautz from E Street “fame (… what you forgot about that show)
• The Justice Crew who won a talent show apparently (wouldn’t know never saw it)

The advertisement has also been made into an all singing and dancing spoof of the Aqua tune “Barbie Girl”. Now correct me if I am wrong, but Aqua were a group from Finland, and “Barbie Girl” was only a hit due to its corniness. Unfortunately the corniness has long faded and the lyrics of the spoof are disastrous. That said here is the latest piece of #ChopCulture.

And of course the full god awful thing!

I am sure I will be labelled as un-Australian, but really are we still really liking this aged campaign?

Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFirnessPal.com

The first App I became aware of, thanks to Mr Dan Hughes from Lee and Dan’s Midnight Movie Club, was Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal. MyFitnessPal is a site that has a large (and dynamically growing) database of foods and exercises and is a combination of website and iOS App. Basically after putting in a current weight, a goal weight, and a timeline to achieve the goal it works out a daily calorie goal. This goal is adjusted as cardiovascular exercises are added to your daily diary, strength exercises can be recorded, but have no bearing on your suggested intake.

The downside I find to the App is that the calorie’s burned for cardiovascular exercise is guesstimated based on user input. For example, for a walk you enter the amount of time you walked for and a rough speed estimate. The burn is then worked out according to an arbitrary formula and takes into no account the inclination and declination of the travel. Surely both of these are key factors in getting an accurate reading. As such the calories burnt can only be thought of as a guesstimate.

Technically the App is not needed as all can be done on the website, however having the App in my pocket gives me the ability to see at a glance my calorie intake and guesstimated calorie burn for the day. This helps me make smart decisions, and gives me a way to monitor what it is I am eating. The site does have a social aspect to it as well with a reasonably active forum of like minded people becoming more active.

It’s a good idea and could well be expanded upon and improved further. If you are in the market for something like this then give it a go.

Happy New Year 2012

Well tonights the night at Jasbelle Restaurant and Lounge that we will be celebrating Chinese New Year. Looking forward to it immensely and have been for some time now.

I am hoping that this year will allow us all to share in:

大吉大利 – daai gat daai lei – Much luck and much prosperity
心想事成 – Sam seung sih sihng – May your heartfelt wishes come true

The final Lion Dance I have looked at before my Jasbelle Restaurant and Lounge experience comes from the Docklands area of Melbourne Victoria. Having spent some time down there I think I can picture exactly where it is. This lion has balls!

As part of the build up to the Jasbelle Restaurant and Bar celebratory build up I am looking at Lion Dances from around the globe. It is an expressive art form and I am looking forward to whatever Jasbelle have up their sleeves.

After our failed attempt to dine at Zen X Teppanyaki/Sushi Bar we dined at the Ocean Beach Hotel. This is a place that Bobbie has been wanting to try for as long as I can remember. So it was with great pleasure that we entered. After a review of the specials board we were a little taken back by the price and were about to leave when we were served. We decided to stay and give it a go. We decided to sit outside on the balcony overlooking the beach, was a little breezy but the seats and tables were very comfortable indeed.

Ocean Beach Hotel - "Hot - very - Hot Curry Chicken" sans Pappadums

After reading the full menu I decided on a “Hot – very – Hot Curry Chicken”. This is essentially chunks of curried chicken served with turkish rice, yoghurt, lime, cucumber and papadams. The curry did live up to its name as the first mouthful confirmed that it had a kick. It was though not enough to hide the quality of the cooking. The meat was tender and the yoghurt and cucumbers offered that cooling effect that a dish like this requires. The pappadams were also full of flavour and very enjoyable, this is unusual for me as I am not a big fan of pappadams generally. A funny story about the pappadams is that when the waitress was bringing my dish to the table they set sail in the wind, a replacement serving was quick to arrive.

Ocean Beach Hotel - "Hot - very - Hot Curry Chicken" with Pappadums

Bobbie ordered a “Chicken Caprice”. Basically a chicken schnitzel covered in cheese and served with chips and salad. The schnitzel was not the usual wafer thin chicken, it was a good 25mm thick and covered half a dinner plate. As a result the meat was tender and juicy all the way through. The accompanying salad was also generous. I did score the mushrooms from the salad, unfortunately for me they had soaked up the salad dressing and lacked any mushroom taste.

Ocean Beach Hotel - "Chicken Caprice"

The atmosphere was suitably relaxed for a weekday and gave me an opportunity to review a crucial document in a pleasant environment. This made for an extremely positive experience and we will not hesitate in visiting again. This goes along with Jasbelle Restaurant and Lounge as a top place to have something to eat whilst in the Shellharbour Village.

Looking forward to a bit of this action at Jasbelle Restaurant and Lounge on Sunday evening to ring in the “Year of the Dragon”. I am personally a “Rabbit” but I support the St. George-Illawarra Dragons, so it’s all good!

Sorry for those expecting a deep and meaningful post. This is more a random thought and funny observation to be honest. People search for some funny stuff and here is a sample of the terms that led to my site in the past day.

• male feline urinary system
• unique birds
• worm farm images
• australian gardens
• chai plant
• kitchen
• tropical australian flowers
• wormfarm removing maggots
• worm farm creatures
• starbucks loyalty card
• can i place blow fly maggots in a worm farm

I am a little concerned about that last one. I mean why would you?

That said it seems a lot of people are still interested in vermiculture. I better resurrect my kit!

A free Starbucks card

I cant believe it, Starbucks Corporation is handing away 100% free cards. Hurry fast, Don’t hold off any time. Here is site – {URL_REMOVED} Theres only 316 more!!

Quote of the Day

that they were rather coarse, broad, with squat fingers. of keeping up a brave and cheerful appearance to Jonathan tries me,

This he backed up with arguments regarding his complete recovery,

This threat is a variation of Sophos Naked Security | Free coffee from Starbucks and Tim Hortons? No, it’s a Facebook scam. As you can see it is months old now. The e-mail variant has the same risks associated with it.

I find it entertaining that getting a free card would be a compelling reason to risk the security of your data. It does not say that the free card entitles you to anything. Let’s face it, every coffee shop known to man will give you a loyalty card for free. It is only after you have bought a set amount of coffee that you get a free coffee. This set-up does not say anything about this mythical card entitling you to a free coffee, and really is the prospect of saving $3.50 – $5.00 that enticing compared to losing all your data?

If nothing else tells you that this is a scam then the “Quote of the Day” should. Honestly what does that nonsense truly mean and who writes that way? It looks like a cut and paste from a Mills and Boone trash novel and a medical report. Clearly this is a program that has a random phrase generator and is used to try and fool the spam detectors into thinking it is a legitimate transmission.

My advice is to update your defences and be on guard. Common sense goes a long way in protecting yourself from being duped on such matters. I mean if it was a door to door salesman with no credentials, or a telemarketer named Mark Stevenson with an Indian accent, would you not think twice? E-mail, Facebook, Twitter etc. deserve the same level of vigilance and skepticism. Without that you will fall foul of the dark side. Perhaps not as badly as the South Koreans recently rescued from being kidnapped in South Africa after falling for a 419 email scam as per Sophos Naked Security | Police rescue man and daughter kidnapped by email scammers, but duped nonetheless.

Do not fall for this garbage people.