Inert Ramblings

Month: May 2003

  • Ketones, loose skin and other nastiness…

    I’ve been checking my ketone levels for the past couple days and I’m definitely in ketosis. My test strips have been bright pink after going back into induction as opposed to the light pink they were before. Speaking of which, I guess ketones and ketosis are out while lipids and lipolysis are in. I received my latest Atkins Direct catalog and found that the ketone test strips are now called Lipolysis Test Strips. Go figure. I wonder why the name change after New Diet Revolution went through so much trouble to hype ketones.

    Also, it wasn’t until today that I was made aware of, and completely disturbed by, how much weight I’ve lost. I laid down on my Yoga mat to do my morning pushups and made the mistake of doing so without a shirt for the first time. When I looked down at my gut, instead of seeing the usual paunch of flab, I saw loose hanging skin. I have to say…not the best way to start the morning. But it was still motivation!

  • Big Brother is Watching You!

    Big Brother is really watching you. New RFID tags the size of a speck of dust will be embedded in everything from paper currency to ballpoint pens. Don’t you just love living in the age of information?

    More information, as always, available on Slashdot.

  • Pure De-Lite Chocolates

    A few weeks ago I ran across the Pure De-Lite line of sugar free low carb chocolates at the local Wal Mart. After finishing my box of six bars, I tried to look for bargains on the Web for bulk pricing. I had no idea that the Wal Mart pricing was better than anywhere else! While most online shops are selling the bars for up to $3.00 each and up to $50.00 for a case of 24, Wal Mart sells the bars for $0.97 each and $5.17 for a box of 6!

  • I’m off the Xenadrine-EFX…

    I’ve decided to stop taking the Xenadrine-EFX since I no longer feel that it is really doing anything. When I first started taking it as a supplement I found that I had more energy and I didn’t feel so run down. Now that I’ve lost quite a bit of weight I seem to have just as much energy on weekends where I’ve forgotten to take it as when I first started using it. Also, one of the other reasons I relied on it was because it was a psychological crutch to help convince me that I could lose weight.

    Centrum Performance, however, has become a staple in my diet. I have proven to myself that ginseng and ginkgo both keep my mind clear and provide energy so it only makes sense to take a multivitamin that includes both! Since I’m eliminating the Xenadrine-EFX, I’ll now be taking the Centrum twice per day instead of my previous once per day.

  • We have clean power again…

    The power seems to have cleaned itself up. Either Mass Electric fixed it or everyone turned off their air conditioners.

  • Going back into induction!

    Since I’ve found myself cheating a little bit and my weight loss progress has tapered off, I’ve decided to go back into the induction phase of Atkins. I’m only losing two pounds per week right now and, although that’s acceptable progress, I’d really like to be losing more. I’ll also be paying more attention to my workout schedule and start going to the gym more than twice per week. I guess my main issue is that I’ve been blowing off the gym to hang out with the Trunkmonkey guys and work on the cars. Bad Sean!

  • Atkins for Life

    Kelly came home with a copy of Atkins for Life the other night and I’ve started flipping through it. I’ll definitely read it from cover to cover at some point, but it’s written as a reference manual to help configure a lifestyle change to maintain weight that’s already been lost.

    It is possible to start the Atkins Diet using this book, however the information is presented in such a way that makes it difficult. In order to take full advantage of the Atkins Diet it’s recommended that you purchase New Diet Revolution as well. Since I had a borrowed copy, I’ll be picking up Dr. Atkins’ Three-Book Package which includes New Diet Revolution, New Diet Cookbook and New Carbohydrate Gram Counter.

  • Brownouts suck.

    So all of the UPS boxes in my office were firing randomly all night. Plugging a voltmeter into the outlet revealed consistent drops under 112 VAC every minute or two so I called Mass Electric to report the problem. After blaming my internal wiring the incredibly chipper CSR agreed to dispatch a tech. A few minutes later, a Mass Electric service van rolled up, he plugged a voltmeter into my box, said “235 VAC/118 VAC, perfectly within spec” and left. He couldn’t have had the meter plugged in for more than three seconds. When I stopped him and said that we had well over a hundred brownouts, he said he’d “let them know” and drove off.

    Bastards. The lot of them.

  • Tanita BF-662-S Scale

    Since our aging analog scale has been getting more and more flakey lately with fluctuations of up to four or five pounds I’ve decided to bite the bullet and order a Tanita BF-662-S digital scale with athletic mode and body fat analysis. Tanita has quite a few other scales available, but the BF-662-S seemed like the best choice with all of the features I needed.

    My primary concern is weight but the body fat analysis and athletic mode will help keep the reading accurate since I’ve started working out. The BF-662-S is missing some features like weight logging and history, but those were features I didn’t feel the need to pay for due to the fact that I am using Eat Watch for that.

    Once the unit shows up I’ll post a full review.

  • [email protected] has been terminated.

    I got responses back from systems administrators at primushost.com and livin4.com. The user account that was being used for the fake Love@AOL Web page has been shut down by livin4.com and the open formmail.pl script that was being used to send the email was terminated by primushost.com.

    What’s really a shame is that [email protected] sounds like a legitimate email account (and a cool one at that)…so this kid probably used his personal email address to launch the attack. Another assclown bites it.