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Personal Branding

February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Being the web junkie that I am, I have accumulated a number of domains over the last few years, some of which feature my name.

Having started and failed many times over in terms of a successful blog, I do wonder whether I should create a resume and personal branding website using those domains.  I know that I am not actively looking for a new job, but there is the possibility that someone is looking for a Civil Engineer in Sydney that has my expertise and experience.

Not only that, but the personal branding page will differentiate me from Andrew Barnett the forex trader, Andrew Barnett the web developer from Melbourne and Andrew Barnett the wigmaker.

Now I just need to create a design that I am happy with, or to find a theme that I am happy with.

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Firefox Flaw

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With Google Chrome overtaking Firefox in the last couple of weeks as the second most popular browser, I actually wonder if this flaw is something that is one of the driving reasons between the shift towards Google Chrome.  I use the incognito browsing feature of Chrome regularly, and the way that Chrome handles incognito windows is the reason behind why I use Chrome after using Firefox for many years.

Firefox’s “Private Browsing” feature saves all the open tabs in Firefox, and changes the browser into “Private Browsing” mode.  So I am stuck with a single window, and trying to tweak features and widgets within WordPress, while checking out the changes on the front end as a logged out user, the “Private Browsing” feature of Firefox isn’t really all that helpful for me.

I use Google Chrome and have both a normal browsing window, and n incognito windows open at the same time.  I can make changes in the WordPress back end in one, and use the incognito browser windwo to view the site as a logged out user.  I simply swap between the two like switching between two applications.  I can easily refresh & you don’t have to wait for the browser to reload, and then the website to load.

I do hope that Mozilla considers following Google Chrome in having two browser windows open, one set to “Private Browsing” mode and the other in normal browsing mode.  I would probably consider switching back and using Firefox more regularly than I currently do.

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Protein Seems to be the Key

January 20, 2012 By 4 Comments

One of my earlier posts on the blog that I shared with my Facebook “friends” seemed to cause some form of stir.  I have managed to cause many a stir on Facebook with my status updates, and this was certainly one of them.

From my reading of both online and offline literature about weight loss fat loss, all points of view in that discussion have been covered in some form or another, all with success.  I think that this is the main reason between my confusion between which path to go down, as their methods conflict with each other, yet the end result is somewhat similar.

The one and only thing that I have seen in common with all the various methods of dieting and working solutions for fat loss seems to be eating lots of protein.  I have heard that when you have eaten a minimum 20 grams of protein in a meal, that your body registers as being full even if the stomach isn’t full.  I think that is what I need to incorporate most into my diet, the rest will be drowned out.

Now my next biggest problem is to work out which high protein foods I can get my hands on easily.  Eggs are one source I have heard, can you recommend any others?

BTW, I am down 1kg in a week!

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Weight Loss Reading

January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m not sure if I have shared with you that I am keeping a log of what I do for each workout. They can be viewed right here on the site.

Since I initially started thinking about my goals for 2012 back in November of last year, I’ve done some reading, especially in terms of weight loss, and seen conflicting stories & books about what to do.

brain over brawn

First up, I read a book called brain over brawn. It is an eBook that you can download for free directly from the website, or purchase a paperback copy from Amazon. It isn’t a book that gives you exact eating and exercise, just a formula to follow that will help you along your path to weight loss success.

The author of brain over brawn shares his success through modifying the balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in your diet,  and that there are two types of meals you should have, and they need to be eaten in a specific pattern.  Seems rather complicated to me, especially when not knowing what I will be doing different days of the week.  The author says it can be achieved by basic planning, but seems like lots of change, not something that is conducive to changing a habit.

brain over brawn also recommends the Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, when it comes to exercise, 80% of the results comes from 20% of the workout, you just need to determine which 20% of the workout to keep.  There are some suggestions for exercises, but I don’t recall reading anything about specific quantities to achieve results.

Four Hour Body

The book I am currently reading now is Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss (author of Four Hour Work Week). Having read a few chapters of this book, it suggests that by changing a few things in your lifestyle, and working to “minimum effective dose (MED)” will give you the required results. MED basically says that if you need 10 minutes to tan, you only spend 10 minutes in the sun and no more, anything more than 10 minutes is wasted time. I suspect this is driven by his principles in his first book, Four Hour Work Week.

Time Ferriss also shares that you can have dramatic results with minimal change from your current lifestyle.  Some would say that “if it sounds too good to be true, it must be”.  I lean on that side of the fence, but if someone as successful as Tim is staking their reputation on the line, then maybe there is some truth to it.

Others

I’m open to reading other books, realistic books & programs that make changes easy and simple, will work with lifestyles that get out of whack easily and often, and achieve results.

Which books have you read about weight loss?  What advice can you give a man starting a journey?

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Week 1 2012 Update

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Since posting my 2012 resolutions, both here on the blog, as well as on Facebook, I’ve been checked up on a number of times, especially after posting about Wednesday’s gym session.  I like this accountability thing, & I hope that it continues throughout 2012 until I achieve my goals, especially my weightloss goal.

As part of my weightloss goals, I’ve added a custom post type here to my theme to separate my gym workout sessions from the rest of the blog.  You can find all my workouts throughout 2012 easily, but they cannot be searched using the website search tool.

After Wednesday’s workout, I feel I have some Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), and helping my brother out on Thursday probably wasn’t the best recovery, but the plan is to head to the gym today for some light weights for my arms, hopefully it will assist with some recovery (if someone has knowledge, I’d love to hear from you), plus some more heavy weights for my lower body.

As you can probably tell, I need to do some tweaking of the design, especially when it comes to the workouts section of the blog, but I will work on that shortly, not sure how to set it out, but will work something out.

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