NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Archives for October 2010

Six Pack Update

by

Remember that Six Pack Experiment I did a while ago? (You can see all the posts here).

I tried to get six-pack abs quickly…and found the main way to get them quickly was by modifying my diet (in a sustainable way).

I started eating mostly raw food (even though I never gave up anything…especially not drinking!) and quickly lost a lot of weight (17 lbs in the first 5 weeks)!

Many people commented this change in eating wouldn’t last.  I didn’t think that was completely true, especially after using Adam’s MyBodyTutor service for four months which completely shifted the way I think about food.

So here we are, months after the six-pack experiment has ended, and even after I stopped using MyBodyTutor.

Have I started eating badly again?
Not really.  I’ve had SOME things I probably wouldn’t have ate during the experiment…but it’s extremely rare and I always regret eating the junk.

Does the temptation to eat a bunch of junk still come up?
Meh.  When you look at the end result of eating a food rather than the immediate gratification of it…junk food isn’t very appetizing.

What do you eat at restaurants now?
Salads.  I’ve never been a big foodie, so I love knowing EXACTLY what I’ll be eating at a restaurant.  It’s pretty hard to screw up a salad.  I’m actually surprised how easy it is to find healthy meals at even the WORST of restaurants.  Sometimes a salad will have meat on it, which is fine since I never gave up any type of food.

Have your drinking habits changed also?
Yes.  When I drink I’ll generally get a light beer or liquor with soda water (NOT to be confused with cola).  I’ll still have drinks that aren’t as healthy, but I keep it to a minimum.

What about your grocery habits?
I still buy pretty much only raw foods to keep at home. I save all the bad stuff for when I go out to restaurants.

What are your workout habits now?
Currently I do Bikram Yoga roughly every other day which keeps me really thin…so I workout in between days to keep my abs and chest reasonably toned.  I started working out again after my abs shrank from doing too much cardio and not enough strength training.

What do you look like now?
I just snapped these pictures in the mirror:

So recently I’ve stuck to my healthy habits.  I’m proud of that.

Will this last forever?  I hope…but that isn’t enough.

I’m a HUGE fan of this particular quote I heard Earl Nightingale say in one of his audio programs (I had to re-listen to about three 30-minute long audios to find this one damn quote):

Remember…Physical fitness is an unusual commodity.  You can’t buy it, borrow it, or steal it.  And once you have it, you can’t even store it.  To possess it you must make regular activity a daily habit, and physical exertion a part of your life.

–Earl Nightingale.   Direct Line.  Tape 2B.  27 min and 30 sec.

That is by far the most elegant quote I’ve ever heard about physical fitness.

Weekly Quota Fill

by

In order to meet one of my Oct 2010 goals of making two photo/video sets on House Of Rave per week, I figured I may as well just stamp that out immediately for this week.

This morning I posted edited two sets:

Glow in the dark necklaces:

Phaser Light Ball:

These were product samples I had laying around the apartment, and I filmed/photo’d these all when friends came over.  It’s actually pretty fun to get friends to play with stuff, I take pictures, and I make profit!

Why I’m Not A Doctor

by

When a kid says, “I wanna be a doctor”, the process usually goes:

  • He graduates high school
  • Enters college and enrolls in some form of pre-med program
  • Goes through years of biology and other doctor-ish courses
  • Goes into the hibernation known as “studying for the MCAT”
  • Applies to medical school

Somewhere along that path 90% (actually I just pulled that statistic out of my ass)….but a LARGE percent of these “I wanna be doctors” never make it.

Most of them soon realize they either hate biology, they’re not smart or hardworking enough to score high on the MCAT…or that they don’t want to work so hard to be a doctor after all.

Unfortunately these realizations often come late in college…when they’ve already spent much of their college career attempting to be a doctor.

Well I’m Indian….which either means I’m destined to become a doctor or an engineer.  Both admiral….however as a high school student I couldn’t REALLY tell if I truly wanted to become one of these…simply not enough experience.

However, I was a fortunate little lad…my high school offered this class where you leave school for three hours every other day to shadow different types of doctors. This is nearly HALF the school day you get to dress up in scrubs and follow different doctors as they make their rounds.

This was a two year course…the first year being preparation, the second year actually following doctors.

The 2nd year came around, and it was SO COOL as a student being able to leave everyday in my car (we had special passes which let us freely walk around school).  We got to shadow an allergists, dentists, general practitioners, sports medicine doctors and a lot more.

By shadowing, I mean we followed them everywhere, including their rounds with patients.  Some places occasionally made us do bitch work (like organizing patient records)…but most places really made us feel we worked in the medical industry.

This was a REMARKABLE OPPORTUNITY for myself, because it made me realize something:

I DIDN’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT BEING A DOCTOR!!

I quickly found out I had the same amount of empathy for others as a crotchety old man.

Have you ever had a great doctor who takes lots of interest in your medical problem?  Yea…that WOULD NOT have been me.

While I enjoyed leaving school for this, I really detested the whole aura of being in a medical facility.  I never think, “I’d love to spend 12 hours a day in a place filled with a bunch of sick people!”  It’s just not my thaang.

95 year old man slowly dying a painful death in a hospital?  PUT THIS GUY OUT OF HIS MISERY! Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep him alive? What’s the end goal of that?

Sometimes I just didn’t understand what the point was.  If I ever became a doctor, I’d be more like Dr. Kevorkian.

I must admit certain specialties such as the allergist had it pretty decent: He had very normal hours, mostly healthy patients (with the exception of runny noses), a family-like community of patients and staff, and roughly $400,000/year in profit. He basically owned a business he could eventually sell.  That was neat….

However the monotony of this got to me.  He enjoyed what he did….but it’s not something I would want.  It simply didn’t interest me.

It was around this time I started getting very much into business and reading about business men whom I admired.  The way they made money was scalable….the way doctors made money was much like how the janitor made money: by the hour.

This did not appeal to me.

A doctor has a very likely chance of making a great living for the rest of their working lives….but a business person can either go broke, do as well, or make it REALLY big….without necessarily having to be present all the time.

THIS appealed to me!

With 42 minutes to spare….

by

WHOA….I was just shy of having to give away my bike to a filthy bum right now.

One of my October 2010 goals was doing two HoR pic or video reviews per week.  What I didn’t realize was these first two days of October are kind of a half-week (those sneaky little bastards):

I figured a half week = half work….so at least ONE HoR review should be done in that time.

Well it’s Saturday night, and since I’m such a good boy I decided to finish my obligatory work before I go out.

I did a quick and easy picture set (and video…but decided this product didn’t need it) and posted it on HoR:

Nev = 1
Bum = 0

October 2010 Goals

by

I definitely sucked at my September 2010 Goals.

…this was in part to moving to a new apartment and not having internet or a proper place to work….checkout my view of the sunset!!  (Both taken with my iPhone):

…however that’s just an excuse.  It was mostly laziness.

Anyhow, I’m all setup again and learned a hell of a lot from blogging everyday.  Particularly the best way for me to accomplish something is by creating a negative consequence I won’t be happy with.  I feel like if I do this for several months in a row, it’ll become a habit.

So I planned out my October 2010 Goals, and reluctantly made only four goals (I’ve found out when I put too many things on there I rarely end get them all done):

#1.) Great customer service on HouseOfRave.  This will be a daily thing.  It will consist of spending 20-some minutes in the morning, and 20-some minutes before 5pm on handling all customer service requests.

This often isn’t even that much work, and it has many benefits:

  • Happy customers
  • Less stress from piling up customer issues
  • Less charge backs
  • More return visits.

All of these things all = more $$$$$$.

#2.) Two HoR pics/video sets per week.  Basically it’s this. I used to do nearly ONE A DAY at some points.  I’ve literally just been lazy and not doing them.  BAD NEVILLE.

#3.) Four HoR Emails & Promos.  I just need to remember to send out newsletters.  Simple as that.

#4.) NevBlog fully re-designed.  I already implemented this new WordPress theme…I just need it cleaned up.  I’ll be hiring a WordPress designer and get all the funky formatting corrected.  Preferably I’ll find someone in Austin who can help me with a few simple fixes.

———————————

OK, so how am I going to keep accountable for these four goals??

I was asking my brother and roommate how to keep accountable this month and I randomly spurted out this gem:

“If I don’t accomplish my goals this month, I’ll give away my bike to this particular crack-head bum I see on the street corner all the time.”

I met this particular bum doing The Homeless Experiment and personally know this guy is a huge druggy and alchy. I will be DAMNED before I give that (insert lots of derogatory words here) bum gets my mountain bike.  I ride that bike all the time and love it (I actually bought it from Lance Armstrong’s bike shop here in Austin)!

So there you have it.  If I don’t have those four goals crossed off  on Oct. 31st, 2010….I’ll give my beloved bike away to that bum.