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OK, this may at first seem to be a jumble of unrelated points, but hang in there with me and I think I will surprise you, because I've discovered a way to increase one's productivity at work while at the same time increasing one's fitness and losing weight.
My wife (Gina the Gorgeous) tells me that I'm incredibly good looking and I don't need to lose any weight (my friends tell me that I should never let Gina get her eyes tested, otherwise she may be in for a bit of a shock).
On the other hand ... my mother (who recently came for a three-week visit from England) told me that I'd gained a lot of weight and that I needed to do something about it. She said it with love, but also in a tone of voice that brooked no argument (you know what mothers are like).
So... I purchased a new set of weighing scales a little over a week ago and weighed myself. Eeeeeek! Arrgghhhh! Urrrgggghh! I can no longer convince myself that it's the washing machine that's shrinking my clothes. I decided that my mom was right and that I have to do something about this.
My goal is to lose 41.5 pounds by Christmas. Why 41.5 pounds? Well, Unless my new weighing scale is telling lies, I'm now a chunky 241.5 pounds, and I've set my goal to be only 200 pounds by Christmas Day morning when I first arise (don't ask me what I'll weigh by the evening). This is perfectly doable if I can manage to lose 2 pounds a week.
What do you mean: "What has all of the above have to do with increasing productivity etc.? Curb your impatience grasshopper; wait for it; I'm getting there.
First of all, I've started walking at least two miles a day (I was walking a lot at the beginning of the year, but Gina "moved my cheese" [messed with my Nike-iPod sensor] and I sort of fell out of the habit). Second I'm watching what I eat (no more burgers and fries for me) including putting smaller portions on my plate.
The result is that I've lost 2.5 pounds in the first week, but I want to do more in the way of exercise if I am to achieve the "six-pack abs" I'm looking for.
Moving on ... long ago in the mists of time, I saw a TV advert for something called the Red Exerciser. This is a sort of swiveling chair that you sit on and turn back and forth against resistance while holding your legs out straight. It provides a really good exercise for your "core" muscles ... so long as you actually use the beast.
Sad to say, after unpacking it and trying it once, the poor little scamp has languished untouched in the corner of my office for a year or more (where does the time go?).
And so, finally, we come to the point of all of this. Are you familiar with the concept of Yahoo Widgets? If not, these are useful and/or amusing little applications that you can quickly and easily download to your desktop (there are literally thousands of the little rascals for you to play with if you so desire).
Well, yesterday evening I ran across a really simple widget called TenPlusTwo created by David Greenspan. The basic idea is that you work for 10 minutes, break for 2 minutes, and then repeat. In reality you can modify the various settings, so I've set my work/break times to be 20 and 2 minutes, respectively.
When you first set this widget running, it's colored red and it starts counting down your work time as shown below (I've set it to always be on top of any other applications).
When it's counted down to 00:00, the widget makes a "happy" sound, turns green, and starts counting down your break time (at the end of your break it makes a "sadder" sound, returns to its red color, and starts counting down a new working period).
Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to procrastinate; there's always a "little something" I want to do before getting stuck into the work I should be doing. This widget helps to stop that, because I've told myself that as long as it's red I have to be doing real work. In fact, I've found that this makes me work faster, because I try to race to complete whatever task (or sub-task) I'm working on before the end of the current work period. (Speaking of which, I now have less than 5 minutes to finish and post this blog).
Furthermore, as soon as the widget turns green indicating the start of my "break", I leap up and throw myself onto my Red Exerciser to perform 30 full left-right body twists. As I pen these words we're nearing the end of the morning and I feel like I've done a really good workout (ggodness knows what I'll feel like by the end of the day).
If I can keep this up, I absolutely believe that it will help me lose weight and get fit faster while, at the same time, increasing my productivity. Let's give it a few weeks and I shall report back as to my progress ... watch this space ...
Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me – Clive "Max" Maxfield – at max@techbites.com). And, of course, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to Sign Up for our weekly Programmable Logic DesignLine Newsletter.
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