The first week of my Geek to Lose plan has past and despite only being able to run (well, walk... more on that later) once, I managed to lose 3 pounds. Not bad at all, especially considering that I haven't made any drastic changes to my diet. I am just eating a little smarter (and less). I cut back to only one hamburger a week, no more candy, minimal soda and healthy(er) snacks, and when I am choosing what to eat I try and pick something relatively healthy. I am no dietitian by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems to be working (at least for now) and the best part is that I don't feel like I am depriving myself of anything.

I have to admit, I am the stereotypical "fat geek". I spend the majority of my waking hours in front of a computer, and my diet consists mostly of soda, candy, and other "junk" foods.  I eat almost constantly all day long and the only exercise I get is walking across my office's parking lot to the corner gas station to buy more soda/candy/chips/whatever. This weekend I decided to change all that and get my self down to a healthy weight.

I have a loooooong way to go, as I currently weigh 298 pounds and according to the US Center for Disease Control I should weigh between 130-170 lbs. for my height. While it won't be easy, I plan on losing about 130 pounds total over the course of my "program". The how I will lose it is the fun part: gadgets. Now, I don't mean gadgets like those stupid belts that shocked your gut to "exercise" your stomach muscles. I'll be using things like Nike's new Nike+iPod Sports Kit, GPS, and what ever other gadgets I find to help me exercise and keep track of how I am doing. I don't really have a "plan" per se, I am just going to use common sense about how much/what I eat and good old fashioned exercise (helped by gadgets of course) to drop the weight. To help keep me motivated, my fiancee has agreed to let me get a "small" gadget for every 10 lbs that I lose, and for losing the whole 130 pounds I am going to reward my self with a shiny new Mac to add to my computer collection (because its a long way off I will refrain from naming a model, but a since OS X came out a Mac has been something I have wanted, so it will make a nice goal to reach for).

The first stage of my plan is to follow one of the online guides to go from couch potato to being able to run 5k (3 miles) in under 30 minutes (I am teetering between these two plans). I will be using Nike/Apple's Nike+iPod Sports Kit to keep track of my runs and chart my progress (should be arriving in the next day or so). In between running days, I am also going to try and swim to help give me an extra boost (its summer and the water is fine). So in 6 to 9 weeks (depending on the plan I choose), I am going to run in a 5k and hopefully be able to do it in under 30 minutes.

I'll be checking in every week with my progress and reviews of any new gadgets I find to help me along the way. Hopefully, doing this in front of the Internet will: a) Keep me from giving up out of sheer fear of public humiliation (I said I am going to do it and the Internet never forgets). b) Hopefully encourage my fellow overweight geeks to drop some pounds. (Though, if you are going to start any exercise plan or diet - you should probably check with your doctor first. Dropping dead while trying to get healthy is incredibly counter productive.) Next week I will try and get a "before" picture up (as soon as I find a way to do it without scaring any children) and let you know how the Nike+iPod thing is working out.

BMI calculator @ The Center of Disease Control
The Couch-To-5k Running Plan @ Cool Running [via Lifehacker]
Go from couch to 5k in 6 weeks @ Healthbolt [via Lifehacker]

weight loss, diet, exercise, running, gadgets

Summer is slowly drifting away, and if you have kids or are in charge of kids, chances are that you very well may be running out of ideas to keep the little rug-rats busy. Arts and crafts (or science experiments) are a great way to keep the ankle biters in your life occupied and under control. In fact some of my fondest childhood memories are of doing science experiments out of my Mr. Wizard science experiment book or building little arts and craft thingies with my Mom. This quick little project from Make walks you through making a wallet out of tape. Fun for all ages this project is simple and only requires tape and scissors. Make has kindly provided PDFs with patterns and a video showing how the whole project comes together. If you need any other ideas for things you can "make" with your kids this summer be sure to check out Make (both the magazine and the blog) for tons of projects. (Just use some common sense in picking the projects - a potato gun may not be the best idea for a kindergartener, but a cigar box guitar may with some parental supervision. I am sure that I am preaching to the choir on this one, though. We are all responsible geeks here - right.)

Weekend Projects: Make A Wallet Out of Tape @ Make: Blog
Instructions and PDF Document to Make a Wallet Out of Tape @ Make: Blog

DIY, crafts, tape, wallet

Now, I normally don't get political here on Geek In Gear, but watching the news this morning I just about blew my top when I heard President Bush is upset with the press about publishing a story about a secret operation to track terrorist's money (sorry, the link requires registration - just use Bug Me Not). There are even some congressmen that are calling for the staff members at the Times to be brought up on criminal charges. I have two initial responses to this travesty.

First is the logical part of me that says, "Hey, if the press found out about this program, then how much of a secret could it have been?" If the press found out about this secret bank monitoring, then what makes the President (and his cronies) think that foreign intelligence services (that funnel information to terrorist groups) would not be able to uncover this program with out reading about it in the Times? If you are not able to keep the lid on your own programs, then it's no one's fault other than your own. That would be like having one of my computer systems at work compromised by hackers and then blaming the researcher that found the flaw that was exploited for the attack. The complete and total lack of any personal responsibility that seems to keep growing in this country (and not just from the Government either) has me concerned about the fate of our once great nation.

Second, the journalist in me (and yes I can say I am a journalist - thanks Apple) is mortified that the government wants to censor the press. The canned response that in times of war that The Constitution should be ignored (the government spinsters use slightly less inflammatory wording - but that is what they really want to say) is crap. There is no war. Terrorism has always and will always exist. Its a fact of life. There is no way to please everyone in the world and there will always be psychopathic, bull-headed individuals that would rather turn to violence then be willing to compromise when someone pisses them off (and I am not just talking about terrorists - the governments of the world are just as bad). Declaring a "war" on terrorism is no excuse for ruining the freedoms and protections that Americans enjoy (and have died to protect). I think Ben Franklin (who knew a thing or two about governments overstepping their bounds) said it best, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither". Censoring the press is such a slippery slope. There is not much of a stretch from wanting to hide the fact that the government cannot conduct a "secret" operation with out screwing up, to wanting to hide reporting of losses and casualties in war or saying publicly criticizing the government undermines its ability to fight terrorism. Those examples may seem extreme, but they are all possible if the government is allowed to keep stealing our freedoms.

This is just one of many incidents of the government ignoring the Constitution and the law in the name of "fighting terrorism". (The NSA/ATT wiretapping incident is another, as is the so tragically named PATRIOT Act.) While I don't usually take a political stance myself or ask others to get involved with politics (I am a pretty easy going laid back person), I have to urge you, if you care about protecting your freedom, to join and/or support organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the American Civil Liberties Union that work to make sure our rights are protected and that our leaders stay the course that our founding fathers started when they penned The Constitution. I am not saying you have to agree with everything that they do (I personally don't) but these people are fighting the good fight on your behalf and they need our support. I am reminded of a quote I read in high school about the Holocaust. I don't remember who said it (I think it was a Christian church leader) or exactly how it was worded, but I will try and paraphrase it for you. "First they came for the mentally ill and we did nothing. Then they came for the Jews and we still did nothing. Finally they came for us and there was no one left to do anything." Please, do what you can to protect the Constitution now, before it's too late.

One last thing. Please use the comments if you would like to have a civilized discussion about this topic. If you just want to flame me and not offer anything to the conversation other than "u terrorist loving commie - bush is going to save us all - u suk", please keep it out of the comments (I still am more than happy to hear from you, just email me instead of cluttering the comments - john at geek in gear dot com).

Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful @ nytimes.com
Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror @ nytimes.com

Join The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Join The American Civil Liberties Union

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