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I spoke on Wednesday about eating more at home and I mentioned the fact that my wife and I were trying to cut down on our expenses. Several readers responded with emails asking me if we were ok and a few offered to help by clicking on ads. While I appreciate the sentiment, I would like to urge people NOT to do this. The people who advertise through Google do so on good faith with the belief that readers who click on their ads are sincerely interested in their products. To falsely click on ads destroys that good faith and undermines one of the basic pieces on infrastructure on which blogs run.

If you’re really interested in an ad then by all means click on it. If you want to help out 60 in 3 then share these articles with friends and family or through social networks like StumbleUpon, Digg, Yahoo Buzz and so on; there are buttons at the bottom of every post to help you do that.  Otherwise, don’t worry about it. My wife and I are fine and I’m just happy to be here sharing my ideas and thoughts with you all.

As a follow up on this thought, I’d like to direct you to the following article entitled “Ads Are NOT The New Online Tip Jar” from Get Rich Slowly. Not only is this a great blog about personal finance and productivity, but JD is also an amazing writer and he articulated these thoughts much better than I could.
@Get Rich Slowly

And if you want more reasons to make your own food, how about this article from the Diet Blog about “food finds worse than a fly in your soup“? One look at that chicken head made me happy to be a vegetarian.
@The Diet Blog

I usually recommend many small meals throughout the day since that’s the approach that works for me. It keeps me full and stops me from snacking. However, I’m always open to alternatives, like this article from the IF Life that talks about intermittent fasting. It’s an interesting idea and one I just might try one of these days. Just remember, the best eating plan is the one that works for you. Quantity and quality matter more than how often you eat. So if you like many small meals or one big meal, that’s fine. Pick the one that works for you and focus on what you’re eating rather than when you eat it.
@The IF Life

And finally, from the Daily Galaxy, some thoughts about extending the human lifespan. Is it possible to stop aging? Is there a gene that causes again and if so, can we reverse it? Some really interesting thoughts here, especially in light of all the research lately that shows that the effects of again are largely dependent on our habits as opposed to being inevitable.
@The Daily Galaxy

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When I first started working out, I could barely lift the bar with no weight on it.  Yep, I was that out of shape.  However, like most guys (do women have these issues too?) I felt a little embarrassed about this, especially when the folks around me at the gym were bench pressing entire cars (or at least it seemed like it at the time).  So my second week at the gym, I loaded up the bar with 20lbs on each side, lay down on the bench, picked that bar up, lowered it down to my chest and… nothing!

I’m sorry, were you thinking that this post was going to be some inspirational story where I tell you how I overcame my fear of weights by trying something I thought was impossible?  Oh no, this is the post where I tell you about how I spend 10 minutes with a bar across my chest because I was an idiot.

10 Minutes!

Yep, I lay there for 10 minutes trying to hoist that bar of my chest and nothing.  I couldn’t lift it.  I couldn’t even get it moving, much less lift it back up and onto the supports.  Of course, being a guy, I didn’t ask anyone for help.  Oh no, I just lay there hoping that somehow I would develop the strength to get this weight off my chest before I died of dehydration.  10 minutes of pure shame and desperation.  Finally, a fellow gym goer came by and said “need a spot with that?”  Now that’s kindness right there folks.  He didn’t say “hey dummy, need me to lift that light weight off your chest because you obviously can’t?”  Nope, instead he let me keep the tattered shreds of my dignity by asking if I needed a spot, as though this was a common every day occurrence.  I said “I suppose so, if you got the time” although I probably should have said “oh god yes, get this thing off of me!” and the kindly man lifted that bar up, releasing me from my predicament.

Oh The Shame!

I didn’t go back to the gym for a week.  I figured I was now known as “that idiot who tried to lift too much and got stuck”.  People would surely point and laugh when I walked in.  Little girls would walk up to me and say “Hey mister, need a spot?” and then they would giggle and walk away.  How could I return to this place where I had made a complete fool of myself?

You Know What?

Actually, it wasn’t so bad.  No one remembered or at least no one said anything, and I went back to lifting just the bar with no weights no it.  Slowly and gradually, I added a bit more weight and then a bit more and a bit more and so on.

So What?

So why am I telling you this?  Because I was talking to a friend the other day who said she was embarassed to go to the gym.  She felt fat and out of shape and thought people would make fun of her.  It was difficult for her to expose herself to that kind of potential embarassment and so she simply didn’t go.  So I told her that today, I would tell the whole world the most embarassing things that have ever happened to me at the gym.  Because you know what?  It’s really not that bad.  Everyone is a beginner at some point.  Everyone is out of shape when they start.  Heck, if you were in shape, you wouldn’t be thinking of starting to work out, right?

Believe me, we’ve all been there.  We’ve all been embarrassed and we’ve all felt like the whole world was making fun of us.  It gets better folks, it really does.  One day you find yourself not being afraid anymore.  So please, don’t use your fear as an excuse to not work out.  No one at the gym is out to judge you (and if they are, change gyms).  They’re there to help, support and encourage you.  We’re all rooting for you, so why not come out and join us?  I’ll be waiting by the bench press, just in case you need a spot

###

And in case you’re curious, the second most embarassing thing I’ve ever done at the gym was fall of the treadmill while walking at 3mph and the third most embarassing thing was dropping a weight on my head because I was laughing too hard.  The fourth involved locker rooms, showers and missing clothes and no, I will not go into details.

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A while back I talked about my five simple rules for healthy eating.  Well, now I’m going to add a sixth rule based on my experience over the past few weeks.  This new rule is: “A robot may not injure a human being or-”  Wait no, that’s the first rule of Robotics!  What was I saying before I deviated into science fiction trivia?  Ahh yes, the 6th rule of eating healthy, Stop Going To Restaurants!

How Did I Get Here?

If you’ve been reading 60 in 3 for a while, you know that my wife and I are both very busy people.  So for most of our time together, we’ve depended on restuarants for our meals.  I always thought this was ok, especially since I would only order the healthy options on the menu, and I justified things by saying I really didn’t have time to make my own food.  I mean, we both busy Silicon Valley professionals!  Where were we going to find the time to cook food?

Well, over the past few months, we’ve been trying to cut back on our food spending.  My wife is busy launching her new company and I’m paying a lot of money for my graduate school.  Which means we have more expenses and less revenue than usual.  Before anyone worries, we’re fine, but we did decide to cut down on some spending, one part of which was food.

How Did We Start?

First of all, let me give full credit to my wife here as she is the one who led this effort, while I followed happily behind.  That said and as with most things, we started small.  We stopped going out to dinners and started eating at home.  Overtime, we started replacing lunches and breakfasts with more home prepared foods.  Before all of this, I was eating about 12 meals a week at restaurants.  That’s 6 dinners and 6 lunches.  These days I’m eating about 2 meals a week outside the house.

What Are We Eating?

Our meals are relatively simple but tasty and very fun to prepare together.  I really enjoy making salads while she likes making more sophisticated dishes like cassaroles and soups.  Almost all of our meals are vegetarian, although I will occasionally BBQ the organic meat we buy at the farmer’s market.

Some examples from the past two weeks:

• Breakfast - Omelet with tomatoes, zucchini, onion and a bit of hot sauce for me.
• Breakfast - Wrap with cheese, hummus, tomatoes, cucumber (our first home grown vegetable)
• Breakfast - Freshly picked figs from our tree along with a few slices of cheese
• Lunch - Cheese, hummus, onion and cucumber on whole wheat bread
• Lunch - Pasta leftovers from the previous day
• Dinner - Vegetable soup that my wife made from scratch
• Dinner - Freshly made veggie salad and some grilled venison sausages

The Results?

First in terms of health, I feel much better.  Plus I’ve lost about 3lbs this month.  I think this is the last little change I needed to make in my lifestyle to really get to where I need to be healthwise.  I also feel less bloated after lunch which is really helping me in the gym.  Instead of one big restuarant lunch, I usually eat something I brought from home at around 11am, hit the gym at 2pm and then eat another home prepared meal at 4pm.  I’m eating the same amount but I’m able to split it up better.

Second, our expenses have gone down considerably.  I looked at our recent month’s spending and we’re spending about 50% as much as we did before.  That’s pretty considerable when you think about it.  We were able to cut our food budget by 50% while still eating healthy and tasty meals.

Third, our time together has improved.  Rather than spending time at a restuarant, we spend it together at home.  We don’t always cook and eat meals together, but when we do, it’s a far better experience than going to a restuarant.

Where Do We Find The Time?

Strangely enough, this actually saves time.  It takes us less time to make our own food than it does to pick a restaurant, go there, get seated, order food, eat, ask for the check, pay and then go home.  MUCH LESS TIME!  Same applies at work.  Sure, I spend an extra 15 minutes in the morning preparing my meals, but I save about an hour of time which I would spend going out to get food during the day.  My work gets done faster which means I go home earlier.

Do We Still Go Out?

Sure.  On Monday, we both had a craving for Vietnamese food.  Since neither one of us knows anything about cooking Vietnamese food, we walked over to our local downtown and had some.  However, note that this was a response to a specific desire.  We wanted Vietnamese food, so we went out and got some.  It was not the usual, “time to eat, so let’s pick out a restaurant and go there.”

How Can You Do This?

It’s simple.  Start small.  Replace just one meal a week with something you can easily make at home.  Sandwiches are good, salads are better and maybe you could try out some scrambled eggs.  None of these things require a lot of thought, skill or preparation time.  Once you gain some confidence, try out new things like grilling, BBQing, stewing and so on.  Believe me, it’s not that hard.  The key is keeping your ingredients simple and healthy.  It’s hard to go wrong with that as your starting point.

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It’s only been a couple of months, but I’m thinking this is going to become another permanent part of our lives.  We’ve managed to save money, be healthier, spend more quality time together and gain more useful time in our lives.  There’s absolutely no downside here.

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A reader sent me a note over the weekend asking me what I thought of the HCG diet. To be honest, I never even heard of it, but hey, I’m always open to learning about new things. So I turned to my trust search engine (hi Google!) and started researching. Here’s what I came up with.

What Is It?

HCG is a diet regimen in which you limit your daily calorie intake to less than 500 calories a day.  At the same time, you inject yourself with HCG, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, a hormone found in the placenta of pregnant women.

Does It Work?

Assuming you’re still curious after hearing that you’ll have to inject yourself daily with hormones from the a human placenta, then yes, this diet works.  Dah! OF COURSE it works.  YOU’RE EATING 500 CALORIES A DAY! Heck, at 500 calories a day anyone would lose weight and the injections have nothing to do with it.  You can inject me every hour with hormones from the testicles of a rabid hyena and I’m still relatively sure I would lose weight on a diet of 500 calories a day.  It’s not magic folks, it’s simply starving yourself, and the hormone injections are just pseudo science intended to fool you.

Do I Recommend It?

In case that last sentence didn’t get the point across.  NO.  NO WAY.  NOT A CHANCE.  NO CHANCE IN HELL.  This diet is crap.  You’re starving yourself plus you’re injecting yourself with something that has no basis in science.  If you want to starve yourself, be my guest, but don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s healthy just because some one put scientific sounding words in the description.

Seriously

1. The diet claims you will lose .5 to 3lbs A DAY.  Even if you starve yourself you won’t lose this much.  3lbs lost a day means you burned 9000 more calories than you took in.  Unless you’re Michael Phelps, your metabolism just doesn’t work that way.  Anyone promising you more than 1 to 2 lbs lost in a week is either a quack or a liar, or both.
2. Speaking of liars and quacks, let’s do some research.  The guy who’s selling this diet, Kevin Trudeau, was busted multiple times already.  Once by the FTC for claiming his calcium supplement cured cancer and another time by the FTC because Trudeau “has misled thousands of consumers” about his weight loss plans.  This is the guy you want to buy hormone shots from?  I’d rather take stock tips from my 6 month old nephew.
3. While we’re on the subject of nutrition, the American Journal of clinical nutrition already looked into HCG and guess what they found?  It’s useless.  That was back in the 70’s, but hey, I guess everything old is new again at some point.

###

Repeat after me, there are NO quick fixes.  There are no easy cures for extra weight.  There are no magic weight loss plans, no magic pills, no wonder drugs.  You want to be fit and healthy?  Eat healthy, be active and exercise.  It’s that simple.

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I told you about my weekend plans on Friday.  So far so good.  Except we didn’t end up going walking yesterday evening.  Instead, we went dancing.  Even better!  I hope everybody is having a fun weekend.  In the spirit of an active weekend, I’m only going to post one article today.  I hope everyone gives it a quick read and then goes outside and does something active.

The post is an editorial from the Denver Post called Losing Weight Is Easy and it fits right in to this weeks’ series of posts about being more physically active.  There’s nothing revolutionary in it, but I do think it’s worth the few minutes it will take you to scan through it.
@Denver Post

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For the past few days, I’ve talked about ways in which you can be more physically active.  We talked about work, errands, house work, fun activities and so on.  So how do I translate all of this into my day to day life?  Well, let’s take a look.

Today - Friday

I commuted today using a combination of bike and train.  At work, I plan to take a walk outside at around 1pm, right after lunch.  That will let me unwind a bit and recharge for the next few hours of work.  When I get home tonight, I have about 30 minutes of yard work to do, mainly a bit of pruning.  I’ll spend another 30 minutes or so cleaning up the house.  Depending on what time I get home, my wife and I will probably take a walk outside with our dog.  Weather is beautiful outside today and there’s no reason not to be outdoors enjoying it.

Tomorrow - Saturday

In the morning, we’re going to walk over to the farmer’s market and do a little vegetable shopping.  We actually buy most of our fruits and vegetables at the local produce store, but the farmer’s market is still a fun morning activity.  If any of my friends happen to be reading this, why don’t you give me a call and join me?  I also need to do a bit of grocery shopping which I’ll do by biking to the nearby supermarket.

Unfortunately, I need to be in the office tomorrow since we’re preparing for a big customer, which means another bike / train commute.  Should be home by 6 or 7pm when I’m going to do a bit more yard work and then relax with my wife.

Sunday

Sunday is when I’m going to do all the yard work I should have done on Saturday.  Need to mow the lawn, dig a few ditches and do a lot of weeding around the vegetable beds.  I don’t use chemical weed killers since I prefer to do the work myself.  It’s healthier and more active.

In the afternoon, we’re heading up to a picnic with some friends from school.  It’s at a park in the east bay and should be a lot of fun.  We’re going to take our puppy and this time she’s going to get tired before I do!!!  On the way back, we may stop in Berkeley and stroll around a bit. We both love that city and walking through some of the down town areas is always fun.

Doesn’t Sound So Bad…

Other than a Saturday afternoon at the office, that’s not such a bad weekend, is it?  It’s not like I’m out exercising every morning, nor am I missing out on anything fun.  I’m going to spend time with my wife, see friends and enjoy the beautiful San Francisco bay area.  I’m also going to get some errands done and work on the yard, which I love.  However, if you actually look at all of these physical activities, they really add up.  I’m going to bike a total of about 20 miles this weekend, walk another 8 miles or so, do a lot of physical work in the yard and top it off by playing with a hyperactive puppy in a park.  When you compare that to my old weekends which I would spend watching TV and playing video games, the difference is like night and day.  I’m getting a lot more done, I’m healthier and more physically active and I’m also a lot happier.

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So what are your weekend plans?

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In the past couple of weeks, we talked about ways to be more active at work and ways to turn your housework into physical activity, but there’s one more place where sitting around could be turned into something more productive, and that’s your spare time.  That’s right, we’re about to take that over too

Whoa There!

First of all, let’s not go overboard.  Everyone needs a bit of time to relax and I’m not suggesting that you start scheduling your spare time in the perfect increments for physical activity, not at all.  Time spent on relaxation is time well spent since stress is one of the most destructive forces at work in our bodies.  So if you occasionally want to loaf around doing nothing in particular, that’s not a bad thing.

What I am talking about is people like, well, the way I used to be.  I would come home from the office and spend every minute of every hour either watching TV or playing on the computer.  That right there is not healthy and those are the kind of habits we need to change.

So what can we do instead of watcing TV and playing video games?  What sort of fun activities are available to us that aren’t as challenging as a workout but are still good ways to get off our butts?  Well, there are quite a few possibilities.

All The Possible Ways In Which Moving Our Butts Of The Sofa Can Be Fun

Minigolf - Ever tried it?  It’s a blast!  Great fun with friends and family and relatively cheap.  Is it a workout?  Absolutely not, but we’re just looking for physical activity here, not all out workouts.

Go To The Park - This is not hiking.  This is just going to the park and relaxing a bit.  What’s different here than at home?  Well, at the park you end up moving more.  You play Frisbee or toss the ball for the dog.  You actually end up moving around quite a bit at the park, especially when compared to an afternoon at home watching the TV.

Take A Walk - My wife and I do this occasionally when we just want to hang out together.  Sure, we could sit on the couch and talk but why?  It’s so much more fun to walk around our neighborhood, meet and greet neighbors and walk Daisy (our dog).

Play Pool - Yep, you heard me right, go play pool.  Sure, if your idea of playing pool consists of drinking a lot of beer and eating chicken wings, that’s bad, but walking around the pool table, lining up shots and hanging out with friends is way more active than sitting at home surfing the internet.

Even Better, Go To The Pool - No, don’t do laps, this isn’t a workout.  Just splash around and enjoy yourself.  A pool is a great place to have fun and be physically active.

Ballroom Dancing - Anyone can do ballroom dancing.  It’s relatively slow paced and not that complicated once you get the hang of it.  Most community centers offer free classes so why not take advantage of them and do something a bit more fun than watching the latest episode of Dancing With The Stars?

None of these things is very challenging.  I didn’t include anything like going to play soccer or hiking.  These are just fun activities that involve a little more moving than sitting at home and watching TV.  Most of them are relatively cheap and some are absolutely free.  You can do most of them alone or you can add some friends for more fun.

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Physical activity doesn’t have to be a chore.  It can actually be a lot of fun.  Look for ways in which you can enjoy life on your feet and off your ass.

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