Update - Paul Schmidi Schmidman

Family will probably be arranging a memorial in LA around September. As I learn more details I will pass on.

Paul "Schmidi" Schmidman - RIP

Yesterday I learnt of the sad news that Paul Schmidman, a friend and colleague from AOL had taken his life.  Sometimes you feel you know someone really well, sometimes you feel like you know someone quite well, but in Schmidi's case, as much as I spent hours and hours with him in, in-depth discussion, I really did not know the guy. The truth is, no one did, he is an enigma.  For those who knew Schmidi you know he had what could be called an "alternate" universe, where situations and stories blurred the edges of reality.  The thing that we did know, he was not a malicious person, but he sure did some crazy things. Schmidi we will miss you.  

"Lose It" app update. 20lb down!!!

For blog followers, you will know that for the past 9.5 weeks I have been using an app on the iPhone called "Lose It".  It's a free app and helps you keep track of calories in and calories out to help you lose weight. It also gives you a goal number of calories you can consume each day, (taking into account your age, height etc), in order to lose between 1lb and 2lb a week. I have been using this religiously and last night dropped to my first goal, 200lbs. This is a drop of 20lbs, and half way through my target. 

So why does this work where other things don't. If you use it, (and it's a bit of a pain at first), cataloguing everything you eat, all the ingredients in meals, and stay below your target line, you lose the weight. If you add exercise through the app, it will give you the calories burned in your work out and add it onto the calories you can consume, so there is a REAL incentive to work out every day, (I am now doing three miles a day in the gym plus a full work out, average work out is 550 calories that get added to my total that I can consume a day). So those 550 extra calories really become make or break.  The other thing that really works, is the app tells you how much calories are in any one item of food.  This makes you selective on the food you eat, thus helping you eat a more healthy, lower fat diet.

All in all, this app is just superb. Roll on the next 20lb!!!!