Weigh Myself Healthy – Withings Wifi Scales

By | Published 26/09/2012

Everyone wants to be healthy and for most people that means losing weight (me included)! I did used to keep track of my weight using a normal pair of scales but it isn’t very often and when I did I’d remember the weight but not very accurately always rounding up or rounding down. It wasn’t helping much unless I miraculously lost a whole stone then I’d probably notice!

Then I saw these scales and I LOVE gadgets, they’re made by Withings and in there simplest form, you stand on them, they recognise you, save your weight, body fat % and BMI to a secure website. GREAT.

I bought them and I love them! Keeping track of my weight is so easy now. Infact I don’t even bother I just stand on these scales every morning before I shower, then when I’m in a healthy mood I’ll check the website (or app) to see how my weight is doing. The interesting thing happened when I went on holiday, check out the chart below:

This is the website showing my weight over a month period. See the steep incline, that was the measurements before and after my two week villa holiday to Greece. I drank a lot of beer ate a lot of food and put on 10pounds. Then the cool thing is the decline slope after it showing me losing the weight again as I get back into my normal routine.

These scales are so good, they’ve made it so much easier for me to track my weight. Before I would have noticed I’d put on weight on holiday, but no idea exactly how much and I wouldn’t see this trend of me losing the weight again, it lets me no that I’m heading in the right direction and what I’m doing/eating is right!

I bought my scales from Amazon, they come with a USB cable to plug them into your PC/Mac and four little feet for if you are using them on carpet or not.

The setup is easy you literally plug them in to your computer once, select your wifi network from the list, enter your wifi password and they’re ready to go. You can then stand on them and get weighed. Go on the website and sign up http://my.withings.com/ then when you weigh yourself you will start to see your results come through!

I believe they can recognise upto four different people standing on them and will keep your data separate, so you will all get your own graph. There is also an ace app for iPhone and Android to check your stats on the go (to brag to your mates about your weight loss).

Yes they on the expensive side of scale prices, but they are AWESOME!

Withings Wifi Body Scales

Withings Wifi Body Scales Unboxing – scales, usb cable, instructions, tape measure

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Eating Challenge – The Big Breakfast

By | Published 25/09/2012

Last week me and two mates went to Mario’s Cafe in Bolton to take on the Big Breakfast challenge! In the Big Breakfast challenge you get 20 minutes to eat 10 eggs, 10 sausages, 10 rashers of bacon, 10 slices of toast, five black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms and baked beans, oh and no drinks for the 20 minutes allowed. All for £10.95 (which I think is a bargain).

The breakfast is world record holding. When we where there the cafe owner told us only one person has ever finished it in the time period, so don’t be thinking this is easy!

If your wanting to go, you have to ring up two days before to book yourselves in and the most they will serve is 3 at a time so bear that in mind. Contact Details:

Mario’s Cafe
67 Market Street, Westhoughton, Bolton BL5 3AG
01942 813 287

Tactics

The breakfast comes on a tray, not a plate a tray! The thing I struggled with the most was the toast. How the hell do you eat a giant breakfast AND ten pieces of toast. One tactic is to make breakfast sandwiches out of the food mixing the toast with the food (which a friend tried and failed). I decided to eat two pieces at the beginning, concentrate on the food then hopefully finish the toast afterwards… bad idea! Leaving the toast till the end lets it go cold and hard and it chews and chews and chews.

Stack of 10 toast

Yes I didn’t manage to finish but I really enjoyed the challenge, I finished with 3 eggs, 3 bacon, 3 sausage … and 7.5 pieces of toast left, a meal in it self! My tactic to get me that far was to pair beans, tomatoes or mushrooms with every bite keep it nice and juicy. I ate each black pudding in two bites, ate each bacon in 3 (tail first, then split the rest into two). Also the eggs split into 3. The sausage also went down in 3-4 pieces.

I highly advise you give it a go, just to say you have! It’s 20 minutes drive from Liverpool or Manchester and is picked up on the SatNav. If you do go after reading this please leave a comment with how you got on!

For the rest of my photo’s from the trip see here: Big Breakfast Challenge Photo Album

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How to throw an Oktoberfest Party

By | Published 23/09/2012

Oktoberfest costumes and steins (Click picture for detail)

Last night we threw an Oktoberfest party and it was AMAZING. Everyone had such a good time and it was hilarious. Here’s what we did to make it a success:

1) Fancy Dress

General theme was Oktoberfest ( Leiderhosen and Beer Girls ) or just German in general. We had two pretzels turn up (they’re made in Germany) and someone else was ‘Greece’ (apparantly Germany now ‘owns’ Greece after the bail out).

2) Bring your own Stein BYOS

We got everyone to buy steins/mugs to drink out of. You can get them ridiculously cheap on eBay if you have long enough to look. They come in a range of sizes from diddy shot glass size to litre tankards! ( I went for a litre one, see picture for ideas) If you want a new one the average price we paid was ~£9 inc p&p. Don’t forget you can stick it straight back on eBay afterwards.

3) German Music

There is an Oktoberfest album, this is some type of euro-pop all sang in german. I downloaded one album that was 3 hours worth and stuck it on repeat. (no one can tell its repeated because no one has heard it before!)

4) Dress the house

We had labels in German for the toilets, the beer garden and the living rooms. Also had a blue checked table runner and some german flags.

5) Food

Cooked Bratwurst (big hotdogs) with Löwensenf mustard for sauce. Also we had pretzels to snack on.

Thats it’s party on! We did buy lots of german beer and some german mulled wine, but we cheated and had some other alcohol as well. The absinthe went down well, lethal stuff!

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Passing my Practical Test

By | Published 20/09/2012

Pass Motorbike Test

This year I’ve been taking lessons to pass my motorbike test. If anyone is thinking of taking lessons in the Liverpool/Maghull area I can highly recommend AlMaxx Hen & Chicken Motorcycles, just give them a ring on 0151 520 0026 and explain you want lessons! My instructor was Boyd and he was great.

After four two hour lessons I booked my test. The test comes in two parts, part one is the maneuvers which is off road on a big slab of tarmac like a kids playground and part two is on the road.

You can book them for the same day, however I was recommended to book them a week apart, that way if you fail part one you have enough time to cancel part two and get your money back. (Your money would be lost if you failed part one when booking on the same day, as you can’t do part two without passing part one).

Part One – Maneuvers

You arrive on your own bike to the test center, my instructor told me to reverse my bike into the bay so it was easier to start off on the test, good tip!
After being in the test center and handing over your driving licence, cbt and theory test certificates. You wait for the call!
The examiner takes you outside and gets you onto your bike, you don’t use a radio or anything as its just around a fenced area. He explains what he is going to do today and shows you a map on an A4 that matches the cones that are laid out infront of you.
Firstly he got me to drive forwards and park into four cones like it was a garage and turn off your engine. He then comes and walks next to you and says well done, he then asks you to dismount and walking next to the motorcycle reverse it backwards doing a reverse U turn so the bike is facing forwards in some more cones to the left.
Explaining these maneuvers in plain text isn’t very informative so I’m just going to give an outline.
He then got me to do a ‘turn in the round’ whilst riding the motorbike.
Then it is a figure of eight at slow speed around some cones.
After that you have to ride a wide corner, go through a speed trap and come to a stop when he puts his hand up. You have to do this speed trap at 32mph I think it was, it seems hard but just have faith in yourself!
I had to do that a few times then suddenly after that he said it was all over! I had passed!

It seemed to fly by, I have probably missed some detail here but I was so nervous I don’t remember. From my experience I would just say, be confident, you can do everything they say, you’ve done it all already on the road which is twice as hard. If you don’t understand just ask him again an he’ll show you on his little map. Then breathe and you’ll pass!

Part Two – On the road

Part two was a standard road test, firstly he asks you questions on your vehicle:

Where do you check the oil?
What changes when carrying a passenger? (breaking distance, acceleration, corners)

Then you go out on the road, my examiner followed me in a car because the motorbike was broken!

You have to do independent riding, he said “Follow the signs for Bolton until I speak again”.
After he said that was over (10 mins, so I didn’t make it to Bolton) I was then taken through some housing estates with speed bumps that I avoided to the left or right, then on a dual carriageway where the speed limit was 60mph so I had to overtake everyone doing 55mph (two lanes).
At one point I lost him and he radio’d for me to pull over and wait, i carried on till it was safe (and to use up more test time!) then pulled over and waited.
We got back to the center and I had passed!

One Motorbike License for me!

I loved learning to ride a motorbike and now I’ve got my licence, I’ve got it for life! Soon I’ll buy a bike. Although I can’t decide if I want to get a road bike or a track bike and do track days, only time will tell!

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Passing my Theory

By | Published 13/09/2012

This is easy! You can do it!

Fair enough I’d already done my car theory test so I knew what to expect, but after reading this you’ll be just as prepared 😉

You’ll sit in a little room and have to put all your worldly possessions in a locker (to stop you being a dirty cheat!). So take the least you can to save hassle. When your time is upon you an examiner will take you to the next room:

This room is full of computers in booths, follow the on screen instructions. First are the standard questions, then the hazard perception.

You have 1 hour to finish, I did it in 35 minutes.

Most of it is common sense. “If someone over takes you. Do you A) Beep your horn in anger B) Slow down to allow for the correct braking distance”. I mean come on! Some of the trickier ones ask “How far is the braking distance increased in the rain”, it will still have some obviously wrong answers ( 100 x). Some practice tests can get you over these, and remember you only need 43 / 50.

If you pick up a copy of The Official Highway Code
and give it a little read, or do some online practice tests over and over you should ease through this. I did these online tests here, if you Google you’ll find more.

If the Highway Code is a bit dry for you, this book will hold your hand a little more to guide you through the test ( at a little more cost). The Official DSA Theory Test for Motorcyclists 2012

The hazard perception is a little tougher (if you haven’t driven a car before). If you have driven a car before you should breeze this. For the hazard perception you watch a video of someone driving. When you see something that could be a potential hazard ( a kid has lost control of his football and it is heading towards the road ) you click the mouse.
The trick is to click multiple times. For instance, when you see the kid playing click the mouse, when the ball starts to roll click the mouse and when the ball is into the road click the mouse! This way you make sure you get the ‘sweet spot’ of when the video expects you to click and you’ll get maximum points.
You’ll never get disqualified from over clicking, unless you are completely rapidly spamming the mouse button!
Don’t forget there is multiple hazards per video, so don’t switch your brain off after the first click.

After you have finished you sit back in the first room, I only had to wait five minutes. They then called my name and told me I’d passed at the desk handing me an A4 certificate. WooHoo.

Anything else you want to know I found this FAQ had all the answers.

Good luck and just take your time, be relaxed and think, you’ll pass!

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Clifford D Simak – The Goblin Reservation

By | Published 13/09/2012

Just got back from Holiday and managed to get through three books. The first being The Goblin Reservation.

It’s a science fiction book based in the future ( although written in 1968 so some of the inspired concepts are quite interesting and some things assumed still unknown – physics facts have actually been proved today ). Which I found cute but inspiring.

It was a slow starter and I nearly put it down, but once I realised it was more fantasy than science fiction (it tells the history of goblins and other creatures) then I really got into it.

Its not a very long book so quite good to use as a gapper I finished it roughly in 4 days with 4 hours reading on each ~16 hours.

I don’t want to spoil it so I’m purposefully not going into detail. If fairies, fantasy, time-travel and saving the world are your thing. Pick it up! It’s also cheap as chips because its pretty old. Amazon have it at about £2 / $3 (used) last time I checked. With the kindle edition being £5 / $8.

Writing this post, I’ve just noticed the author Clifford D Simak, has a range of other fantasy books.. So I might pick another one myself, if you have a recommendation let me know.

Please comment if you’ve read it and tell me what you thought as well!

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Ambigram Tattoo – Pleasure or Pain

By | Published 13/09/2012

Some people where asking about my tattoo, so here it is:

Ambigram Tattoo

Ambigram Tattoo – “The world is mine”

It is an Ambigram that says ‘The world is mine’ (read forwards or backwards).

I chose this saying as to me it means. I can do what I want, I am free to make any choice in my life and I won’t regret it because I have more choices to make after that. It is freedom and awe at the diversity of what we can do in the world and I as an individual am empowered to make those choices. To step up to the plate. ( A close second was going to be ‘cometh the hour – cometh the man’. Perhaps another time! ).

It is placed down my left hand side over my ribs and side and stops just above my hip. It took three hours to complete and I did it in one sitting.

I would say my pain threshold is pretty high so bear that in mine when I tell you what it felt like. I had to lay on my side with arm resting over my ear and above my head.

First they draw a stencil in ink and discuss exact positioning. Then they ‘transfer’ the stencil on to your body. You then check it out in the mirror and if you like the position the artist will start. If not you just wash it off and try again. (Mine was great first time).

It was outlined starting from my ribs and working down. I thought it felt quite nice, like a dull vibration on my side making my ribs shake, when the artist got down to my sift side (in between my ribs and hip bone) it was a bit more.. noticeable.

After two hours the artist asked did I want a five minute break, as I stood up I suddenly realised my whole arm that had been resting across my head was ‘dead’ and it swung loose as I stood up. Five minutes later we were back at it.

When the outline was finished he started colouring it in (all black), this was noticeably more intense than the outline. It was like a scraping motion but again I could deal with it on my ribs. It was then about 2 hours 30 minitues in and he was doing my soft flesh omg it started to really hurt, the time dragged and I was wincing slightly. I was scared to move incase it ruined my tattoo but the artist was holding the piece of skin he was working on steady so it was all good. Then it was done!

Bepanthen rubbed over it kept it moist while it healed, roughly three days later I stopped doing that (iirc).

I didn’t rush into this tattoo I’ve wanted one since I was 18 and got it when I was 25. There are multiple websites out there you can use to create / design / choose an Ambigram tattoo so I would take a look around.

Hope you found this maybe just slightly informative!

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