Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers is a book about extraordinary people. We tend to believe that these people are naturally great, but surprisingly, they are a result of numerous external factors. Outliers looks deep beneath the surface of these people to reveal those factors.

I first read about this book here on Kevin Rose’s website. I was dead set on buying it, but then I didn’t have to. My flatmate got it for Christmas from his father (what a cool present!).

I really like this book. It definitely made me look at people in a different light (may they be very successful people, or a type of people as a whole). I’m thinking of buying it for my father for his birthday. Recommended for anyone 🙂

Diet progress

After a week on crash diet

I started a ‘crash’ diet Monday last week, and i’ve lost 4-5kg since then (a bit of that will be water, but a bit of that has also been fat). I’ve got rid of the beer gut (10kg since last photo post) and got some shape in my abs again (phew). But there still a bit on the sides that I wouldn’t mind getting rid of:

The crash diet is for people wanting to shed some quick weight/fat. It’s not something that is ment to be permanent. I’m only going to be doing it for two weeks, then ill move onto a more flexible diet (even though I haven’t been truley strict to the rules lol). Basically the diet is based on stripping carbs, fat, and only eating protein. You must take fish/flaxseed oil tablets to get your essential fatty acids, and a multivitamin also helps. Anyway its all in this book that I got my hands on: The Rapid Weightloss Handbook. And yes, I read the entire thing (it was only 100 pages and actually pretty darn easy to read).

Effects: Aside from losing weight, I’ve noticed that I’m no where near as hungry as I used to be. I can eat a lot less and still feel full. I have a lot more energy. And best of all I smashed my old 3km running record by 20 sec. I never knew how much of a difference 5kg makes to running. It feels like your just floating along, it’s insane!

The diet is from Lyle Mac Donald, you can find him over at bodyrecomposition.com. Also, I used sparkpeople.com for calorie counting. Oh, and bought digital foodscales from Briscoes for $35 🙂

I hope someone might find this useful.

Bring on the 8pack.

The passing of another year, and some resolutions for the new one

I feel like i’ve had one of the best xmas & new years periods since I can last remember. Even though I worked all the non stat days. Xmas eve was awesome, went to the Celtic In on the Regent arcade with some old flatmates, and also caught up with Adam and Dinz. Sipped a few ales and remmanissed over the good old days. Also took a lot flak for STILL being in Palmy lol.

Xmas day was great! Went with the olds and my newphew out to foxton to have lunch with my Nana. Was very relaxing and peaceful. On the way back from Foxton I made a little detour to Feilding to pop in and see Kirsten & family. Was good to catch up with her parents and talk about their exciting new plans about their new self sustainable house that they’re going to be building very soon out on Cemetery road. They’ve sold their exisiting house and are on the verge of starting the new voyage. Later that night when we got into town Emma and I went to a Killa’s house to have a couple quiets. His parents Jimmy & Robyn had a few people round. Funtiems.

Boxing day was a bit different this time round. We didn’t go to the races! Emma, Porno & I started at G’s house for a couple beers. We eventually ended up back at Emma’s flat with the rest of her flatmates. The remainder of the night is a sloppy expensive blur.

Working the non stat days wasn’t too bad, which was surprisingly weird. Usually I feel like im missing out on all the fun that everyone else is having.. recently I had been struggling to get through any hours at all for our subcontracting stuff. I was peaceful though. I wasn’t in a hurry to get home and do something else. Just put my head down and got on with it.

New years! Well, Emma had to work all day on the 31st. I picked her up at 5pm and we were outta Palmy by 5.30pm. We were off to stay with my old friend and flatmate Micheal Ducket. The drive up was pretty quiet. We got confused in Rotorua.. Drove around looking for the highway that would take us to ‘Tauranga’ not knowing we were supposed to follow the many that were pointing to ‘Whakatane’. We eventually managed to get there at about 10.30pm. The streets were crammed with drunk and restless teeny boppers (much to be expected). Our night was pretty tame. We just ended up chilling in the lounge and catching up over some cold beer. num num num.

The next day we hit the beach. It was perfect. The sun was pumping, the waves weren’t too shabby and the beach was packed with hotties haha. We got to throw the ball around and hit the surf.. It had been way to long since I had been to a good beach like this. We ended up on the chop that night and hitting Tauranga. It was pretty quiet though but still fun. Saw Pele out with his ‘sweat towel’ lol.

The next two days consisted of chilling at the beach and window shopping. Nice and cheap lol. The only thing I didn’t like about the holiday period is that I took no photos what so ever. We drove back Saturday night to stay away from the rush of everyone else returning from holiday on Sunday. Was probably easier than the drive up.

Umm, 2008 was another bloody quick one to fly past. Its main points that leap to mind are, starting a business (Chase the Sun) with my friend Pranil, and also my freaking knee injury and surgery which has kept me away from sport which sucks big time!

New years resolutions..

• Read more
• Drink less alcahol
• Blog more
• Travel (move away from Palmy)
• Keep enjoying running (I’ve only just started to enjoy it for the first time in my life)
• Get motorcycle license
• Enjoy rugby (easy)
• Finally, a long avaiding goal of mine – Get out of debt.
• Take more photos!! (need a good camera)
• Paint with mum
• Take up a photography class

They’re not impossible goals, I like them! I’ve already started on the 1st goal by buying a new book today! It is Dalai Lama – How To Practise , the way to a meaningful life. Kevin Rose listed it on his website as one of the books that he enjoys. I stumbled upon it today and thought ‘why not’. Edit: I also just requested an info pack for UCOL’s short course in photography. Go schmee!