DavidIrwin

Amazing effort mate. Your "Then" and "Now" pictures should be an inspiration to us all. I am still struggling to get past the 90Kg mark. Feeling good with amazing fitness (regular 100mile bike rides) and much more muscle than I had but some work still to go Well Done.

Simon, To help others give you advice would you be prepared to share which MIS software you use? David

Awesome. I now feel the need to visit Milton Keynes for 2 reasons... that and to go practice my snowboarding

I have learned something new this week. For anyone who takes up running as a new activity take it easy, and build up your distance and pace slowly. The lesson for me was - if you push it too quickly you can injure yourself. Only a minor calf tear, but quite painful and has set back all of my exercise for at least a week. Still, I have been eating well and this week lost 0.5Kg (ish). Dave PS. That is not too bad (for a NYC holiday). Don't be disheartened and get back to where you were (diet and exercise) you will find holiday weight disappears quite easily

I suspect that rather than this being no-one has experienced problems, most people have tried, realised that the power settings and GPP do not work well at all and gave up before they found a solution. EZ-GPO was a good idea, but as you say had many many problems and on some machines would simply not apply policies. Unfortunately for all versions of Windows the power policies are stored in the registry in a crappy way so the only really reliable solutions are to either: 1. configure all your power settings exactly as you want them in the base OS image and Default User profile then deploy them. 2. Use 3rd party solution which may offer more than just configuration of power policies. Sorry I cannot be more help. Dave

Sounds like you have all done really well at BETT. I only put on 0.5Kg which considering the hours worked, beer drunk and food eaten is not too bad. I can also feel smug about going for a run on Tuesday evening Keep it up all and have a great week this week. Dave

Congratulations to everyone who is loosing - you are all doing better than me at the moment! I think with BETT this week we all will have to take a slightly flexible view of the diet! Good luck keeping to it this week and keep it going I will be heading out for a run (I am not a regular runner!) a couple of nights during BETT so if you are staying down and would like to join me send a DM. Dave

If you can afford it go. Awesome city. I went recently for 5 days and found that 4 of them I simply wandered around, taking it in, and with very little daily expenditure had a great time. If you want to do things like going up the Empire State they can be expensive ($25/adult) but there are ways of making that cheaper such as "NYC Pass" but with those you have to plan your days, get up early and make sure you visit enough places to make it worth while. There are many places I would recommend you visit, but the two I will pick out are: Roasting Plant The High Line Take some comfortable shoes Dave

Bit of a bad week last week - i finally realised it last night when I ordered in Pizza. This morning however I have made time to get a smoothie into the blender (Banana, Avocado, Strawberry, Grape and 1 spoon of natural yoghurt) which should keep me full all the way till lunch I have also thrown away all the take-away menus from the house, and start training again tonight. Hopefully I can shift the 10-15Kg and get to my target weight by June.

Good point. I forgot the books and apps! Must just be Apple marketing towards a certain type of customer - those with more ££££...

I suspect that Apple decided you couldn't buy much for £5 or £10 (there are very few albums for less than £10 these days) so not worth offering. I do agree with you that having the choice would be nice! Dave

Change is good. Change is good... Change is.... erm, that doesn't sound right!

That sounds a little harsh. I dont think reporting weight every week is good - many people's weight fluctuates day to day or week to week, but reporting when you have done something good (visited the gym, hit a target, been able to tighten your belt one extra notch, etc) would be much more positive Good luck everyone! Dave

Regarding the classes, I never thought I would enjoy them, but your best bet is to just join one and see how it goes - particularly at this time of year as there are plenty of people who have never done the classes (or been to a gym) before so you will find people who are as nervous (feeling out of place) as you are. Most of them are really friendly! I found I needed a reason to visit the gym - once I made a couple of friends there I had that

Yes some of them are. Be careful as some are not. The Phillips MyVision are not, buit the MyAmbience ones are. They look almost identical on the boxes annoyingly! Dave Edit: I would say best to get one and see if you like the colour and "shape" of the output - I have found that they vary wildly. My best suggestion is look for the ones which have a single high output LED rather than the ones with a grid or cluster of LEDs.

Hey, I have purchased quite a few of these now to replace GU10 Halogen lamps in my kitchen and bathroom as well as for family members. They cost me £10 each, and replace a 40w halogen with like for like light output (colour and brightness). Took me a long time to find something which did not look different (mostly down to the colour of the light). I realise these are not listed on Amazon any more, but I have seen them more recently in Wickes. Be Carefuls as the MyAmbiance lamps diffuse the light much wider and so do not provide as much "brightness" to the room. They are however dimmable Dave

@mmoseley Congratulations. Sounds like it works for you and you are doing well. Keep it up

@witch I understand the carbs problem - I was also addicted, but for me much easier to deal with replacing with chicken, etc. Nuts and seeds are great for fill-in snacks but not so good when you need a decent sized meal

I had the same realiseation a few months ago when I got to 105Kg (that is 16st 7 in old money). For someone who is only 5'8" I realised this was a bad thing. For me I have built up gradually to a healthier diet and starting exercise - My view is that one is pointless without the other - gradually reducing bad foods (high carb, high sugar, treats, chocolate, crisps, etc) and increasing exercise over time. Remember; going from no regular exercise to cycling 20 miles to work every day is likely to do more harm than good. Build up slowly - walk to the gym and back home again (you don't even have to pay for a membership for that!) twice a week After 3 months I am now visiting the gym about 4 times a week with a mix of cardio (running, Spin class, etc), strength (weights, etc) and core (Yoga/Balance class, etc) and feeling great for it... 3" less round the waist, 9Kg lighter... My new year's resolution is to get to 85Kg (13st4) by June, but I would be really happy at 80Kg (12st7). If you are on a diet and getting hunger pains it means you are not eating enough (volume), or not getting enough of a certain type of nutrients. This will lead to binging (for most people) so in the long term not worth it - try to find a diet which suits you better or talk to a nutritionist (many gym's will have someone who can advise as part of training). I will also say that when I started exercising (as noted by @tmcd35) that for the first 6 weeks I did not loose any weight due to muscle build-up. This is not a bad thing - if you keep up the diet and exercise this will change to weight loss and the results will be amazing. Dave

PCI DSS is a very high bar in terms of security - I would highly recommend using a payment offloading service (Worldpay and PayPal are two examples) or a hoster who offers to process payments as part of the hosting service to ensure that you do not need to get your own system past these standards. Simple rule to avoid requiring PCI DSS: Do not ask for or store main credit card number. Dave

I have to say it's not Christmas I hate, but the guilt which family put on you to visit them rather than other parts of the family - knowing I have to work Monday 24th, and have people visiting me on the 22nd (members of the family) I am still getting "it would be really nice to see you on Sunday 23rd" from people who live 3 hours drive from me. They know I would have to drive that morning, and back that evening (6 hours in the car + traffic). All it does is create guilt leading to stress which means we are all dissapointed and enjoy the holiday less. This is particularly annoying when I have recently visited this side of my family. I normally enjoy Christmas as a holiday so long as people can realise what these "innocent" comments are avoided.

Only if there was a "Panic" button on the keyboard which loads the Edugeek forums...

You are probably right, but the conspiracy theorist in me likes that answer

Yep. Why does farther christmas wear red? - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers

The real santa wears a green coat. Thank you CocaCola for Santa wearing RED!