Battle of the Bulge...

I guess we all think we eat right, we exercise enough, we didn't eat that extra piece of cake at morning tea, I didn't sneak that piece of chocolate, I didn't put that extra serving on my plate. The truth is, we did, you did, I did.

Hi, my name is Rach and I'm sharing my experience with you. I started out in the same position as every obese/over weight person IN DENIAL!! I was perfect the way I was, I didn't need to lose weight, I didn't care what you thought of me, or how you perceived my body or weight. The truth is, I didn't care because I didn't know any better. Who are you to tell me how I should feel? How I should eat? How I should exercise? You don't now me or my reasons for why I live the way I do, and who cares, I do everything right anyway. Did you agree with at least one or more of the statements I just made? If you answered yes (even in your own mind where I can't acknowledge you're agreeing) then please, read on.

It started in a doctors office. My husband and I had been trying for a baby for 2 years, I knew it would always be hard because I had been diagnosed with PCOS at 19 yrs old. But, what was to follow that meeting left me in a fit of rage. The doctor told me "You're too overweight to try for a baby right now. Sure, I can get you pregnant. But will you carry full term? Will you have complications through child birth? Will you put your own health at risk?.... " he then proceeded to tell me "Give it 6 months, lose as much weight as you can and we will go from there..."

I was absolutely furious. Who the hell was he to tell me I was to fat to have something that I so desperately wanted. I left there and refused to go back. I started seeing a dietitian, spoke to my doctor about surgical procedures but deep down, I wasn't ready to lose weight. How can you work at something when you don't believe you need to? How can you quit something when you don't see a reason to? Why change when you're happy as you are?

So, I gave it a half arsed attempt.... I thought, it wont work so why bother?

Then, my whole world changed. One morning I woke up and my life was as usual, in my eyes, Perfect. By 6pm that night my life would have changed forever. One phone call changed it all. I'll save you the whole poor me spiel of the whole situation, but lets just say. My marriage ended that day.

The days, weeks that followed were a roller coaster of emotions. However, stress does amazing things. And, someone had a bigger plan for me. Over the next few weeks I went to the dietitian and I stood on the scales as always but changes were happening without me knowing... 1 kilo, 2 kilos, 3 kilos... I was losing weight.

Wait, hold the phone! Yes, I said it.... I was losing weight! And that's where my story begins.....

I quickly learnt that I can lose weight, I feel better about myself, I have energy, I don't want to give up on life.

So, I started paying attention, learning about nutrition, eating properly and healthily and it showed. I was energetic, happier, more confident and overall, I was becoming the person I used to be... The person I didn't realise had disappeared.

What's my point? If I can do it... So can you. You just need to find that inspiration within yourself that kick starts your journey. But you don't have to do it alone, you shouldn't do it alone.

Start by taking a photo of yourself... A photo that is you at your complete worst and that is your starting point. The photo that started it all for me was so unbelievably confronting that I still have difficulty looking at it without tearing up.

Once you have that fire in your gut to change, the hard work begins. More than 50% of your work is going to be nutrition. If you can get your eating right then you're more than half way there. Exercise start with a walk, every day. 20 minutes and you can build it from there.

A routine of a perfectly balanced diet, exercise (10,000 steps per day) 2lts of water a day, and a good nights sleep is where it all begins.

I won't bore you with the whole you should, shouldn't, could, would, spiel right now... If you want to do it, and want help. I'm here. But right now, I figure half of my story may help, inspire, motivate.

But, even as a start. I will share a recipe and hopefully it might show you healthy eating isn't all about tasteless cardboard that you would rather starve than eat.

This recipe is taken from Crunch Time Cookbook by Michelle Bridges.

Chicken Sang Choy Bow.
(serves 2)

1 large iceberg lettuce
olive oil spray
220g lean chicken mince
2 shallots (spring onions) thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
3 teaspoons hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons salt-reduced soy sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 handfuls bean sprouts

Select the best lettuce leaves and if necessary trim them with scissors to make at least 6 large "cups" Place in a large bowl filled with iced water to crisp.

Lightly spray wok with oil and heat on high. Stir-fry the chicken and half of the shallots for 2 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add the carrot, celery, capsicum, sauces and garlic.
Stir-fry for another 4 minutes. Transfer immediately to a serving bowl. Scatter with remaining shallots.

To serve, arrange the lettuce cups on a platter with the bean sprouts. Spoon a little chicken mixture into each leaf, top with several bean sprouts and fold the lettuce over to enclose the filling.

Eat with your Hands.

(to feed a family of 4, just simply double all quantities on chicken, vegetables and sauces.)

So, I hope part of my story and some words on encouragement have helped a little, or at least made you think.

In closing, my life is now as such. I have lost 34 kilos. I went from eating fried, fatty, carb loaded foods, to eating 5 smaller meals, calorie controlled and carb conscious every day....  I also go to the gym 5 days a week for 30minutes to an hour depending on my schedule. I also see a personal trainer once a week (sometimes more also depending on my schedule).

My life has changed beyond comparison and I would recommend it to anyone! It has been hard work, but it has been worth it. To see the tears in my mothers eyes when she saw me for the first time when I had shed 30 kilos was everything to me. And you can feel that same feeling as well.

I leave you with a parting quote which changed my life;

"If you continue to do what you have always done.... You will continue to get what you have always got!"

Good Luck,

What is SEO and how important is SEO today?

This is a 2 in 1 question and i will try to explain and break it down, so that even the lay man and anyone that does not know about information technology can understand what i am talking about.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is some how a new term  to many especially in the web industry, but it has been in existence and has been quiet for a while. Many people have overlooked it as they don't know what it means and how it can help them. If you are a website owner or planning to own a website one day then this is important to you. SEO is important to even business owners as every business owner would like to reach out to as many audience as they can. Before i keep you wondering, i will go now to explain what is Search Engine and Search Engine Optimization.

A search engine as the name implies is basically a system that enables you to search different things and interests on the internet. It can be called a big directory where almost every thing is found on the internet. Examples of search engines are; Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo etc. These 3 mentioned search engines are currently the biggest search engines on the internet where millions of people search what they are looking for. People use search engines for different purposes, some use it to search for answers, fun, study materials, daily needs and more. In fact every one that uses the internet today depend on search engines.

Now what is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Search engine optimization is a method or technology that enhances the way information are found on search engines and the internet as a whole. Almost every information found on the net today are connected to websites. So that means websites are carriers of these information. And this goes to say that search engine optimization is important or useful to websites.

How important is SEO today? I earlier stated that SEO enhances the way information are found on search engines and the internet, so that means SEO is an important aspect of web development and management, because if your website cannot be found by people, then its obviously of no use. There are other methods by which websites can be found, examples are; telling your friends about it on social medias and paying for internet advertising. These are perfectly good solutions, but SEO is a long term solution where by you do not have to pay for adverts or to display your adverts on the first or second page of search engines. So you can say that SEO saves money. If the visibility of your website is enhanced on search engines, that can also increase the popularity of your website or business and this means more prospects for you. There are other terms used in SEO such as; page rank, keywords which i will explain later.

When you search for something on Google, most times it comes up with information on the page like this;

You find highlighted information as in the picture above, those highlighted information are adverts while the ones below are called organic search information. The organic search information are the results of SEO. The words or phrase you type into the search box are called keywords. These keywords trigger search results to come up. So you can see that the owner of the highlighted info above is paying, while the owners of the information below are not paying. This is because the websites displaying the organic search information have been optimized for the keywords typed into the search engine.

At the end of the day you can say that those who get their websites optimized are smarter and wiser. In the mean time, feel free to contribute and ask questions as there are more related topics on the way.

Latest heavy duty engines in small automobiles

I was shocked to find out that heavy duty engines don't only exist in big vehicles, now heavy duty is incorporated in smaller cars. V8 engines used to be the most powerful and complicated, now modern engineering has made it possible to use V10 engines for applications where V8 would produce insufficient power and even V12. But a V12 was found out to be too complicated and bulky. For those car fanatics, you would be surprise to know that dodge was the first to develop a modern V10 engine which was designed originally from a truck engine. You can imagine how fast and powerful small car would be using that type of engine.

Dodge Viper V10 engine

Other brands that adopted the V10 engines are Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, BMW, Bristol, Devon, Ford Volkswagen and more.

Some things you might like to know about some V10 engines;

The V10 is essentially the result of mating two even-firing straight-5 engines together. The straight-5 engine shows first and second order rocking motion. Here it should be assumed that the crankshaft with low second-order vibration is used and the first order is balanced by a balance shaft.

But the V10 engine is not an inherently balanced design like other engines.

The power of social media plug-ins in marketing

The importance of social media plug-ins have gone beyond sharing and fun on the internet. It has become so important that every webmasters have to use it on their websites or clients websites. You must have seen things like these;  

                                        

And you wonder why you find it on most websites. Apart from its fun and connecting behavior, it goes a long way to affect internet marketing today. How does this work for internet marketing?

Researches have shown that thousands and even millions of people stay on social media sites 24 hrs of the day and these people do not just use the social media sites, they visit other websites by searching directories and search engines for other interests all at the same time. And when they do this, they see plug-ins on websites and if they like the website or information on the web page, they share with these plug-ins. By doing this, the shared websites appears on the wall of social medias where thousands see it and share with others too. And this spreads your message like a virus through the internet.

It works out this way, the more people like or share your website, the more potential clients you get. You might be spending money on advertising, which is not a bad thing, but social media plug-ins can do 50% of advertising for you.

Examples of these powerful social media plug-ins are; the facebook like button, tweet buttons and now the google +1 button is here. It is advisable to have at least one on your website and then you will see how useful and powerful they are.