标签: exercise

Several days ago, I was chatting with my mother on the phone. She's all excited that I'm coming over to visit for a week in November. "I'll be seeing you in only seven weeks," she trilled happily, immediately followed by "How's your diet going? Have you lost much weight?"   Dang. I'd forgotten that I'd told her I was going on a diet following my last visit a year ago. The problem is that my mom has a mind like a steel trap. Her memory is so good that sometimes she remembers things that haven't even happened yet.   So I started sipping at a beer while I pondered the problem. I used to worry that drinking beer made me put on weight, but I've discovered that, after a few beers, I don't worry nearly as much.   I think I want what all reasonable men want -- some way of losing weight without having to commit any time or effort to the problem. More specifically, without having to do any exercise or change my diet or lifestyle in any way.   You may feel that this is a bit of a pipe dream, but I'm an optimistic fellow by nature, and -- believe it or not -- I may have stumbled across a viable solution.   On Monday, while I was beavering away in my office, my chum Paul from the next bay dropped by to chill out for a few minutes. While we were chatting, Paul mentioned that he'd been looking at some form of exercise machine that causes you to lose weight by jiggling you around. Of course, I immediately thought of the old machines involving a belt strapped around the user's bottom. The belt would vibrate and shake and was supposed to simply "melt the fat away."     Paul assured me that this wasn't what he was waffling on about. Apparently, a new type of vibration machine is starting to appear in fitness centers. The idea is that a platform vibrates under your feet with a frequency that automatically varies back and forth from 10 Hz to 60 Hz. Your muscles react automatically to balance your body against the machine's changing motions and speeds.   It seems that Paul has been researching this quite a bit, cumulating in his finding a very affordable version on Amazon -- the Confidence Fitness Full Body Vibration Platform .   These machines usually sell for thousands of dollars, but this one is only $250 with free shipping. Of course, one is always worried that something is too good to be true, but I'm a big fan of real-world customer reviews, and the Amazon reviews for this machine are pretty darned good. It's got a rating of 4.5 out of five stars with 680 customer reviews (456 of whom gave it the full five stars).   Reading these reviews, we see countless comments along the lines of "I have had the product just over three weeks and my wife has already mentioned improvements in my appearance" and "My clothes fit better" and "I sleep better at night."   Paul and I decided to buy one between us to see if it works. We ordered it around lunchtime Monday, and it arrived Wednesday morning. You can't argue with service like that.   The machine is reasonably rugged and very easy to assemble. It takes up hardly any room, and it's amazingly quiet. It's also very easy to move around, because it is equipped with two small wheels. All you do is tilt it up a little and trundle it around to your heart's content. Paul and I wheeled it into a spare office. No one even knows you are using it unless you tell them.   Reading the instruction books (yes, I'm that sort of person), we are informed that a 10-minute session on this machine is the equivalent of a one-hour regular workout. Also, one should not exceed the 10-minute time limit.   To be honest, I took all this with a grain of salt. I've been exposed to myriad marketing -- let's say fantasies -- over the years, and I've grown used to disappointment. However, I have to say that, in the case of this jiggle machine, I've changed my mind.   All you are doing is standing on a jiggling platform. "How hard can it be?," you ask. But after my first 10-minute session, my thigh muscles were burning and my heart rate was way up there (there's a heart monitor built into the handles and a display on the main control panel). A little later, while sitting at my desk, I realized that I felt like I'd had a really good workout. I did a second session a couple of hours later, and I really, really felt that one.   The great thing about this is the short amount of time it takes. When I arrive at my office in the morning, I start my computers powering up, set the coffee machine going, and then spend 10 minutes on the jiggle machine listening to the news on the radio. Quite apart from anything else, this is much less frustrating than staring at my computer screens muttering, "Come on you... little beauties" (or words to that effect). In the middle of the afternoon, I do the same thing again.   But how will we know if this machine works? Well, I'm going to use the little scamp twice a day leading up to my trip to the UK. In the spirit of scientific curiosity and investigative journalism, I'm not going to change my diet or my lifestyle otherwise. (I dare to be different.) This means that, if I do end up losing weight, we can have some level of confidence that the jiggle machine is performing its magic.   Now, I'm hoping against hope that I will be able to surprise my mother with a slimmer, svelte version of her firstborn son. Keep your fingers crossed for me. In the meantime, have you heard about -- or had experience with -- these jiggle machines?

My new Fitbit Zip is proving to be a wonderful motivator when it comes to exercising. I now find myself going out of my way to walk a few more steps, just to see them reflected on my personal online dashboard. What can I say? It's great to be me! And why do I say this? Well, apart from the fact that I'm dashingly handsome, a trendsetter, and a leader of fashion (it says so in the introduction to my books, so it must be true), I love gadgets and gizmos, so I'm the luckiest of lucky little rascals because people send me all sorts of goodies to peruse and ponder and play with. For example, do you know about Microchip's recent announcement of the PIC24F 'GC' MCUs With Intelligent Analog? These little scamps boast all sorts of features that make them ideal for a wide variety of portable applications. Well, a couple of days after I'd posted that column, a Fed-Ex package from Microchip landed on my desk. When I opened this package, I discovered something called a Fitbit Zip:   To be honest, I'd never heard of the Fitbit family of wearable electronics before, but if you bounce over to the Fitbit Store , you will discover that they currently have three products: * Fitbit Flex: Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband * Fitbit One: Wireless Activity + Sleep Tracker * Fitbit Zip: Wireless Activity Tracker Well, I must admit that I was intrigued. When I opened the Fitbit Zip package I discovered the teeny-weeny Fitbit Zip itself, which is shown here next to a quarter:   This was accompanied by a replaceable battery that is said to last anywhere from four to six months, a moulded plastic clip by which you attach the Fitbit Zip to your person, the smallest wireless USB dongle I've ever seen in my life (to plug into your PC or Mac), and a strange piece of plastic whose function was a complete mystery to me. The instructions accompanying this little rascal couldn't be simpler. They say "To set up, go to: www.fitbit.com/zip" (in multiple languages). When you go to this site, you see three simple pictograms—the first shows you inserting the battery; the second shows you plugging the wireless dongle into your computer, and the last shows you clicking a button (which you do actually click on the pictogram) to download and install the software driver onto your computer. First came the battery. There is a groove in the back cover to the Fitbit Zip. I had to borrow a penny from Bob in the office next to mine to use as a sort of screwdriver in order to open the back, insert the battery, and close it up again. A few seconds after I'd done all this, I noticed another graphic on the screen showing "What's included in your Zip box"—it turned out that the mysterious plastic "thing" was in fact the "Battery Tool" that you use to open and close the cover (give me strength!). Next came the wireless dongle, which was followed by the software download. As soon as the software is downloaded it broadcasts a wireless message (presumably to any and all Fitbits in close proximity) telling them to display the (relatively) unique 4-digit numerical codes associated with them. Then it tells you to look at the code being displayed on your Fitbit's screen and enter that code into your computer. This way, if multiple folks in close proximity each have their own Fitbit, everyone (computers and Fitbits) knows "who is who." Also, as part of this initialisation, your computer uploads the local time into your Fitbit. This provides a great illustration of just how simple the entire process is. Last but not least, you use the supplied plastic clip to attach the Fitbit Zip to your person, and then you are up and running (or walking, as the case might be). Thereafter, the Fitbit keeps track of every step you take. Once every 20 minutes or so it synchronises itself with your PC. If your PC is turned off or is out of range, your Fitbit will just try again 20 minutes later. Whenever you feel like doing so, you tap the screen of your Fitbit to cycle through a series of displays showing things like the number of steps you've taken thus far this day (the goal is 10,000 steps each day), the number of calories you've burned, and so forth. You can also bounce over to the Fitbit website to see your own personal dashboard showing all of this information as illustrated below:   The above image shows only my daily values. You can also see your cumulative totals along with a bunch of other information. Also, as another illustration as to how simple everything is, your Fitbit resets itself back to zero at midnight without you having to do anything at all. (Don't worry, it will still remember any unsynchronised values from the previous day(s) and upload them to your PC the next time they link up.) There are also lots of other cool features, like the ability to form/join groups with other users and then compete against each other. My Fitbit Zip has proved to be a real motivator to me. I'm once again using the Treadmill Desk in my office every day while performing tasks like answering emails and taking part in online chats. I'm also parking my truck further away from things like supermarkets and malls so as to get a few more steps towards my daily total. Yesterday, for example, while changing planes at Dallas airport, I walked all the way from Gate 37 at the far end of Terminal D to Gate 9 at the far end of Terminal A (this is not a short walk). I actually ended up getting more exercise than I expected, because when I finally reached Gate 9 in Terminal A, I discovered that there had been a gate change and my flight was now departing from Gate 38 in Terminal A—I gate I'd walked past quite some time ago. "Oh dear," I said to myself (or words to that effect). In conclusion, I have to say that I'm very, very impressed. This is such a simple concept, but it's certainly got me doing significantly more exercise (in the form of walking) than I was doing before. The main thing for me is that it's so easy to use. All I have to do is make sure I'm wearing it—I don't even have to turn it on and off. How about you? What motivates you to get out of your chair and do some exercise?  

"You slime!" So started my email to Max Maxfield, another tech blogger. Techies have a rep for being couch potatoes. Hunched in front of a computer, the most exercise we get is in wielding the mouse. Obviously that's a stereotype as many of the engineers I know are more fit than the average folks. Except in my case it's true. I detest exercise. As Neil Armstrong once said "I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises." It's boring to work out, run, walk or do anything just for the sake of getting the heart racing. "Boring" is the enemy, especially in this amazing world where there are so many interesting and compelling ideas to explore, and never enough time. For many years I lived on a boat in downtown Baltimore. Everything was within walking distance: the supermarket, restaurants, theatre, post office and more. It was easier to walk than to drive and find parking. But five years ago we moved ashore, to a house in the suburbs where everything is a short drive and a very long walk away. As my driving swelled my muscles have atrophied. So when I read that Max had made a very public New Year's resolution to walk 1000 miles in 2009 my first thought was "yuk." But he had planted a meme that kept surfacing. Maybe walking wasn't such a bad idea. Couple that with an ambitious goal " a kilomile " and my iPhone that has a built-in iPod, and perhaps it wouldn't be quite so horrible. In "Quality is Personal" Harry Roberts claims that "trying harder" is doomed to failure. He says we must change something fundamental when we want to achieve some objective. As a result most New Year's resolutions fail since they're predicated on the same old goals and a promise to be more resolute. Walking a kilomile in a year, and maybe using some technology to entertain as well as track the walkabouts, feels like a new twist. So I emailed Max and, after berating him for prying me from the keyboard, offered a reverse bet: I'd take his challenge, and if either of us fail in our kilomile goal, we'd send each other a buck for each unwalked mile, the funds going to charity. Minutes later he called and accepted the bet. Though we broadened the parameters to include running, the thought of doing that makes me want to reach for a book and a martini. Max straps on the Nike+iPod, which uses an accelerometer in one shoe to beam gobs of data to his iPod. That gets uploaded to nikeplus.com where his progress can be shared by all. That device apparently isn't available for the iPhone, so I'm using RunKeeper which uses the phone's GPS to track mileage and time, and the device's wireless capability to upload data to a web site. Librivox has a library of free audio books, so I've started off listening to some old G. K. Chesterton stories. What's your take on wasting heartbeats for the sake of exercise?  

"You slime!" So started my email to Max Maxfield, another tech blogger. Techies have a rep for being couch potatoes. Hunched in front of a computer, the most exercise we get is in wielding the mouse. Obviously that's a stereotype as many of the engineers I know are more fit than the average folks. Except in my case it's true. I detest exercise. As Neil Armstrong once said "I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises." It's boring to work out, run, walk or do anything just for the sake of getting the heart racing. "Boring" is the enemy, especially in this amazing world where there are so many interesting and compelling ideas to explore, and never enough time. For many years I lived on a boat in a downtown. Everything was within walking distance: the supermarket, restaurants, theatre, post office and more. It was easier to walk than to drive and find parking. But five years ago we moved ashore, to a house in the suburbs where everything is a short drive and a very long walk away. As my driving swelled my muscles have atrophied. So when I read that Max had made a very public resolution to walk 1000 miles my first thought was "yuk." But he had planted a meme that kept surfacing. Maybe walking wasn't such a bad idea. Couple that with an ambitious goal " a kilomile " and my iPhone that has a built-in iPod, and perhaps it wouldn't be quite so horrible. In "Quality is Personal" Harry Roberts claims that "trying harder" is doomed to failure. He says we must change something fundamental when we want to achieve some objective. As a result most New Year's resolutions fail since they're predicated on the same old goals and a promise to be more resolute. Walking a kilomile in a year, and maybe using some technology to entertain as well as track the walkabouts, feels like a new twist. So I emailed Max and, after berating him for prying me from the keyboard, offered a reverse bet: I'd take his challenge, and if either of us fail in our kilomile goal, we'd send each other a buck for each unwalked mile, the funds going to charity. Minutes later he called and accepted the bet. Though we broadened the parameters to include running, the thought of doing that makes me want to reach for a book and a martini. Max straps on the Nike+iPod, which uses an accelerometer in one shoe to beam gobs of data to his iPod. That gets uploaded to nikeplus.com where his progress can be shared by all. That device apparently isn't available for the iPhone, so I'm using RunKeeper which uses the phone's GPS to track mileage and time, and the device's wireless capability to upload data to a web site. Librivox has a library of free audio books, so I've started off listening to some old G. K. Chesterton stories. What's your take on wasting heartbeats for the sake of exercise?