I’m now on week 2 of the 30 day slow-carb diet experiment and I’ve managed to stick to the plan with little deviation but eating at work has been one of the most difficult parts. It’s easy to grill something up when you’re sitting back at home but its quite another story at work.

Sticking to the diet at work

Eating at work is always hard and its much more convenient (albeit expensive) to just pickup food during lunch instead of packing it in a sack. I’ve managed to do a little bit of both. For dinner the night before, I will make double portions so I can take the rest to work. Otherwise, I’ll resort to restaurants that fit within the diet such as the Green Onion, Port of Subs, and Qdoba. Eating a traditional salad for lunch usually leaves me hungry but salad bars like the Green Onion have much more than just greens to fill you up. I know some of the other places don’t fit the diet to a tee but working closely within the diet has allowed me to be more conscious of how much I’m eating and what I’m eating.

Two more weeks to go and I’ll be posting the results.

Want to brush up on your writing? Writing a lot, by starting a blog or keeping a journal can certainly help but Kurt Vonnegut believes that good writing comes from good ideas and saying exactly what you mean.

How to Write With Style by Kurt Vonnegut [via Jason Santa Maria]

Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.

It’s been one week since I started the 30 day slow-carb diet experiment and I have some things to share.

The first thing I tried to do was create a log to track everything I was eating. This failed after the first two days and signifies a barrier than many people face when trying to change their lifestyle. I have never done well with keeping journals, class notes, etc. and I shouldn’t expect to start now. That will be the next thing I can work on. This can be translated to counting calories. What I like about the slow-carb experiment is that you aren’t counting anything. By sticking to protein, vegetables, and legumes you can eat until you’re comfortable. Counting calories or recording notes may help some people but if you’re not used to doing those things it may become a barrier to your success.

Here are some of the meals I ate over the past week:

Breakfast
Egg Whites with 1 whole egg for flavor and southwestern salsa
Black or Pinto beans
Spinach

Lunch/Dinner Meals
Chicken breast with southwestern salsa
Black or Pinto beans
Salad

Turkey burger
Black or Pinto beans
Corn

Chicken breast
Lentils
Asparagus

Naked Chicken Taco Salad from Qdoba with extra black or pinto beans

These meals were very similar but I haven’t gotten bored with them quite yet. You can mix and match pretty much anything from the three categories and with some creative cooking, make a great meal. I was never a big fan of spinach so I stayed away from it for years and I have rediscovered why. I still don’t like it. I’ve started to replace spinach with peas or mixed vegetables. Fresh asparagus is a good substitute as well.

I have stuck to only three meals a day instead of four because it is kind of hard to have two meals during a work day without either getting up early to make and bring in food or cooking extra food the night before.

Finally, I actually found it difficult to stick to the plan while eating at restaurants. I know mexican food can fit within the parameters pretty easily but when you’re on the run and need to find something quick, it can be hard. Qdoba fits into the quick mexican food category as you can see from my list of meals. The lack of options forced me to break the rules while I was out of the house for 4-5 meals out of the weeks 21 or so meals. I compensated for this by not having an “eat whatever you want day” for this week.

Finally, the workout plan has failed as well. It sounds like we’re off to a great start! I did hit the gym for 3 hours last week which included running, cycling, swimming, and weight training on machines. Changing what I eat has been much easier than finding time to go workout.

Added bonus: I spent at least $25 less on food and restaurants then the week prior to starting the experiment.

If you haven’t heard of coworking – then you probably work in a cubicle. It’s ok if you do, so do I. At least for now.

Coworking has been defined as many things by the people who participate but the Coworking Wiki defines it as:

Coworking is cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents.

Or, it’s like this: start with a shared office and add cafe culture. Which is the opposite of most modern cafes.

A coworking space offers a unique work environment that stimulates creativity and collaboration. This is a perfect environment for freelancers, knowledge workers, entrepreneurs or anyone who needs an alternative to leasing their own private office space or working from home. So if you’re used to working at a coffee shop, you’ll find a coworking space to be more supportive and stable than trying to stake out a table in crowded, noisy coffee shops.

Remote Working Works for Freelancers, a FreelanceSwitch article written by Andy Howard, hits the mark perfectly when it comes to explaining why someone would want to participate in a coworking environment.

As a creative professional, constant inspiration is vital to career success. Sure, home and agency studios can be stimulating, but regardless of how cool the fitout is, it’s still the same environment.

It gets boring.

You’ll need a change, and relocating to a park or co-working space for a fresh outlook is a great idea. Checking out art galleries and city architecture during a lunch break is even better

Coworking environments have already proven to be successful across the globe and include spaces such as Citizen Space (San Fran), Independents Hall (Philadelphia), Cowork Central (Buenos Aires, Brazil), and Garage30 (Madrid, Spain).

What does this have to do with Reno?

Coworking is coming to Reno! The details are still being worked out as we secure a location but you’ll be hearing much more from Ed Adkins and I as we move forward.

The word diet certainly has a negative connotation. Now I don’t necessarily need to lose weight but I know my youthful metabolism won’t last forever. I’m interested in this experiment for the benefits of physical performance and lifetime health.

Tim Ferris, of Four Hour Work Week fame, claims that “it is possible to lose 20 lbs. of bodyfat in 30 days by optimizing any of three factors: exercise, diet, or drug/supplement regimen.” In fact, that is exactly the title of his post: How to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days…without doing any exercise. This post is over a year old but with over a thousand comments, with many of the recent ones from today, people are clearly interested in losing weight. However, they don’t want to just lose weight, they want to do it lazily, without exercise. Tim claims one can lose weight by optimizing only your diet.

If 20 lbs. is possible without any exercise, think about the gains (or loss rather) from optimizing both diet and exercise. For me, exercise is enjoyable, especially in the forms of cycling, running, and swimming so I have decided to put the plan to the test and there will be no calorie counting here folks.

I’ve read a lot on this topic and the following comes from both Tim Ferris’ article as well as other secondary sources. The idea behind the diet is pretty simple.

1. “Avoid white carbohydrates”
White carbohydrates can include bread, pasta, and potatoes. Simple carbohydrates should also be avoided and can come from any other processed foods. Having already been processed, these foods enter your system quickly and give you a very quick jump in your blood glucose levels, however they will come crashing down just as quickly, leaving you hungry. Drastic rising and crashing of these glucose levels can be bad on your heart and lead to heart disease. If we consume complex carbohydrates like vegetables, protein, or even whole wheat alternatives, we can increase the amount of processing time, allowing you to feel fuller, longer, and possibly even reduce the risk of heart disease. (Note that I’m not a doctor on that last bit)

2. “Eat the same few meals over and over again”
Fitting within the diet is not difficult and does not mean that you are eating the same plate of food for every meal. I’ve already been going for a few meals and it is actually quite easy. Tim breaks his meals up into three parts: protein, vegetables, and legumes. For protein look into: chicken, egg whites, turkey, and beef. Pretty much anything goes for vegetables and could include corn, asparagus, spinach, peas, or salad but stay away from potatoes! A few examples of meals are included in Tim’s article.

Finally, there are legumes. What the heck is a legume? This is where you bring in the black beans, pinto beans, peanuts, and lentils. The legumes are very important in this type of diet. The reason diets like this can fail is because someone might feel as though they are eating a lot of food but end up not receiving as many calories as they should. Therefore, they will feel sluggish or become irritable. Tim’s example is pretty shocking:

“A 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes for caloric load.”

3. “Don’t drink your calories”
We’re trying to increase the amount of time it takes to process the food and derive calories. Drinking calories will only negate this effect. Instead of milk, soda, and sweet tea, you can drink unsweetened tea, water, diet soda, and coffee. I’m not a fan of the last two so I’ll be sticking to water and tea.

4. “Take one day off per week”
This is your day to splurge. Eat whatever you want!

To expand on this diet plan I want to add in exercise. By no means will I be looking to optimize my exercise, except for keeping the amount of time I need to be at the gym to a minimum. I already ride my bike around a lot but I’ve also started a very unstructured workout plan. This plan is for my time in a gym, not for the amount of exercise I get from my 20 mile roundtrip bike to work (which isn’t happening as frequently as I’d like with the heat and smokey forest fires).

2-3 days a week
Bike – 30 minutes
Run – 30 minutes

2 days a week
Resistance training – 30 minutes

Again, this is very basic and comes out to 3-4 hours a week but it is already more than I currently do.

I started yesterday with dinner and have already taken some “before” pictures. Those pictures will be posted with the “after” photos at the end of the 30 days, the night of August 13th. I will post my meals and notes each week but will not be measuring progress along the way as “a watched pot never boils.”

I also have an added incentive for this experiment: saving money! I am constantly going to restaurants for food while I’m at work and sometimes even for dinner. By sticking to this plan for a month, I also hope to reduce the number of meals I eat out. However, for those times I will be at a restaurant, fitting within the parameters shouldn’t be too difficult.

Image source: Creative Commons from Flickr user: benefit of hindsight

Updates to the experiment
Week 1 – Still at it and not eating spinach
Week 2 – Sticking to the plan at work
Week 3 – Coming soon
Final Week – Coming soon

I’ve had trouble regularly updating the blog in the past but a few things have happened this summer that will and have changed that. Of course, Robert Payne says, “I’ll believe it when I see it!”

Part of this problem has been a lack of focus. I do a lot of things everyday and love to discuss pretty much everything under the sun. So a question was before me: What do I want to write about?

The focus of this blog will be on development: both technological development, in terms of programming, design, and the web, as well as life development, focusing on physical, spiritual, and intellectual development. I could easily write just about technology as I do spend a lot of time in front of a computer but there is certainly much more to explore in our world.

I know this website has also hidden behind a number of masks and I have to say that once again, a new theme will be coming. I’ve always gone over the top, creating something from scratch or modifying existing themes to create something cool (and most of you probably use a feed reader anyway) but I’ll be going simple and let the content do the talking.

Keep your eyes on the skies…and your feed readers.

Image source: Creative Commons from Flickr user: gutter

I’ve been working with Salesforce.com for just over a year and it is no where near the same system it was when I started working at Twelve Horses. In the past year, I have seen the CRM evolve to include a full developer platform, Force.com, with Apex code allowing developers to create complex business logic for data manipulation, maintaining data quality and the ability to communicate with external services [see Google Data API/Toolkit below]. Force.com then grew to include Visualforce, which grants users the ability to create custom interfaces that use Salesforce.com metadata. Combining Salesforce objects, Apex code and Visualforce, developers are now able to develop in the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern. Simply, MVC allows for the developer to separate their code into layers for ease of maintenance and further development.

I just got back from Tour de Force, which featured a few exciting announcements, especially the Google Data API Toolkit, which allows developers to create, manipulate and pull data from Google applications like YouTube, Calendar, Spreadsheets, Docs and more.

I’ve been developing a project management application through Twelve Horses. Dreamforce 2008 is fast approaching and I would love to be able to package the application and make it available via the AppExchange before then.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. – A.J. Lieblin

This quote is listed on MagCloud, an HP Labs research project that allows anyone to publish a magazine by uploading a PDF.

The service uses HP Indigo technology that allows for printing on demand in high quality color on 80lb paper with saddle-stitched covers. There are a few things I would be curious to use this service for, such as presentations or developer/designer tutorials for web design, photoshop, ruby on rails, or even Salesforce.com.

Currently, publisher accounts are invitation only but you can register for an invite on the login page. What magazine would you create?

Tour de Nez is back! I didn’t get to ride last year but I’m going to be at the alleycat/messenger race tonight at the Grand Sierra Resort.

Come by to watch or race:
Grand Sierra Resort
June 18, 2008
Registration/Teams: 5:15pm
Messenger Race: 6:00pm

The race is for three-person teams:
1 mile closed circuit
2 laps per teammate
Package exchange

A pro criterium race takes place after the messenger race so come check it out!

Kingsley Joseph asked an interesting question on Twitter today that had me thinking about optimizing business processes:

“what does CRM mean to you? most definitions I find on the web are next to useless”
Kingsley2

He had quite a few responses, mine was as follows:

“@kingsley I would define CRM as any system used to manage customer touchpoints and value derived from those interactions-products/email/etc”
colinloretz

My response to Kingsley was very short. It had to be in order to stay within the 140 character limit of Twitter. As he pointed out in his reply, Twitter’s restraint can be useful for receiving a clear definition of a complex system like CRM, which if you haven’t decoded it yet, is customer relationship management usually applied to customer relationship management software. If you Google “CRM” or its expanded form, you’ll find all sorts of definitions, each one more convoluted than the last. It doesn’t need to be complex.

Customers provide a business with value. Using a grocery store as an example, optimizing touchpoints, anywhere a business and customer interact, can increase variables such as how many times a customer visits the store or how much they spend during each trip, resulting in a higher customer lifetime value.

Some other responses to Kingsley’s questions included:

“CRM is philosophy & strategy that puts the customer at the center, maximizing long-term value for both customer and business”
Gokubi

“CRM requires concrete, measurable goals and clear reporting to validate increasing ‘value.’”
dschach

“CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supptd.by a system & technology, designed to improve human interactions in a biz. environment”
pgreenbe

And at a very high level, which probably falls in line with many company mission statements:

“CRM will help you save the world…if that’s what you want to do.”
Gokubi

I spend a lot of time developing solutions using Salesforce.com, customer relationship software that is offered using a monthly software-as-a-service model. Many people would probably argue that being a programmer, knowledgeable in Javascript, HTML and Salesforce’s own Apex code, a derivative of Java, is all you need to develop solutions for the platform. An education in computer science will prepare most programmers for the type of logic that is needed in day-to-day business scenarios. Many businesses could actually benefit from a programmatic approach to business. In fact, applying principles from open source and agile development philosophies to business can have amazing results. That discussion is for another article.

Software can help a business but technology should not be thrown at a problem to make it go away. In most of the businesses I’ve worked with, there have always been real world processes to optimize before implementing the technology.

Real world experience can be one of the best teachers, but adding textbook learning from areas like Six Sigma or project management to a developer’s skill set will allow a small team, or even an individual, to optimize a business that can be further supported by technology like Salesforce.com or Microsoft Sharepoint.