All posts in My Life

Use Social Media to lose weight and feel healthy

by Chris M on December 5, 2011 in My Life, Networking with 2 Comments

With over 850 million users on Facebook, 300 million on Twitter and millions on other social networks, it’s safe to say that the majority of people in this world do interact online in some manner and it’s through this that social media has become so powerful, but not only from a marketing or business point of view like you normally here, but from a point of view where groups of people can join forces and do something good for themselves.

It’s exactly this that I’m talking about – 6 weeks ago, Elan Lohmann [MD Digital AVUSA Group] and Jonathan Allan-Barrett [Digital Media Head at Lighthouse Digital] came together to create a social gathering of geeks who were interested in turning their lives around through stepping away from the computer, doing some exercise and focusing on a healthier diet. The underlying premise was that each entrant would pay R500 to enter and the person with the best results after 6 weeks would win the pot, which ended up at a whopping R7,500! This challenge became known as the Sleek Geek Challenge.

The event started off with a big punch, as you’d expect it to, but like everything that has hype, after a week or two people started to slip a little, but because of the social nature of the event and because it was run through Facebook, it was incredibly easy for each of us to motivate each other and keep us going when it got tough, or when a big pizza seemed like a good option idea for dinner. I’d wake up, check the Facebook Page and end up exercising after seeing that a few other people had recently written about workouts they’d just done – when you bring people together in this manner where it’s easy to motivate and compete, it certainly does push you to achieving results.

For me it’s been an incredible journey, I’ve just sent through my new measures and after photograph, and I’m thrilled with the results, when I look at my before and after photographs, I actually can’t believe what I’ve achieved. I’m fortunate, I’ve never been grossly over weight or felt horrible in my body, but I knew I could do better and to achieve that feels great. I’m also really proud of others in the challenge, I’ve read messages from people who are feeling fantastic, who are surfing more, who are eating correctly, who are shopping for new clothes because the old ones are too big, people who’ve lost as much as 10kg’s – it’s so darn impressive and it’s the power of social media at its best!

An initiative like this should encourage others to use social media for good, let this be motivation for others to create challenges and work towards a common goal through supporting each other. I hope that of the people who took part in this challenge, that several will stick around and continue to motivate others to exercise and eat well. I know that I’m not going anywhere, if I’ve achieved these results in 6 weeks, imagine another 6 weeks!

I’ve got some before and after photographs that I would like to publish, but I’m waiting for the winner to be announced and so forth.

I can’t wait to hit the beach :)

My trip to Oewerzicht

by Chris M on December 5, 2011 in My Life with 2 Comments

So this weekend my fiance and I headed through to Oewerzicht, about 10km along a gravel road from Greyton, it was a wonderful weekend full of activities, new experiences and quite a lot of champagne ;)

Rather than explaining in words, here are the photographs:

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I got featured in IOL around the Durex SA situation

by Chris M on November 25, 2011 in My Life, Publicity with No comments

Last night I covered a story around Durex SA and online reputation management and gave my opinion on the matter, this has been picked up since by thousands of online places and once such place was IOL, which covered the story and featured me.

Have a read:

Popular blogsite imod.co.za ran the following analysis after Durex’s Tweet: “I feel bad for Durex SA because I do see it as an honest mistake on their behalf, but they way in which they dealt with it was really not great; an immediate response apologising to FeministsSA might have controlled this situation a great deal better.

“I don’t excuse Durex SA at all as I think the Tweet was uncalled for, but as an honest mistake, if only they had someone who understood Online Reputation Management, they might have avoided this whole situation.”

The author, writing under the name of “Chris M” warned companies that social media campaigns could backfire.

“Think before you Tweet – Twitter is so accessible, from your mobile phone, from your laptop and even from some cars! It’s easy to just blurt out a Tweet without thinking; we’ve probably all done it, but why not be the person who doesn’t make the mistake and who thinks before tweeting, a lot of brand damage can be avoided,” the expert advised. – Cape Argus

You can read the entire article here.

The Sleek Geek Challenge

by Chris M on November 14, 2011 in Exercise, My Life with No comments

I’ve mentioned the Sleek Geek Challenge before, “Other news includes an event called The Sleek Geek Challenge, which sees about 15 of us taking the next 6 weeks incredibly seriously from an exercise and eating correctly point of view. Each of us have chipped in R500, sent in before photographs and measurements, and the person with the most progress after 6 weeks gets all the money in the pool! I was going to do a blogger challenge to the same nature and have the first post drafted, but decided to drop that when I saw this as it would be easier for me to focus on results than running the whole thing. I look forward to the 6 weeks being over where I can look back at the before photograph and hopefully see a lot of progress made”. We’re now half way I think, or at least I have my forth weigh-in this Tuesday.

I started out as most people do, I wrote down my weight and measured it each week, but as I’ve been going I’ve learnt that weight’s really not the important thing to measure, it’s more about how you feel. Sure, I’ve lost a good few kilograms, which is really awesome, but I can feel myself toning more, I can feel myself getting fitter and I definitely look a lot more in shape (note: I’ve still got quite a while to go, so don’t expect a 6 pack pic, haha). What I haven’t done is re-calculate my % body fat, so I’ll do that next to see how that’s going.

I’ve cycled every single evening since the challenge started, excluding weekends and I started doing some simple home resistance training thanks to Brendon’s guidance. In the beginning I was just doing some situps and pushups, I’m now doing situps, pushups, lundges and I’ve got myself a set of 5kg weights to work my arms a bit more. I’ve also introduced the occasional jog before cycling, which absolutely kills me, but it gets the blood flowing and the heart going which I try to maintain afterwards when cycling. I’m also eating about 1000000000000000x better than before ;)

I put out a message on the Sleek Geek Challenge Facebook wall and I really meant it:

Exercise is really hard, creating the routine is even harder and without the support of my fellow challengers I don’t think I would have been able to do it, so I’m truly greatful to all of them and hope that they too are seeing a difference in their bodies and that we’ll all arrive at the end in smiles – if the prize money means nothing at the end, it’ll have been a success!

Oh, and another thing for me, my energy levels are way up, instead of feeling like I’m going to fall over at 22h00 in the evening, I’m still pumped to do things which is really important for me, so that’s an added win.

Are you exercising? Share your experience! :)

I’m in Bulgaria!

by Chris M on November 8, 2011 in My Life with 14 Comments

Well, sort of ;) I have a person dude who I’m friends with on Facebook because he found me in a textbook of his over in Bulgaria. At first I was rather WTF, but he sent me a photograph and it’s true, I’m in his textbook!

Check this:

I lolled.

He’s a really cool guy too, especially when I greeted him with “Zdrasti”, which I learnt at a particular club in Cape Town ;)

So what’s been happening?

by Chris M on October 30, 2011 in My Life with 2 Comments

First of all, my apologies. I’ve received a few emails from iMod readers complaining that it’s been a really long time (just over a month) since my last properly personal blog post, so I want to change that opinion right now by giving you all an update.

Things are going well in general, I’ve been incredibly busy, between a huge amount of work and getting into the swing of running a house, I have still managed to have some braai’s, party with friends and see my family for the odd occasion, so my aim of balancing my life a bit more this year has certainly been taken seriously and has been achieved. By achieved, I mean that I’ve made the effort and have done it, but perhaps not as much so as to balance a scale, but progress has been made nonetheless.

Work’s been going well, since July, as a team we decided to change the way things were going and in my opinion, I thought it would take at least 6 to 12 months to do, but instead we’ve changed it around and have achieved what I think many companies would dream of in the space of just 3-4 months – it has been incredible being involved with the gang! We’ve worked so damn hard though, wow, I can’t tell you how much work everyone has done, but it’s paying off and I’m excited to see what 2012 holds for us, but before I jump the gun, let’s just get through this year first shall we? ;)

Talking of 2012, can you believe that tomorrow is the last day of October 2011, just 2 months left until 2012! That’s 62 days until 2012 if I’ve calculated correctly? Really scary, 2011 has gone quicker than I could have ever imaged and things need to slow down, because next year I turn 30 and apparently that’s when everything starts to get serious! Haha.

I’ve updated the Ashwood Cottage photographs for those of you who are interested and we’ve done some cool renovations to the house, including an outside shower, a new gate and I’ve spent many weekends covered in dirt whilst cutting back trees, planting new flowers and such with Fe (working really hard on turning her into a green thumb) as well as cleaning and doing general maintenance like hanging from a wall putting marine sealant on gutters to prevent leaks!

Here are some photographs that I’ve taken lately:

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Home Made Bonsai
Braai and alien kitty
Outside Shower

Other news includes an event called The Sleek Geek Challenge, which sees about 15 of us taking the next 6 weeks incredibly seriously from an exercise and eating correctly point of view. Each of us have chipped in R500, sent in before photographs and measurements, and the person with the most progress after 6 weeks gets all the money in the pool! I was going to do a blogger challenge to the same nature and have the first post drafted, but decided to drop that when I saw this as it would be easier for me to focus on results than running the whole thing. I look forward to the 6 weeks being over where I can look back at the before photograph and hopefully see a lot of progress made – I’ve cycled 7 days in a road now and in terms of junk food I’ve only had a couple items, which for me is outstanding.

So, that’s it from my side, how are all of YOU doing?

Inspired by eFrog Themes, Google and Nando’s

by Chris M on October 30, 2011 in Blogging, My Life with No comments

We all know that Google changes its logo on special occasions and eFrog Themes does the same, but only when Nando’s took over my logo for the day the other day for Nando’s Tangy Tomato (launch of their new flavour) did I think that perhaps I would try to do the same.

So, in light of it being halloween tomorrow I decided to change my logo to suite the occasion. I’m not much of a designer, so it doesn’t look amazing, but it’s for fun! eFrog Themes have already updated theirs, take a look here.

Here’s the one that Nando’s did for me if you missed it:

Pretty cool hey?

Anyway, just sharing that with you, and hopefully I’ll do it for my logo from now on :)

Our outdoor shower construction is almost complete

by Chris M on October 22, 2011 in My Life with 7 Comments

So Fe and I have been thinking of ways to expand our house a little and add some cool features to it. Because the house doesn’t have enough open space to build a pool, we started thinking about a tiny modern plunge pool, then we wondered about a jacuzzi, but finally settled on a simple outdoor shower. See, we live in a stunning little cottage, so modernizing too much could lead to a mess, so a fairly casual outside shower would fit in nicely, so went with that.

I did some research, looked for some inspiration and chose a team to do the job and from what I can see and tell thus far, everything’s gone on plan. Here’s the result, nice and casual remember:

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I heart Harfield Village

by Chris M on October 21, 2011 in Cape Town, My Life with 4 Comments

For those of you who follow iMod closely you’ll know that I bought a house in Harfield Village and have been living here for a good few months. I keep my finger on the pulse when it comes to the suburb as it’s a beautiful area, one which the residents take care of and invest time in ensuring that it’s kept clean and friendly.

This afternoon I read a wonderful article on Private Property entitled, “Harfield Village – Colourful Trends” and it made me feel really great in my decision to purchase here.

Here’s a snippet:

Travelling down the side streets off the numbered avenues becomes a trip down memory lane when British place names like Stafford, Sussex, Hamstead, York, Norfolk, and Lancaster pop up everywhere. Its central location next to Claremont places it within close proximity to Cavendish Square, Newlands rugby and cricket stadiums, a number of brilliant schools, and the University of Cape Town, all within fifteen minutes from the City.

?This colourful village with a trendsetters’ reputation is also paradise to an unconventional and free spirited kind of resident, mostly of the bohemian and green kind. As a result, this dense little suburb with narrow streets and lanes has developed into a haven for real estate owners, young and old who understand the true meaning of urban gardening and open public spaces. Following its humble beginnings during old colonial times and a history of forced removals resulting from the bygone Group Areas Act, it has become the pride of many home owners smitten with the Edwardian and Victorian styles of architecture commonly found here.

Here’s my favourite part:

With only a 16% market stock of sectional share properties, average freehold prices of R695 000 have increased to R1.3m last year, and to R1.4m for the past three months. Lightstone shows that residents move here to stay for 11 years and more, with 39% of those falling within the Stable Ownership category, and 32% in the Recent Sellers category. Property for rent here is a much sought after commodity, resulting from its central location, train station, compact designs and rich cultural heritage.

You can read the rest of the article here.

This weekend in photographs

by Chris M on September 25, 2011 in My Life, Photographs with 3 Comments

What a fantastic weekend! I’ve had some really awesome social events over the past couple months, but this weekend was just the icing on top of the cake! Saturday morning was #braaiday, tons of meat, some good friends and the rugby – it was such a blast – drinking at 10am is odd. After the braai, we chilled for a while and then headed through to Lucky Yacht for sushi buffet, then frozen Jagger Bombs at Home Bar in Harfield Village and finally Tiger Tiger (yes, I went, sigh) for some dancing and good times.

This was honestly one of the best weekend’s I’ve had in a really long time and to have shared it with some of my best mates was just awesome. So, I took some photographs along the way and here they are:

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