chris lee

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Bloatedness and Drainage

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So a couple nice side effects starting to crop up. I’ve only been doing the diet for a few days now so I’m really not expecting anything. With that said, some nice things are starting to happen.

Starting to feel a bit less bloated. It’s only a few days but I think I can feel my hip bones better. Not anything I’m looking for. I’m not checking consciously or looking for any changes to have happened. I just noticing in passing as I’m changing in the gym & putting my pants on. My hip bones feel more prominent & there isn’t so much belly getting in the way. Obviously I haven’t lost a bunch of belly fat yet. I am just less bloated.

And I’m also noticing that I don’t have as much nasal congestion either. I’ve been fighting that a lot non-stop again. Just seems to be less. Sinuses clearer. Not as much blowing my nose or spitting. Not as much there in the morning when I Sinus-Rinse. Not as much worry at night to sleep on my stomach so drainage doesn’t end up in my belly.

Tracking Helps

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Last night I worked late making some customizations to the site to support logging my daily activities.

With that done, I’m more mindful about what I’m going to have to be writing in for my daily log.

We had leftover Pizzicletta and I already knew I was going to be eating that today so not a major unplanned aberration there. We also hit Macy’s Coffeehouse & I had a 1/2 of a croissant and egg sandwich. And then we finished with dinner with the extended family at In-N-Out. Wasn’t super hungry so went with a protein style cheeseburger. And then did err badly with a vanilla shake. With Heather saying we’re starting tomorrow, figured I could go for one last fling.

Beyond that though, no problems at home though I could have deviated a few ways (dessert, soda, etc.). Again, I think knowing that I’m logging helped with making better choices there.

And one other thing that I’m interested in seeing is the way my stomach will respond with the upcoming dietary changes. I’ve also been having stomach issues for the past few days. Not sure if it’s a bug or if it’s just byproduct of my diet lately. I haven’t had the inclination to really go gluten free in quite a while but I feel ready now. We’ll see if my stomach issues disappear again (as they did in the past).

 

Outside The Routine Systems

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So this is supposed to be the first day of the new program & it didn’t go well. Had a brunch at my uncle’s where I made good choices. But then we headed up to Flagstaff where there is too much good food. The options we might have done where I’d have had more no/low carb choices didn’t work because of time/expense/fanciness. Did pizza at a place I’d heard was the best in AZ. It was great.

Basically I don’t have strong enough systems in place yet to handle this scenario. Trip to a different city where there are restaurants I love. Not great in-diet options that were cheap and casual enough for our whole crew (3 adults & 6 kids). Great, great food options that I’d always wanted to try. I cracked.

Need to work harder on systems/mental structure to help me make choices in-program in a scenario like this.

It Starts!

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So I’m starting today. I figure that I should be the first case study so I weighed myself today & took pictures of my front and profile views.

I am going to strive to lose the weight I need to as quickly as possible & then get into maintenance mode.

I’ve done a variety of routines over the years that have been very successful.

Typically when I’ve gained weight again, it’s when the systems that I’ve built for myself no longer work.

It’s typically been life changes that knocked me off track.

Getting married. The change there was eating according to someone else’s schedule. And not being able to workout on my old schedule.

Having kids. Have less time.

 

Only concrete results matter; tireless effort is just the stuff you do to get there.

Chip R. Bell

Altra Comes Through Big

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Altra Shines

ALTRA-LogoI just had an experience with Altra support that was so remarkable that I had to comment on it.

Falling Short

I had a number of customer service interactions over the past few days and the very different levels of service by each company provided such contrast to the experience I just had with Altra that it made that interaction stand out boldly!

  • My wife attempted to contact another running shoe manufacturer prior to my attempt to contact Altra and she’s still waiting for a reply. This is the worst.
  • My sister had a bad experience with a location of a running shoe store chain and experienced a variety of service from them: some feeble attempts at customer recovery, followed by more earnest attempts, followed by them completely vanishing. Some good people, some weak. Super inconsitent.
  • Yesterday I had a typical experience with a tech vendor that we work with where I asked a specific question and was provided the standard generic document. If there had been any understanding of this common concept by the support rep, a simple “yes” would have been so much more useful. Instead, it was easy to see the support philosophy behind their department. Minimally trained staff entering queries into a knowledgebase & spitting out the first thing that came back.
  • Then another tech vendor that I work with requires me to get extensively involved in each request with many, many back and forth interactions, the need to correct support staff, the repeated need to clarify things over & over again often without any resolution.

Why So Good?

So what happened with Altra that was so great?

  • I hit their website and there were a variety of ways to connect with them.
    • They have live chat (which I didn’t use).
    • They have email and phone support options available.
    • They have ready social links.
  • I took a look at the Altra Twitter stream and could see that they respond constantly to their customers.
  • I looked at the Altra Facebook page and could see that they respond consitently there.
  • I chose to Facebook message them as my request needed a bit of explantation & it was an out of the blue request.
    • altra-instinct-1.5(I’d bought my first pair of Altras (Instinct 1.5) at a Road Runner Sports gently used sale and later noticed a weird bump in the midsole on one of the shoes. As it was at a sale where all sales were final and I got a chance to try them around the store, buying them was really on me. I also noticed after the fact that these were an older model that are on sale for just a bit more pretty much everywhere. I was wondering if Altra might be able to swap these out for me which they definitely didn’t have to do.)
  • So my Facebook message was responded to in 12 minutes directing me to email one of their support stuff. Pretty damn awesome if you ask me.
  • I emailed their support person and was responded to in 7 minutes. I responded & then they did again & closed the loop within a matter of minutes. Awesome.
  • They also didn’t need my shoes back (trusted my situation though they’d never seen them) and just requested that I give them to a local charity. I thought that was pretty awesome too.
    • I’m just now realizing that for all they know, I never even had a pair of Altras.
  • And throughout the whole process, the interactions just seemed so nice and personable.

Fan For Life

Well, I’d done a couple runs in the shoes before I contacted them and other than the weird bump in the midsole and I really liked the fit. I do like the whole zero/low drop thing so I like the philosophy of their shoes.

I just never expected to have such a positive experience with them. But right now, they’ve really stood out over pretty much every company that I’ve had recent interaction with.

I’m definitely going to look for ways to find shoes of theirs that work for me. They definitely are doing some things right over there!

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