Not the actual soup...

So yesterday I called into 5fm  Twitter  and spoke about a soup recipe that I’m quite enjoying whilst being on my diet. There was some Twitter interest in the recipe afterwards, so I thought I’d pop up the details here.

Ingredients

• Cup (~300ml) water
• 110g Mushrooms (can be any kind.. I quite like the “exotic” mushroom mix from Woolies, but any old button mushrooms will do too)
• 2 table spoons of curry (optional.. can be replaced with another of your favorite spices)
• Half teaspoon of garlic (optional)
• Handful of chopped up coriander
• Sprinkling of black pepper & salt
• 140g meat (of your choice – I’ve used fillet, prawns, calamari – all of which work nicely)
• Quarter cup of balsamic vinegar

Method

Chop up the mushrooms and meat into bite sized pieces. Get the water boiling in a pot/pan and throw everything in together. Cook with a lid on to speed up the cooking process, which shouldn’t take more than 5 – 10 minutes.

Complicated hey? Enjoy!

I found quite an interesting article this morning on the price of random shopping items from the 3 main grocery-type stores in South Africa: Checkers, Woolworths & Pick ‘n Pay. I say interesting, because the results were not quite what I expected, but in retrospect it all kinda made sense.

The shops

I might be the only one, but I’ve until recently viewed Checkers as my last port-of-call when it comes to grabbing a few quick groceries. I remember it being a dirty, lower-end store – similar to the 7-Eleven’s of old. But recently the store got a massive upgrade. It seems a memo was sent out to clean up their image and it’s worked. The branches have improved their image greatly and it’s now right up there with the above 3 mentioned stores.

Pick ‘n Pay is old faithful. It’s always been around, it’s always been cheaper than most and it’s branches are fairly similar when it comes to quality and service. Their business ethics and income model aside, the store has kept their reputation decent and recently their online presence has been drastically improved and it seems to be working very well for them.

Woolworths food stores have long had the image of being the “rich man’s grocery store”. Their prices always seem to be higher, with the justification of quality being their selling point. The store’s are always impeccably clean and the staff are generally very helpful and with more and more dedicated Woolworths Food stores popping up, they’re getting increasingly accessible. But you go there always expecting to pay a bit more than Checkers or Pick ‘n Pay. Or do you?

The reality

I found some very interesting trends in the supermarket comparison chart mentioned above. Note the prices of these day to day, non-food items:

With toilet paper being the exception (in Woolworth’s favor by a good few rand), the prices are within a few cents of each other. Woolworth’s is not hugely more expensive as you might’ve expected. So you get the benefit of a spotlessly clean store and great service, without forking out extra for it.

However, note the price differences when it comes to fresh produce:

Woolworths is consistently more expensive, in the case of the potatoes, by more than R10. But let’s face it, Woolworths is synonymous with quality and you certainly don’t want to skimp on quality when it comes to buying fresh produce. I find myself having to wade through mounds of somewhat sketchy naartjies in Pick ‘n Pay to find a few decent ones, whilst at Woolworths, I know I can grab hand-fulls without worrying about quality – I know it’s going to be great.

Personally, I don’t mind paying a few extra rands for Woolworths fruit & veg items because I know I’m getting (in most cases) hand picked, fresh fruit. I don’t want to have to dig in a box of fruit to find a few good ones. I don’t have the patience. For this peace of mind, I’ll pay the extra.

It’s really about personal choice, but I found it quite interesting that for random non-food related items, Woolworths is no more than a few cents more than other grocery stores. So if I can enjoy my shopping experience in a better, cleaner store for 10 cents more, then why not.

I was lucky enough this weekend, to take an iPad home for the weekend (thanks goes to Justin from WantItAll.co.za and ChristopherM). Having read many mixed responses I was kinda skeptical at first, but with an open mind I gave it a whirl.

First Impressions

Despite reading that the iPad was way too heavy, I never had any issues with it’s weight. It’s not unexpectedly heavy or unwieldy. People complained about the thick edge being a waste of screen space, but once you start playing with it, you realize that it’s necessary to avoid unnecessary clicks and screen interaction. It fit’s nicely in the hands and it meets the “easy-to-use-whilst-laying-in-bed” test IMO.

The speed is instantly noticeable. I have the iPhone 3G and in comparison the speed is lightning fast. Transitions between applications are instant and the screen is very responsive. The keyboard is nicely sized and whilst touch-typists might be annoyed with the the “return” button being where the apostrophes normally are, you can still reach a nice speed of typing.

The native Gmail application is nice and resembles Outlook’s panel system. Browsing is awesome in the iPad. With a screen size not far from the smaller Netbooks, you don’t notice any issues or have the feeling that you’re using a “small” device (like you do when browsing with an iPhone).

It should also be mentioned that my mom (60-something years old) got hold of it and I installed a MahJjong game for her and she was amazed at the iPad in general, but also it’s ease of use. So Apple have done a good job of making a device that caters for a wide demographic.

My Opinions

In my opinion, it fills a gap – the gap between a laptop and a smartphone. Some might say that it’s a gap already filled by Netbooks, but there’s definitely something about having a device with full touchscreen, no keyboards taking up space on your lap and a device that’s as sexy as the iPad. With the quality of the games and applications being developed for the iPad I’d even say that it’s encroaching on the territory currently owned by the likes of the PSP. I played the Need for Speed Shift game and an awesome 2-finger based skateboarding application that left me very satisfied and positive about the potential for kick-ass applications yet to come on the iPad.

Say what you want about Apple, but they know how to create a badass device and the iPad is no exception.

Definitely added to my list of “wants” for this year.

I’ve always been a bit of a porker. In school I was the chubby kid and I took the teasing in my stride. But recently I decided that enough is enough. I wanna be the skinny(ier) kid and so I made the decision to get my ass in gear and lose the flab.

A few friends of mine had done a diet by a certain “Doctor Cohen” and had achieved amazing results. So I investigated it for myself. Basically what happens is you go for a blood test and then those results get submitted to Dr Cohen. He analyzes it for certain markers etc and then puts together a diet specifically designed for you. You receive your meal portions and details on when to eat them and you also receive quite an interesting list of foods that you’re NOT allowed to eat. For some people, pork (for example) might be off limits, but for other’s its fine… This is where your blood tests come into play by determining what your body likes and doesn’t like.

The food portions are exceptionally small and the first 4 or 5 days are a nightmare. I was crabby, depro and listless. But I pushed through it. By day 6 or so, I was feeling awesome. The hunger pangs had gone, the cravings had gone and I was in a good routine. Slowly, after much consideration of my allowed foods & spices, I came to find foods and combinations of foods that I really liked and I started to look forward to my meals. Although small, they were very yummy. After about 2 weeks, the small portions started looking like mountains of food and I felt quite full after meal.

Exercise is not really an option on this diet. Not only do they tell you that people who do loads of exercise often lose slower than those who don’t, but you’re eating so little anyways, that your energy levels are just enough to get you through the day, let alone let you spend 30 minutes on the treadmill. When I do find that I’m wanting a bit of outdoors entertainment like having a surf or doing a mountain walk or something, I rely on my fruit to give me the energy I need. I’ll have a naartjie or apple just before I head out into the waves and I find this keeps me going quite adequately.

The principles of the diet are:

• Eat strictly. The portions are very specific for a reason and you must always be within 5 grams of your portion. (Check my recipe for a great soup that I’m loving at the moment)
• Water. AT LEAST 2 litres of water everyday are required. This does help you lose faster and gets you feeling better quickly too.
• Fruit. Your specific diet will let you know how many fruits you can have per day. They can be big fruits. If you only have those smaller Golden Delicious apples, then have two.
• Snacks. Provita’s, Crackerbreads, Ricecakes are your carb extras. You can have these along with your meals to give some crunch, or you can have them inbetween meals as a snack.
• Timing. 5 hours between your meals. This might take some planning because you can’t eat after 9pm either, so your last meal would have to be before 4pm

You can drink yourself into a coma (not literally please) on this diet. In addition to your 2 litres of water a day, you can have teas and coffee’s (100% coffee only – no blends like Frisco etc), up to 1 litre of Sprite zero a day and a can of Schweppes lemon light. If you need some sweetness in your tea/coffee, you can use sweeteners like Canderel etc. Note that absolutely ZERO ALCOHOL can be consumed on this diet.

Once you have reached your goal weight (calculated for you on your initial consultation), you then go onto a refeed. This is a 19 day period where normal foods are introduced back into your body and quantities are increased. This is pretty much the clincher of this entire diet. Unfortunately many people apparently get to their goal weight and then sit back in their skinny glory and think that they’re all done and they don’t need the refeed. These are the people who relapse into fatness. By just going back to normal eating, your body isn’t trained to maintain the current weight and you’ll pick it all back up again in no time. So do the refeed…

It’s also a fairly pricey diet. The diet itself will set you back around R2 200. The blood tests (required up front, then after 4 weeks, then after another 8 weeks etc) are around R600 each, depending which clinic you go to (although these can be put on your medical aid). The food that you’re buying, both in nature and in quantity, will save you quite a bit no doubt however, so if you need to justify the cost, just think of what you’ll save by not buying fast foods etc.

Because of this cost, this diet isn’t really recommended for people who have a couple kilo’s to lose. If that’s you, just put down the donut and go to gym. If you have quite a chunk to lose, then go for it. It’s a great diet that gives you rapid weight loss and by far the highest record of post-diet weight maintenance that I’ve seen.

It works. After around 6 weeks, I’m 18 kilograms lighter and feeling fantastic. I’m fitting into clothes I haven’t worn in years. I’m getting compliments from people left, right and center. It’s great :)
My goal weight is 90kg’s so I still have a ways to go, but I’m totally committed and motivated to push through and get this done.

Remember, nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

If you’d like to do this diet, drop me a mail (mark at yellow-llama.com) and I’ll send you the details of the place and they’ll get you hooked up.
Good luck!

UPDATE – As of 20 May 2010, I’ve lost 24.6 kilograms in 69 days.

So thanks to @Afrihost, I’m soon to be migrating to Mac with the new MacBook Pro – one of the new ones with the Intel i5 processors. This’ll be my first time working fully on a Mac and I’m looking for some suggestions for applications that are recommended for web designers etc.

I’ll have Adobe CS4, but i’ve heard Coda is fun to use? What about FTP? Other productivity apps? Wasn’t there a bundle on offer a while ago that offered a few top apps at a good rate?

Give me some suggestions please?

Some funny motivational posters featuring cats

I recently found the YoxView plugin which takes the lightbox to a great new level using jQuery and some nifty animations. A client wanted to use it on his WordPress site, so I made it into a WordPress plugin.

It’s really simple to use.. Just upload the plugin to your plugins folder and activate it. It applies itself to any WordPress gallery using the standard .gallery selector.

Until it’s added to the WordPress Plugin directory, you can download the plugin here.

Please retweet this post if you found it helpful!

Nothing changes… Boys will always be boys…

So this morning, I got my first car from a showroom floor. It wasn’t new, but it was quite a feeling signing the last document and being handed the keys. I’m now the proud owner of a Ford Focus 1.6Si.

The purpose of this blog, isn’t just to brag :P. It’s more so a comment on the awesome service received from Morne, Caroline & the team at Eastern Cape Motors.

When we were done with the last signing, a bell was rung (to signify a sale) and all the staff gathered near the car. We were asked to stand on a red carpet next to the car whilst the sales manager (I think) came to congratulate us and present us with a little hamper of chocolates etc. Pictures were taken of us standing next to the car whilst the sales team applauded.

It was a simple, little touch that really made quite the difference.

Lesson: When you have lots of competition, it’s the little things that make all the difference. Whatever you can do to increase the level of your service to your clients, WILL pay off. Word of mouth will always be the most influential form of marketing.

Thanks Morne & EC Motors.