For those of you who read my post a a few weeks ago, Where Did my Fat Go?, you are at least a little familiar with my recent weight loss program and how I lost 20 pounds in 2 weeks. All diets go to crap at some point in time but the trick is getting right back on it – my problem was Football & Mardi Gras!

With the Saints hitting playoffs, then the Super Bowl (WHO DAT BABY), I ate and ate. We had wings, chips & salsa, banana pudding and just about everything else you SHOULD NOT eat on a diet – but I did. Then I followed it up with Mardi Gras! Now, I am not a big drinker, but over the course of a week full of parades, I consumed a fifth of tequila and about a gallon of Margarita mix along with fried chicken, pizza, and even more. Well, with all that I gained about 7-8 pounds back of my weight loss, but right afterward I got back on my diet, religiously drinking my White Lightning energy drink and taking my TriThin Magic (Get a Free Bottle here).

I am now proud to say that my official weight this morning was 198.4 – a huge drop from my 232 pound start a little over a month ago, bringing my total weight loss to over 33 pounds and still counting down. My first goal was 200, my next is 185. I have already noticed a bit off my waste and my “big boy” button up shirts are too big so I foresee a shopping trip in about 15 more pounds.

To all of you who have thought that a goal of weight loss was too hard to achieve, believe me when I say it is not. The changes I made were minor and I am doing it. Coming from a Southern Mississippi boy who loves to eat – you can do it too! Make small milestones for yourself, create a plan, and stick with it. Don’t be afraid to cheat a little when you want to – just get back on the next day. The minor cheating is what has kept me from blowing it altogether.

Looking to make 2010 my “get healthier” year and wishing you the best luck in reaching your goals!

I remember growing up using Lever 2000 or Irish Spring soaps because it was the only thing that would not break me out in a rash. Having sensitive skin, soaps were not easy to come by but quite honestly, as a man – I never gave it a lot of thought. As I got older, I wanted to use “good soap” that would attract the ladies and started using the bottled soaps from Bath and Body Works. It obviously worked – I got me a great lady. We can attribute that to the soap if you want. I have been told I have a pretty good personality too

Back on topic, I really never gave much thought to moisturizers or lathering or any of that other “stuff” that women worry about when spending 10 minutes on the soap isle at WalMart – I just run in, get my usual, and get out. If they don’t have it – I come back later.

After being recruited to act as a technology consultant for SoyLicious.com (see post here), I asked what the big deal about Soy Soap was. I could tell with one whiff of the candles that they were the best soy candles I have ever smelled, but I honestly had no clue why someone would buy soy soap online or through a consultant rather than just going to WalMart and buying a Dove or something (or whatever other regular bar soap you get). In order to “show me”, I was sent a bar of the Oatmeal Milk and Honey. Being as straightforward as possible here – I originally planned on just giving it to my wife and having her tell me how it was. Being that I got a Lavender bar as well – she told me to take the Oatmeal Milk and Honey.

My Experience with the soap was not overwhelming at first. My main concern was – is this going to break me out into an awful rash? Some of the positive items I notice about the soap:

1. Lathered up MUCH better than my other soap so I actually use much less
2. Feels smooth going on. I know – this is hard to explain but it is like I am washing with silk (for lack of a better “manly” analogy)
3. Rinses off much easier so you don’t have to feel like you are washing off your soap after you wash with it. You know what I mean – you feel like you are coated with soap and you have to wash it off – well you don’t feel that way with the soy
4. After a couple of weeks of using it, I have noticed that my skin feels a bit softer. As a man, I don’t know if this is good or bad, but ultimately it feels better and knowing that soy is good for you I have to assume that soft skin is better

And of course, no good article would be “good” without the “bad”:

1. The first few days of using the soap I noticed that it was making my face (and only my face) a bit dry. Now, this could have been due to the weather as it was in the teens that week, but since most of my day is spent sitting on my butt behind a computer and not braving the elements of a harsh Mississippi winter – I attributed it to the soap.
2. THE SMELL LASTS A LONG TIME! To some of you women out there, I am sure this is a plus, but when a man is sitting with his man friends and they ask who smells good (like good as in cookies, not good as in manly), it is hard to say “that’s me – it is my Oatmeal Milk and Honey soap”. The good news is that there is an unscented one but I think I need to hold out until we have one that smells like leather – what do you think?

Overall, I rate the soy soap high on my list and will continue to use it, albeit I will most likely stick to an unscented bar next time. The value is good considering the price versus how long it lasts (bigger than typical bar of soap and use less because of better lathering). The health benefits are appealing to me although I am not an extremely health-conscious person but the fact they are made with renewable resources (Soy Beans, American Grown) is a big plus to me.

If you would like to look at buying soy soap, go to The Soap Page (I make a commission if you buy)
If you would like to look at possibly selling soaps and the best soy candles you can buy & competitively priced – go to my marketing site. Not only will you get great products to sell with no quotas, I will assist you personally in your sales and recruiting efforts and offer free coaching up to once per week to help you succeed.

Google Buzz

Okay so what is Google Buzz? A new twitter? A new Facebook? A new Friendfeed? When compared to the above it most likely resembles friend feed, but this could be so much more. With an intuitive interface for those that are used to using microblogging and facebook-style platforms – this should be easily adaptable. But the biggest question is do we really need another Microblogging platform?

What Google Buzz isn’t
Google Buzz is not just another platform but instead brings numerous platforms together to give you one more way to connect with your friends and other readership. I primarily see this being used as a business tool over a standard platform for your basic users. Google Buzz does not currently have a good platform for real social integration. That being said, I will tell you what Google Buzz is and how you can use it in your business.

What Google Buzz Is
Google Buzz is, at first glance, a great way to get your information out there as a business or blogger. Google Buzz allows you to pull in numerous platforms directly into your Buzz screen including Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and even your blog posts. All this can be done automatically and make things very easy to store and respond to in a central location (you still have to respond to comments on your blog through your blog though).  by having a lot of this put together in one place, it makes it easy for people that are interested in what you are doing to follow you (as long as they have a GMail account) right in their GMail/Buzz screen.

My first impression
Google still has some tweaking to do on the platform, but we know the Internet giant will take advice from users, do their homework, and implement features to make it better. Early adopters will definitely go through some changes, but most will be for the better. It is definitely worth checking out but I don’t know that I would run off and create a GMail account right now if I did not already have one. The service has some growing to do but will be a useful tool for business with a potential to grab market share from other social giants as they adapt the service.

Caveat
Thinking of Spiderman here for a minute – “With great power comes great responsibility” – keep in mind that you do not want to stuff everything you do on this as it will get really burdensome for users who only check their email a few times a day. If you have numerous blogs and are posting 20 twitter messages a day this will get old to your followers. I chose to start light only feeding this blog and my rarely updated twitter account in there.  Every time an update occurs, you get a copy in your GMail – this will get old but at least it is compact. Use with caution until you get the feel for the user experience.

Update: Be careful of Google Buzz Privacy Issues