schwaggville

This question is for REAL weight loss advice, if you don't know...please don't answer.

I am a 36 year old man.

So I've been hitting the gym HARD for the last 2 months. Every...single...day (even won "member of the month" at my gym). I have been burning calories, losing weight, and eating less. However, I am still not seeing the results that I would expect. My question is actually twofold.

First, a little background on what I have been doing:

Generally, every night I will start my night with 30 minutes on the elliptical or bike. This gets me nice and sweaty. (the readout says 300-310 calories, but who knows how accurate). After that I hop right on the treadmill and do some interval workouts. I do walk / sprint alternating every minute for 15 minutes (am am almost DEAD by the end of the last sprint). I finish up with 5 minute of fast walk at 6% incline.

After that I do some light weight lifting alternating days between different muscle groups.

I always finish the night doing some sort of abdominal workout, usually planking or hanging leg lifts.

I have lost 20 pounds since Jan 1 (went from 246 to 226) and I want to be below 200. The weight loss has seemed to plateau and I just don't know what else to do. I am pushing myself hard every night, upping the sprint speed, upping the elliptical resistance, etc. My BIGGEST complaint is my belly! I just don't see it getting smaller. My pants size has not changed. I am losing all kinds of weight in my face, arms, neck area....but the gut is still more prominent than it should be!

Question #1: I am wondering if this is a good workout or if I am spending too much time doing one thing or another...I really don't have any sort of direction?? Am I doing the right things for weight loss?

Question #2: I don't wake up feeling good in the morning. Back when I used to be in good shape, and the last time I was this active, I remember having more energy and feeling better. As it is right now, I have to DRAG myself to the gym every day, and have to be forcibly removed from my bed in the morning by my wife. Is there something I can eat / take / snort / shove up my....well is there anything that I can use for energy that won't kill me? Years ago, I took ephedra...I know people like to get all high and mighty and poo-poo on that sort of thing, but I don't ever remember feeling better than starting my day with a Metabolife. I don't really even care if it increases weight loss or not, I just want to feel energized?? 5-hour energy is ok....I grab one from time to time...but I don't like it and I don't even know if it's good / bad. Is there anything else? Herbal? Surely there must be some weird berry that only grows on a mountaintop in the Galapagos or something?

If anyone would like to offer some guidance, I would be very grateful. Thanks!

Can someone tell me what exactly I need to buy? I currently have my business calls forwarded to my cell phone, which I use for personal and business. We are growing and I need to be a little more professional sounding. Here is what I want... I want calls to come into the land line and be answered by an automated operator. Dial "1" for Joe Smith, Dial "2" for Mike Smith...etc. I then want the "box" to forward those calls to the appropriate cell phone based on what the caller enters. I don't even know what that sort of system is called?

Okay, so I have an industrial warehouse that is 28,000 square feet for my business. I recently had a visit from the city who wanted to invade my privacy and do an inspection. They said that I had to remove gas cans and a gas lawn mower from the building. What am I supposed to do with it? Why would such an ordinance exist? Does the city feel that gas cans and lawn mowers are safer in a person's garage? I just don't understand this and I feel like I am being railroaded here. It makes no sense to me. Everyone I ask just says matter-of-factly "well, that's the ordinance, so you have to do it." I am not one to take things like this lightly. There is no reason for this from a safety standpoint and certainly nothing the city should care about in an industrial park. What am I supposed to do here? What if I had a lawn care company...do I have to store everything outside? I don't get it. Anybody have any insight into this?

Yes I am 100% Atheist. It is not a choice, it is merely awareness. This question is directed at Atheists. I will not pay attention to other answers so go ahead and quote scripture or whatever other ridiculous book you wish.

Lately I have been thinking...if I could CHOOSE to undo my brains and rewire them so that I was one of the millions and millions of oblivious believers....would I be happier?

I am currently frustrated. I find it increasingly difficult to ignore the sheer volume of idiots who affect my daily life. I am so sick of the archaic laws and regulations that are rooted in religious philosophy. I am so tired of attempting to explain myself (using logic) to the illogical majority who believe in invisible supernatural entities. I am so tired of people trying to convince me that there are magical sky people and I am growing weary thinking about the fact that I am in the very tiny minority of people who actually understand that there is absolutely nothing to suggest the existence of any sort of superhuman omniscient beings. I am so appalled by the number of multi-million dollar churches springing up everywhere....when there are SO many more things that desperately need money right now. I cannot come to terms with the fact that my life will be controlled by these people who cannot even understand the most basic of concepts: if something does not exist, willpower does not make it exist.

Anyway...does anybody think that they would be happier if they were able to just blindly believe things? Would it be a more enjoyable life, even if it is not the truth? (even though you'd think it was). Is ignorance truly blissful?

I welcome your thoughts.

I have a large workbook in which I am compiling a ton of information for some customer reports. I use named ranges quite often. They need these reports for 5 separate applications. I have 5 identical (structure, not content) reports saved in one Windows XP folder.

The problem now is that the named ranges in the workbooks want to jump to eachother's data and I don't know how to stop them!

It seems like I am continually deleting external data references, yet I am never creating them.

For example: I have a named range called "part number" in my "part data" worksheet. This is the same on all workbooks. I deleted that range from the workbook in order to rename it elsewhere. Now, the formulas that reference that range are getting their data from one of the other workbooks! I looked in my list of names, and sure enough, even though I deleted that name earlier, it is back in the list and now points to another workbook.

Is there any way to prevent this from happening? My customer is continually changing these reports and I have to be able to make sure that I am not inadvertantly linking between different projects.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Wow. I am at a loss. I just participated in this thread:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200809...

Where tons of atheists (almost all who responded) claim to have many christian friends of all kinds. I just don't understand how this is possible. I just assumed that my experience was typical for everyone who is atheist.

I interact with tons of people every day. At some point or another, I hear someone mention "their church" or "god bless" or "have a blessed day" or something that identifies them as a churchhead.

I am immediately and irrepairably turned off to them. I feel nothing but contempt for religion and its progress-supressing, brainwashing, bloodbath causing existence. How can I be friends with someone who would pursue such a life? (Lying to their children, condemning people to be burned for eternity, you know the stuff)

I grew up catholic, so I was immediately told that I was a sinner; that I would burn in hell unless I followed the church's rules; that I couldn't eat meat on Fridays 40 days before easter (seemed a bit arbitrary...but whatever...i was just a kid).

Now that I am grown up and understand that religions are all total nonsense...how can I possibly be friends with anyone who can't recognize that? I simply want nothing to do with people who believe in magic cloud people and super scary demon guys. I have apparently been superduper fortunate to have friends who are not christian, not religious, and can think and act on their own accords.

So I would like to know....how is it possible you can seriously be friends with someone once you know that they, with all their heart, believe that there is a conscious being that lives in the sky and watches our every move. How can you look at someone and EVER consider their opinion on ANYTHING when you know that they wake up early on Sunday and go to a special building where god likes them more, and sing and dance about how much they love the son of the magical sky-person (who was born here).

I have tried. I have tried many many many times to get over this exclusivity. But the fact remains, I simply cannot give any part of my self to a person who believes in this stuff. Even if I was the last person on earth who thought this way...I guess I would die with no friends.

How do you get over this and still "hang out" do you just never talk about anything that requires individual thought? If so, how is it that you consider them a friend?? Am I the only one who feels like this??

I would like to know why millions of people think that Jews are a race of people? I can't even tell you the number of times that I have heard people say "he is half Jewish, half white (or other race)".

Now, I personally know that a Jew is someone who is Jewish. Someone is Jewish because they practice Judaism. If they convert to Catholocism, they are no longer a Jew...yet I know in my heart of hearts that there are many people who would debate that with me.

So to better focus my question: What do you believe to be the cause of the race/religion confusion with regard to Jews?

(I only ask this question because a close friend of mine is always referred to as Jewish and "of Jewish descent" yet she is adamant about her athiesm and hasn't been to a synagogue or church of any kind for a decade. Yes somehow, she is still a 'jew" to most people we know. To understand the cause of the confusion is a start in the right direction, I guess)

I have many Mexican American immigrants and LEGAL aliens who work for me, all of which have the proper credentials on file. One our best employees let her work visa expire and moved back to Mexico. This was about 2 years ago. We have been unable to find, in the two years she has been gone, anyone as good at her job as she was.

I have spoken with some of the other Mexican immigrants and they said that she wants to come back, and is waiting to save up money to sneak across the border.

Obviously, I didn't want to hear that as my knowledge of her sneaking across the border would render her unhireable to me.

So here is my question: Given the aforementioned back story, what steps can I take, as an employer, to get her here LEGALLY. What is involved?

Thanks!

I really don't understand this policy. I have 10 employees that are working for me 4 hours away. I gave them their paychecks and they went to Wal-Mart (just like they do when they are home) and Wal-Mart denied the checks. They then tried to go to other local stores who said it was against policy to cash "out-of-town" checks.

My question is, why does it matter where the company is located? Are party store and grocery store owners driving over to the businesses and verifying these checks? If not, then I see no other reason why they would require a payer to be "local". I just don't get it.

So now what can I do to pay my employees? And what do I do with the payroll checks that they were issued?

Any help would be appreciated. (none of them have bank accounts or direct deposit, so that out of the question)

As an atheist, am curious to see the answers to this. I would like to know how believers view the court system in the U.S., which is set up to allow only facts, evidence, and fully provable decision making. Some thinking points:

Since your belief system is based largely on faith, would you be more willing to try potential criminals by simply interviewing them and trusting your faith or would you rather see proof of what the alleged crimes are?

Do you dislike the idea of making life altering decisions based on fact and proof?

Do you think that man should impose punishments on people, or would you rather have criminals just wait and be judged in the afterlife?

What would you change about the way the court system works if anything?

First recurring theme is Tornadoes. I seem to always see them whenever I am outside in my dream. There are usually a lot of them and they are usually in the distance. Last night was the first time I can recall ever being scared by them, a small one sliced off the front of my car as I was driving and also hurt my foot! (lol). The car was a right hand drive for some reason, not that I have ever driven a right-hand drive.... So basically...what do you think is causing me to dream about tornadoes?

Second Recurring theme is fish. If ever there is a body of water in my dream, i am ALWAYS able to look in and see HUGE (10 - 20ft long) fish. I am never afraid of them and usually drawn to them, staring and trying to get a better view. This happens to me probably 2-3 dreams per month.

So any insight as to what I buried in my psyche causing these recurring themes?

Thanks!

So after getting 3 answers deleted today, I am a bit curious as to what people are actually looking for and why ANY sort of levity is so poorly received.

Just as in real life, I always try to help people with their problems and ALWAYS try to include a smile and joke. I just don't understand where people could possibly be coming from to ask a question to a MULTI-MILLION-MULTIPERSON Q&A community and take offense to ANY helpful (albeit infused with a bit of humor) answers.

So really, what is everyone looking for in their answers?

(By the way...I am NOT talking about "What's the capital of Louisiana"...I am talking about the long drawn out "my boyfriend has syphillis, could he be the father of my child, but should I leave him, I am going to kill myself if he leaves, especially if Jesus doesn't really exist in the space-time continuum." type of questions).

So for me, so that I can be a better answerer...what are you looking for in answers to your questions?

When I address a letter, why do I need to put the City, State, AND Zip code when the ZIP code tells you the city, state and specific section?

What I mean is, if you go to Google maps, or expedia, or mapquest...etc...and type in a ZIP code, it will instantly take you there.

So why can't I just write the ZIP code on an envelope? That's really all they need at the Post office anyway...

For example, If I write: 1234 Street St., 60614 You can easily find that 60614 is in Chicago (Lincoln Park). So why do I also need to write "Chicago, IL" on the letter?

Okay, I know this sounds far fetched...but I would like to know what is stopping smaller cable companies (TV/Phone/Internet) from sprouting up?

For example, lets say that I go door to door for a month and get 100 people that want to sign up for my new cable company. What do I need to do in order to offer them service? Do I have to get individual contracts with ALL the networks and then find a way to become an ISP? Do I have to pull my own lines? Do I have to pull lines all over the world to become an ISP or can I buy a big block of access from a larger "backbone" provider?

I just find it hard to believe that there is only 2 broadband providers in my area and only 1 that services my house. When I get my bill, it is written in a language that I do not understand and I can't ever get through to anyone to talk about it. I always think "there has got to be a better way."

So what is stopping "startup" cable companies? What's the big deal?

I know I am over-simplifying it, but....is there anyone out there with enough expertise to be able to give me an oversimplified answer as to what would be involved with starting a cable company?

I am a business owner in Michigan. The outlook is bleak enough as it is without the prospect of Obama coming in and taxing me more. There is, apparently, some other old guy running but the newsmedia has already all gotten together to agree not to talk too much about him and focus more on Obama.

Okay so my real question...

After the 2000 election I have not voted for anything. Why should I? I was told by my country that my vote was meaningless. Absolutely meaningless. They counted up the votes from all of the Americans who took time out of their day to go to their local elementary school gymnasium...and then elected the one who got fewer votes, ergo my vote is 100% meaningless. Anyone who can convince me otherwise is using witchcraft or hypnosis. Why should I vote for president? It will do no good, especially since I wouldn't be voting for either major candidate.

I will be voting for Mitt Romney who actually has the qualifications to run a country.

I have a deck boat that weighs 2,960 pounds. The maximum occupancy rating (people and equipment) is 1,600 pounds.

I was thinking about getting a 3,500 pound boat hoist, will this be enough, or is it recommended that I go higher? Is there some formula to figure this out?

I was wondering if anyone had any information on how to get on the GM Approved Supplier list. We do a great deal of work with GM products through their suppliers and would have the opportunity to to many times more work if we were on the "GM List" I have tried and failed to make any sort of contact with GM personnel and have found no info on the web. Does anyone know what steps I can take toward this goal? I am getting increasingly frustrated with potential customers telling me to go get on this list which I can't even find!

I had a blue pill and a red one, I think I took the blue one by mistake. How can i teel if tis dffcetging dkg nalskg..gna ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Can someone explain to me what the heck a DUNS number is, and why I need one? I have a service company and we deal mainly with automotive suppliers and the "Big Three". I HAVE a DUNS number, but every time I give it out, I have NO idea what it means or what it's for. Can someone explain this to me as if I was a complete retard? I know that Dunn and Bradstreet issue the number, but I don't know why and I don't know what is gained by having one.

Hi, I own a small business. I recently applied for a loan for some new equipment. The equipment in question is very technical, very expensive, and does not depreciate very quickly at all. My question: I want to obtain a SECURED loan. The banks that I apply to say that they need like a million pages of PERSONAL financial documentation that I am not willing to to take the time to obtain or provide. Isn't the loan secured by the machinery? Why would they need my personal guarantee anyway? Any ideas where to go from here?