Tuesday, August 27, 2013

An update on Plexus Slim, a continuing weight loss journey


As you may have read from my previous post, I tried Plexus Slim. The process did not go great for me.

I've read people claiming to have lost 40 lbs in 2 weeks or something crazy like that, but that did not happen for me.

This is what happened:

For the first 15 days, you can read in detail here.

After that, I continued to take it daily and while I did not lose any weight, in general, I noticed a general slimming in my overall body shape. I did write a small, follow up update here too.

That's all.

I have considered taking it further and getting another 30 or 60 days supply to see if the weight does come off, but I started calorie counting and that's been a different journey.

I ultimately decided not to spend the money in getting more Plexus Slim because it is expensive and I did not want to spend that much on a diet drink.

If I had more funds available to me and if I had different priorities, I would probably spend the money and give it a few more months, but right now, I'm not wanting to spend the money.

I'm continuing on my weight loss journey without Plexus Slim.

I guess the point of this post is to say that weight loss is a journey and most often, it is a slow journey.

There is no quick fix.

There is no miracle cure.

You eat less.

You exercise more.

You work at it, and you work HARD at it.

It's continuous work.

It's persistence, and yes, sometimes it gets tiring.

For those of you looking to lose weight, do what is right for you. There are tons of process, methods, fads, out there.

Pick one that fits with your lifestyle.

Pick one that you can do and more importantly, you can STICK to.

All the best with your weight loss journey.



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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Windows Movie Maker not working on Window 7 64-bit - SOLVED!!!


First of all, I apologise, this is not the right forum for an IT related blog post, but I do not have anywhere else to put it and I felt that after 2 days of struggling, I ought to write this up somewhere, to help others who have this problem.

I have recently upgraded my operating system to Window 7 64-bit Ultimate Edition. I was running on the 32-bit version previously and everything was hunky dory until my hard drive died and I needed a new hard drive and a re-build (another long story!!).

Since then, I have been progressively reinstalling software that I use regularly back onto the computer.

One of the programs (which is where this is sort of relevant to this blog) is Windows Movie Maker, which I use to edit my videos to upload to my youtube channel.

I know it's not the greatest program out there for movie editing, but it does what I need it to do and for my limited editing needs, it is sufficient.

Since I could not get Movie Maker to work, I tried buying Pinnacle (cost me $59.95) and instead of working, after I installed it, it wanted me to buy more software in order for it to even begin editing. Bah! I am going to return the software and get my money back!! Plus, it was complicated to use and I'm not prepared right now to invest in the program and the learning curve.

Then I found another free video editing software which was more advanced than Movie Maker, but when I tried to use it, the video and sound would not sync up and play seamlessly and it was not going well.

So, I persisted in trying to get Movie Maker working.

Originally, I had installed Movie Maker from Windows Essentials 2012.

I was getting this error message:

 "Sorry, Movie Maker can't start. Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements before trying to start Movie maker again, and then try to update the driver for your video card if Movie Maker still doesn't start." 

I then troubleshooted (is this a real word?) it and tried:

1. Updating drivers (but it looked like my drivers were up to date)
2. Installing Windows Movie Maker 6 (which didn't do what I wanted)

Then I found this forum which after reading through many posts and 3 pages of back and forth, claimed to have solved the problem.

The two things that I took away from the post was:

1. Install DriverMax to update all your drivers
2. Roll back to Windows Essentials 2011 for Movie Maker.

I bought DriverMax 30 day pro version for $10USD and used it to update about 20 out of date drivers on my computer. My computer is from 2006 and quite old, even though it has new RAM and a new HDD. I'm resisting spending $1500 on a brand new computer right now. Tyres on the car just cost $1250!!

After I updated the drivers, I rebooted the computer.

Then, I uninstalled Windows Essentials 2012 along with Movie Maker, and restarted the computer.

After that, I installed Windows Essentials 2011 Movie Maker. Movie Maker was the only program I selected to install.

Once it had installed, I launched Movie Maker, all the while holding my breath and lo and behold, instead of the error message, IT WORKED!!!

Happily, I've now got Movie Maker working back on my computer again. It's not the best movie editing software out there, but it's enough for my needs.

I sincerely hope this post helps others who have this problem as well.

ps. The only drawback from using 2011 instead of 2012 is that the videos save as WMV files instead of MP4 files, which means the file sizes are larger. It will take longer for my videos to upload, but I think I can live with that.

pps. I edited a video that I had previously edited in 2012 (I forgot I had done it before) and the result was - 2011 = 1.39Gb in a WMV file, 2012 = 400Gb in a MP4 file. That's a huge trade off in size. This will take me at least 5 times longer to upload to youtube.

I tried installing 2012 again on top of 2011, but 2012 would not work. Got the same error message, so it looks like I am stuck with 2011. :-( and :-) at the same time. 


Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Weekend naughtiness, counting the cost and paying the price


This post is about my weight loss journey ... what *did* you think it was about? Naugthy! Naughty! :-)

I just spent my first weekend with my new diet and let me tell you, it was not good.

First of all, as I had mentioned earlier, I had that frozen yogurt treat. That was yummy but full of calories.

Then on Sunday, I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, which actually was pretty good. Not that many calories. Eggs are good for you.

But then, I made this incredible mushroom soup for dinner that night and I think that the soup had way more calories than I counted. I'm fairly certain of it ... maybe. I don't actually know since it's hard to actually calculate the calories ... okay, so I just did some math, and the soup was actually pretty good. It only had 331 calories per serve in it. That was a lot less than I thought. I guess it's because it was entirely a vegetable soup, so even a big bowl like the one I had, did not have a lot of calories in it.

Anyway, I was over my calorie count on Saturday because of the frozen yogurt, and I was just under on Sunday.

Either way, this morning I woke up at 138 lbs, which is 1 lb higher than when I started this whole thing.

I'm hoping that it's just the whole swing up, swing down, that happens to our weight based on food intake, etc., over a few days rather than actual weight that I have put on. I guess I won't know until I check myself a few days on.

The few things that I have learned though, because of the weekend, is that:

  • I have to be extra careful about my food intake over the weekend.
  • It's not possible to relax while on a diet. Seriously, the moment you take your eye off the ball, the whole thing falls apart.
  • It's necessary to be patient, there will be ups and downs.
  • It's also necessary, to continue to be really OCD about everything.
  • Everything matters. Everything thing you put into your mouth no matter how insignificant it may seem counts. For example, I love coconut water, and I would think nothing of a can or two a day for a refreshing drink. Do you know that darned drink is 161 calories? When you're only allowed 1300 calories a day, that's a whole lot of calories to give up for just one drink!!

So, I'm back on the wagon and so far have only consumed 210 calories today.

Plus what I've heard is right, after the first 3 or 5 days, you don't feel hungry anymore. At least, I don't throughout the day, but I do still get very hungry by the time dinner rocks round, if I haven't eaten by 7pm or so.

The journey continues ... wish me luck ... :-)


Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
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Makeup and beauty blog: http://langshipley-deannasworld.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/langshipley (this is the best way to reach me, I will always respond to this the fastest).
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Cooking blog: http://dazinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au/