Tarjema Translations

By now you know that I am losing weight, I hope.

This process, for me, is all about calories. The more I don’t eat, the more I lose. But a part of that equation – as you can see by the run data – is what you burn.

Over on the Lose It! forum, Trish put up a great post giving a general guide.

How much of my daily exercise calories should I eat?

NONE – If you are on Maintenance and burned less than 300 calories.
- If you are trying to lose weight and burned fewer than 400 calories or exercised for 30 minutes or less.

SOME (up to half) – If you are on Maintenance and burned 300-600 calories.
- If you are losing weight and burned 400-800 calories.

MORE THAN HALF – If you are on Maintenance and burned 600-1000 calories.
- If you are losing weight and burned 800-1200 calories.

MOST – If you are on Maintenance and burned over 1000 calories.
- If you are losing weight and burned over 1200 calories.

I’ve been reading a lot lately, especially as I am going through this whole weight loss thing. A lot of weight loss forums talk about exercise, no surprise. As I’ve mentioned, I’m using an app on my iPod Touch called Lose It, and at LoseIt.com, there is a forum associated with the application that is no exception. In this forum I was reminded of an interesting program called Couch to 5k, or C25k for short. I decided to give it a go; I did a 5k a couple of years ago and enjoyed it (not the run, but the fun of being out there with all of those people). I started doing the C25k workouts so I could run the 5k the day before the Seattle Marathon.

Among the things I have been reading is a very interesting running tale called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It is fascinating. I am not done, so I don’t want to do a full review here, feel free to read what people have written about it over at Amazon or on Chris’ website. The upshot, as far as this post goes, is that the more supportive and more cushioning a running shoe is, the more likely you are to suffer a running injury while wearing them.

Really?!?

Well. That might just explain a whole lot. Have you ever had plantar fascia pain? I never did while I was in the Marines. Back then I ran in boots and the cheapest running shoes that I thought would get the job done – military pay does not go very far, and good shoes were an expense I could live without. But when I decided a few years ago to ‘get in shape’ for the 5k – the Pumpkin Push, in case you were wondering – I went to a good running store, had my stride analyzed and bought two pairs of decent running shoes. Around $100 a pair. Then I started hitting the treadmill and the road. Then I started having the weirdest pain. I would wake in the morning and had to fight with all my willpower to put my feet on the floor. It was all I could do to stagger to the bathroom. The pain, covering the entire sole of my foot, was excruciating.

So, tonight, I decided to run barefoot on my treadmill. I’m not brave enough to run barefoot on the street yet. My stride, gait, foot placement, everything was different. I am still woefully out of shape, but barefoot running was a very different experience. The few times I hit the belt heel-first, like I normally do running in shoes, I really felt it. I immediately shifted to a more centered footfall. My calves felt it, but not to the point of real pain. I have one hotspot on the ball of my foot – the precursor of a blister – but that isn’t a surprise; my bare feet haven’t done anything harder than getting the newspaper in my driveway on a Sunday; walking barefoot inside the house is not practice for running barefoot, even on a treadmill.

I think I’ll try this for the next couple of weeks. If it is good, then I’ll get some Vibram Five Fingers over at my local REI and take my (almost) bare feet out on the road.

So I had occasion to do some research the other day trying to figure out a good translation for the term ???? ????, which is literally ‘white weapons’. It did not take long to figure out that it refers to all kinds of combat weapons short of firearms, but I was pounding my head on the wall trying to come up with a succinct way to say that in English. I found a posting (in English) about Kuwait’s law that bans the sale of white weapons and got my answer from someone’s angry retort to what I assume was an attempt at humor on the part of the author.

Melee Weapons

Have a gander at the Wikipedia article on melee weapons, and you’ll see what I mean.

From Backpacking Light Magazine

I just read a very informative and fun article about two of my favorite things: coffee and the outdoors.

The author discloses a dear love for coffee that I share, though I view milk as a crime against coffee (hey, milk is welcome in English or Irish Breakfast Tea!).

I had to share, so please pay a visit and enjoy!

The Beautiful Cup @ Backpacking Light.

If you are interested in hiking and camping, even if you are not looking for an ultralight experience, I think it is really worth the time to read through many of the articles and forum postings at BackpackingLight. There are some great discussions about making your own gear that I found particularly inspiring. I have not decided if I will make something myself, but it might finally bring my quest for the perfect bag/backpack to an end!

I thought it was time to update my website, change the layout a bit, and make it easier to keep up-to-date.

First, a bit about what has been going on in the last few years . . .

I have two daughters now! They were born in May of 2007 and June of 2009. Healthy, happy, and learning something new every day. It is a good start.

I am finally going to college, too. I am studying for a degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the American Military University / American Public University system. Fully accredited, and taking up what little free time I used to have. This ‘semester’ I am taking World Civilization since 1650 and American Government. Should be fun!

Along with that, I have a full-time job in translation. I still take on freelance work when I have the time. I spent a little time a few years ago working from home full-time. I loved it. I would love to go back to working that way again, but at the moment, this is what is best for me and my family.

As you can see from the badge on the right, I am currently running myself through the Hacker’s Diet. It is an incredibly simple means of losing weight. It is all about counting calories, but give the book a read. The author, John Walker, is an engineer (among many other incredible accomplishments) who deconstructs the ‘fat’ problem as an engineering and management problem. In essence, you have to eat less than your body burns. 3500 calories is equal to one pound of fat, so if you eat 500 calories less each day than your body burns, you lose a pound a week. I am doing quite a bit more, but I have (had) over a hundred pounds to lose.

The last badge over there is for National Novel Writing Month. As you can see, 2009 was a tough one for me. I am going to try and scrape a few minutes together here and there to do some plotting and get ready for it. I ‘won’ – made the 50,000-word goal – the first time I tried it, but I didn’t make it last year. I’ll win again this year. As much as I love translation, I think I would enjoy writing for a living even more.