Add Deal.com Website Launched

After spending almost 3 months in a solid state of code we are happy to announce that the main Add Deal website has finally gone live.  The new website features a wide range of different tools with which customers and businesses can use to:

1. Discover more about Add Deal and what we’re looking to do
2. The concept of the Boost
3. Subscribe to our newsletter
4. Like us on Facebook
5. Follow us on Twitter
6. Links to our other projects including Add Deal Babies.

However, like all great websites there are areas that still need completing and these will be complete by the end of this week.  These features include:

1. Login and Registration capabilities for the Add Deal Loyalty card
2. Contact us via the online form
3. Points calculator
4. Update Help section
5. Updated legal pages.

We are looking to complete all of the above by the end of next week.  If you would like to see the finished website design come and visit our website which can be found here.

An Evening at the Dojo

Well… as some of you know, on Monday we went to our very first Karate lesson, and as we recall our legs, arms, heads and just about every other joint was all over the place.  We had a bit of a problem with the coordination thing as well, and as such we certainly felt as if we were almost mocking the other people who were there.

However, last night we went to our second Karate session at the Torquay Dojo, and to be fair, we did a lot better this  time round than the second time.  Now these were just two FREE sample sessions, but you could certainly pick up the basics of the karate stance and layout.

Anyway, how did it go, well at first we were going to go the earlier session between 5 and 6pm, unfortunately, we weren’t able to attend due to being a bit too focused on our Add Deal project.

So we went to the 7-830pm session….

One word… excellent, the movements were good, we didn’t look like we were mocking the group although at times things were getting a little too heavy… and some of the moves we certainly felt like fouled up on.

However, we have been told that the moves and the lightning speed that we see a lot of the karate professionals carry out will all come in time.  We learned how to block, retaliate, how to dislocate an arm, back or shoulder… (ouch!!).

Learning Karate is certainly something entirely new for us and we would most certainly recommend it for anyone who has never done it… although at times we felt as if we didn’t sort of fit in… we are positive this will come in time.

No more FREE sessions now, the next time we go will be to pay for the uniform and membership costs as well as license and insurance.

Getting Started in Karate

A quick break from the normal Add Deal promoting and updates… we’re pleased to say that last night we attended our first karate lesson.  As some of you may know, the whole keep fit routine has fallen by the wayside and as for getting on that Wii Fit, we reckon that would take a lot of bravery at this present moment in time.

So yesterday, we took ourselves along to the long karate dojo for our first sample lesson… now given the fact that we don’t have great coordination at the best of times, us trying to do a wide range of moves tended to look more and more like we were mocking the other people more than taking it seriously.

Looking back on it now, we must say that we learnt a fair bit, although trying to remember what we learned this morning is certainly proving to be somewhat difficult.  Our next session will be tomorrow morning between 10 and 11am, so we’re going to go along and see what happens as it were.

So from here on in, the exercising begins as well as learning a new skill, it is certainly different from the web development world.

More on this soon…

Day 14: – Still no Movement

Well, I’m sorry to have to report, that today, again, I neglected my exercising, which is stupid really as I wanted to get myself motivated and get my head clear.  My head at the moment seems to be occupied with everything other than losing weight, worries ranging from moving home through to the whole concept of my old limited company being struck off and removed and onto my driving exam which is happening this Wednesday -eek.

I tend to worry quite a bit about different things, I think you would describe me as a worrier that isn’t happy unless he’s worrying, and when he is worrying he isn’t happy.

So with this in mind my exercising has gone right down the drain these past couple of days and I am so not looking forward to tomorrows weighing in.  However, I think tomorrow, as it is the weighing  in, a 30 minute session of exercising wouldn’t go a miss and it can’t do much hard now can it.

Suppose, one good thing is I am still walking to meet my partner from work… I shall try to do better tomorrow.

Remember think of your idea body…

Day 11-13 – The Couch Potato

Never mind about eating potatoes for dinner I think I must have turned into one over the past couple of days.  My exercising regime has really taken a battering this week as my focus has been on more important matters including a Company Return and also a Strike Off that I am currently going through with one of my old companies.

Over the next couple of days, however, I’m hoping to make up the difference with a couple of extra sessions being complete, either that or I work out for longer, so rather than doing the 30 minutes I normally do, I will spend an extra 30 minutes.

Hmm I shall leave this one up to me,  but yes there has been very little progress on my weight loss frontier, although all of my clothes are starting to get quite big around the waist, resulting in belts being purchased and possibly some new threads on the cards.

What do you reckon a pair of flip-flops and a hoodie??

Thoughts guys??

Day 10: Lazy Day

Well some of you will be probably be wondering where the update on the exercise regime has gone for today.  Well I’ll answer that, it has gone out the window.  I woke up incredibly late, I had quite a rough night sleep last night and there was a lot of things on my mind – will be spending my time over the next couple of days tackling this worry and ensuring I never get like this again.

So today, unfortunately no exercise has been done on my part.  However, I do have a nice jacket potato to look forward too along with a glass of orange juice.

However, tomorrow I will do my 30 minute exercise challenge as normal, I won’t punish myself or say I’m going to compensate you all for the day lost..  so tomorrow my 30 minute exercise will be back.

 

Day 9: Busy Stuff #blogboost

I think this morning must have been one of the busiest morning I have had thus far.  It has just turned 10 past 11 in the morning GMT and all I have managed to get complete from the time I woke up is get the kids off to school, wash up, have breakfast and I’ve not long finished my 30 minute work out and I have now finally got round to updating my blog – think tomorrow I may have to get up slightly earlier… hmm 7am??

I’d also just like to point out that the bananas were bought yesterday along with some fresh orange juice – hmm will be careful with this as it can be quite lethal.

Anyway, so today, how did the work out go.  Well excellent, if I’m honest, although there were parts of the work out that I found a little bit difficult as I was rather stiff this morning, possibly from yesterdays work out.  However, this morning, I thought the best way to be able to loosen the joints would be to start off with a 3 minute jog… just to warm up the body… this seemed to do the trick just nicely.

So once the running was done, and I was firmly warmed up I thought I’d get down to some twists and turns, focusing on both the torso twists and the elbow stretches.  By the end of it I must admit I certainly could feel the pain, however I didn’t have too much time to worry about it and got straight into the step up challenge.

I was now up to the end of my first 12 minutes.  My next step would be to get into my boxing, I didn’t do too bad at this giving it near on everything I had and coming very close to beating my highest score that I set yesterday.  I wasn’t too happy with this result as I came 5th, so I decided to have another go at this and did a lot better coming 2nd overall.

I was now up to my 20 minutes, so rather than doing another set of step up challenges I thought I would do a long jog.  I managed to do really well at this and got an average burn out rate of 80%, my highest to date, even the Wii Commented on how great my rhythm was.

To round off my full 30 minutes of exercise I did another 7 minutes of hoola hooping, with all my legs and joints clicking and snapping into place.

Overall the workout was certainly a good one and I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to build on my successes today and turn them into excellent overall results.

Day 8: Weighing In and Working Out #blogboost

With today being the 8th Day, today was the big day in which I would go for the weighing in to see if all my hard work was really paying off.  So morning routine get the children off to school, have some breakfast and get myself onto that Wii fit for the all important weigh in, partner home today so all being well should prove an interesting day.

So with breakfast eaten, a bowl of Weetabix and the coffee drank, it was now straight onto the Wii, turning it on, even I was slightly nervous, even knowing what I had seen on Friday.  As I went through the motions of the body test, I finally took the necessary step of opening my eyes to reveal that I had lost a further 3lbs.

My weight is coming down at a nice even pace, all I have really changed in my diet, thus far is my activities – I am now carrying out my 30 minutes of daily exercise in the morning, I am also meeting my partner from work which is also taking another 20 minutes of exercising time, so I’m out and about for at least one hour.

This accompanied by the alteration of diet, I am now well into my first box of Weetabix, and today I will be picking another food to stop myself from snacking (or rather if I need to snack I can reach for this piece of fruit).  So without further a do this weeks healthy choice for me will be a banana.

Working Out

So with my head firmly set on the loss of 3lbs I got straight into my workout this morning, with some torso twists and some upper arm bends.  I did really well on both of these.  This was followed by some boxing taking me up to my first 10 minutes being completed.  With the body now fully awake and ready to get active I thought doing the step ups would be a great way in which to get my lower half moving.  

I’ve been talking about my partner at number one for a couple of days, well today I finally knocked her off her top spot with a score of 324 points, after a good 3 attempts at trying to beat her.  I then rounded off my second set of 10 minutes with carrying out a bit of hoola hooping.  I did 6 minutes overall, and I must admit my hips, back and joints were all clicking and crackling as I moved myself (or tried to) in a round about circular shape.

With both my left and right hip circles, looking a little better I got an excellent score and managed to, unknowingly, knock my partner off her top score with a massive 1500 spins .

Once complete, I went straight back into my boxing rounding off an excellent work out with not only beating my score but getting another star on the overall performance.

So this weeks exercising has achieved a 3lb weight loss and an excellent set of results for me.

Day 7: Back to it #blogboost

So it has been a week since I started doing all of this Wii fit exercising.  Over the weekend, I have to admit I didn’t think it all through.  As I didn’t eat healthy and as for cutting down on the alcohol well that didn’t happen either… so not a good end to a really progressive week.

Anyway, today I thought I would spend my 30 minutes doing a wide range of exercises, my sides weren’t hurting as much as they have been and I have to also admit I don’t feel as groggy as I have done these past few days.  So this morning normal routine, get the kids sorted, and the missus out the door – no need for me to pop to the shop this morning as we had done a weekly shop yesterday.

Once kids had been sent out the door, it was a case of have a bowl of weetabix and then get straight onto the Wii for my 30 minutes of exercising.  With that said, I unplugged the Xbox 360 and got myself onto the Wii balance board for what would prove to be a highly interesting and successful work out.

Last week I was talking about not doing too well on some the tasks, such as boxing and press ups, today was the reverse of this.  My boxing I did 3 or 4 times today resulting in 12 minutes of constant battling with a punch bag.  Each occasion I kept beating my previous score, I have gone from a score of 319 to 324 .  I’m really pleased with this.

Once I’d done this it was onto my twists and turns… now I didn’t beat my personal best however, I did do really well on the overall performance.  I then completed 20 reps on each arm of the upper arm stretch… which did rather hurt.  However, I did that and it felt really good to have achieved this.

I then thought, right let’s do some step ups, I had a good 3 or 4 tries at this… but I still have been unable to beat my partner at this…she still holds number one for this… but that will all change over the next couple of days.

After this it was a case of a quick go on the old hoola hoop, I did really well at this knocking one of my partners children off number one.  :D

Excellent work out and now ready to really start the day!!

Day 5 and 6: – Day of Rest #blogboost

Ok, now we all know the story of the creation, that god created the world in 6 days and on the 7th he rested.  I, am not God, however, therefore with this in mind I decided that yesterday Saturday 21st January 2012 I’d take a day off from my exercising and spend the day resting up and getting myself ready for another 5 days of working out.

So what did I do with myself, well I thought I’d spend the day with my partner.  We don’t see a lot of each other due to one reason or another, we’re usually either working hard during the week and thus don’t see much of each other or when we do see each other I’m more and more focused on the overall concept of my new business.

However, this weekend both myself and my partner gave us both time to enjoy each others company.  Friday I handed the notice in for the current house that I’m living in and we’re moving to a new property in February 2012.  Yesterday, Saturday, I spent the day with my partner enjoying a few hours of shopping for new things for the new house and having a quick bite to eat.

We also spent sometime with friends and ended up coming home at 01:00 Sunday morning.

So on Sunday, we decided we would spend the day together, off we went for a Sunday carvery and an amazing couple of hours out down town carrying out the shopping…

Now as for the rest of my Sunday, I will be carrying out my ROW80 check-in and will also be getting everything organised for another busy week ahead.

What are your thoughts on having rest between exercising??