Sound Body, Sound Mind

This was a busy, but exciting week at Enistic Inc! We secured our first client--an office building owner here in Houston--and now we're ready to raise some money to get started. This will be my first time leading a capital raise as my previous companies were either bootstrapped or had other officers in charge of investment. Houston has a robust community of angel investors in front of whom we will pitch in January. However, if we can raise some quick cash ($90k) from FFF, it will help us expedite American electrical certification and rollout with our first clients. Therefore I'll be in fundraising mode for the immediate future--look out!

We know we're onto something here and this was validated by a recent conversation I had with my contacts at Google. We're talking with them about being the first business solution that uses Google PowerMeter and they confirmed that, even in their own offices, myriad high-power monitors are left on all the time with useless screen savers. This is Google, arguably one of the most forward thinking (regarding IT power consumption) companies in the world and even they would benefit tremendously from our product. We've got to succeed with this company--it would be irresponsible not to!

I've also been asked to speak at the American Astronautical Society's imagine 09 conference this December. Many of the other speakers are quite high profile so I consider it a real honor to be included among them. As many of you will know, I have grown up in the shadow of the space industry and I have always been extremely compelled by it. For a long time, in fact, I planned to pursue a career in astrophysics before I fell in love with computer science in high school. So this presentation is of special significance to me: an opportunity to share something about which I am very passionate (inducing human behavioral change by supplying well timed information) with a community I love. There isn't much time to put together the presentation, but I'm sure hard work will produce something good.

As always I believe strongly in a balanced lifestyle. Hard work must be balanced out by adequate rest and physical activity to produce optimal performance. As many of you know, I'm a very, very data-driven manager and I manage my own life the same way. This includes measuring my body composition every morning and calculating my daily energy intake and expenditure every evening. As a result I have a massive spreadsheet of every day's net weight gain/loss for the last 8 years.

One problem, though, is that most of these calculations are based on estimates: calorie intake based on historical averages +/- any special daily consideration, estimated resting calorie expenditure based on body composition and activity level, estimated exercise calorie expenditure based on GPS/heart rate monitor, etc. This motivated me to try out a relatively new tool for calorie tracking: the GoWear Fit. You wear it on your arm all day and, based on the movement it detects and your skin temperature, it calculates an [allegedly] much more accurate estimate of your caloric expenditure each day.

I've only been using it for a week but so far I like it. There is definitely a marked difference between the days that I spend in front of a computer and those during which I am active with meetings. This helps me know when to take my evening cardio up a notch to compensate for a sedentary workday. One side benefit too is that it calculates how well you've slept if you wear it at night.

My strength training tools have also been upgraded. I used to print out my workout before I headed to the gym, write down my actual accomplishments as they occurred, and then enter them on my spreadsheet once I returned home. Now I have uploaded my spreadsheet to Google Docs so I can access it from anywhere over the Web. This gives me the ability to enter workout data directly into my phone while I'm at the gym, saving paper and time.

More than just measuring my fitness, though, I actually have to eat right and exercise to change those measurements in a positive direction. As part of my move back, I have added some new areas to my exercise regime. One is the Nintendo Wii. The Wii's sports and fitness programs get me moving around a lot in a fun way that motivates me to keep going. So far I've been doing Wii Fit. We also have Wii Fitness Coach, which I'll start on once Fit becomes tired. Wii Sports can also induce a sweat, as can DDR.

Katie and I have also been swimming Saturday mornings before our weekly trips to the farmer's market. I like swimming because it is low-impact, uses muscles that I didn't even know I had, and is a great cardio workout. However, swimming doesn't like me! I still sink like a rock and it's not uncommon for me to take at least one big gulp of pool water each day! Oh well, no pain no gain!

And speaking of pain, both Rice and the Redskins came back from their bye weeks with losses. Sigh.