Weight Watchers - Giving it a try

My sisters and I have joined Weight Watchers. We are learning quickly that our eating habits leave much to be desired.

Overall I like it so far though, it's teaching me about good foods, filling foods, etc. It's not rocket science, and this information has been pushed in front of me many times before, but actually taking action and paying for the program, then counting points is helping a lot.

I think what I like best is the point system - I love games and competitions and in a way it's like that. If I exercise, I can gain back some points.

Anyone else ever tried this? Or another diet/exercise program that worked?

On an unrelated note, the Weight Watchers mascot, Hungry, is cute:

Four Square - not just a schoolyard game anymore

I guess I've been breaking the #1 rule I learned as a child: don't talk to strangers. Between my blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now FourSquare, sometimes it feels like I'm talking to no one but strangers. However I enjoy putting my thoughts and feelings out there and meeting new people online - it's just that after today, I think I'm going to set some stricter boundaries for myself.

I signed up for FourSquare a few months ago because I thought it was an online meetup site that coordinated random games of the actual game of FourSquare (you know the one I'm talking about - the four boxes and rubber ball). I was wrong. It's a geo-location social networking service where you "check in" and earn badges depending on your activity. Lately I've been semi-making fun of it: checking in at my desk, on the broken metro car, etc. But I can see the actual value in the service, when used correctly. Businesses can offer incentives to frequent customers, and you can find new spots in your city. But it's risky...

Today I was waiting for my dad and sister at an Italian restaurant. We were meeting for lunch before I drive back to DC (I have the day off). I was bored waiting, so I checked in at this Italian restaurant on FourSquare and allowed it to be published in my Twitter feed. No big deal. Not a lot of people in this area use Four Square and I added a line about how delicious the garlic knobs were at this place. My sister and dad finally showed up and we order. In the middle of ordering, another waitress comes up to our table and asks "Are you Meghan?".... I looked up and said "yes?" She said "you have a phone call..", and immediately I thought "Shit, this can't be a coincidence." If anyone needs to call me, they can call my cell phone. It's not exactly hard to get a hold of me either, you can tweet or email me at any time. I told the waitress that I'd rather not take the call - she didn't know who it was. She came back into the room and said "It's someone from the breast cancer cure - they want you to come to the phone." Wow. Talk about invasive AND persistent. The waitress saw the look of fear I apparently was wearing and said "I'll just hang up on them." My sister said it looked like I was about to cry. 

Not only did this person see that I was at lunch - they took the time to Google the restaurant and the phone number, then call and ask for me by name. I immediately deleted that tweet. But the entire time we were there I kept wondering if someone from this so-called breast cancer cure company was going to walk in or call again. The invasion of privacy was so surprising - it really hit me hard.

I learned a lesson though: FourSquare is not evil or a complete and evil invasion of privacy. Like all forms of social media, you just need to be careful. I didn't think anyone would see or care where I was for lunch, but by thinking that I made myself vulnerable to a spam or prank phone call. At first I thought "omg I'm deleting all my social media accounts" but I realized that was drastic. I just need to continue to be very calculated and careful about the information I publish about myself. It's that simple.

UPDATE: A Twitter friend (@riaglo) sent me a link to this site, Phone Losers. Sounds like they're behind the kind of stuff that happened to me today, though I have no idea if it was them since I refused to answer the phone. No matter, what if this was a pranker and not a breast cancer cure site spammer? That means they used my Twitter background and told me they represent a cause so meaningful to me - that is flat out wrong. I don't care if I was the one putting my stuff out there - that was hateful. And if it was a spammer, then they should have contacted me via Twitter of FourSquare, not by stalking the restaurant and calling me. Lame. 

Will You Accept This Rose? #Thebachelor

On open letter to Jake Pavelka, the newest Bachelor, about his final rose decision and the online activity surrounding it

Dear Jake, I hope you’re happy. Your season of The Bachelor: On The Wings of Love has ended and you’ve picked the woman that four different ladies on the show warned you was only there for fame: Vienna.

I won’t feign surprise. I knew this was coming. Insider information has been leaked for months about how you fell for Vienna. Even respected gossip sites (i.e. Reality TV Magazine) reported that you liked Vienna so much you took Beyonce’s advice and “put a ring on it.”

But don’t feel bad, I can’t remember one season when the audience wholeheartedly believed that the star made the right choice.

I’ve been a fan of The Bachelor since it began in 2002 when Alex Michel, the successful Stanford grad, dated 25 different women. At the end of the season, Alex announced that Amanda Marsh was “the one”, much to the audience’s chagrin. While he was trying to figure out who would get a rose each week, I was trying to talk about the show with my sisters and my roommates, but they weren’t watching.

When the first season ended, I stopped tuning in because, beyond the tales of love and treachery, what I really wanted was a group of people to connect with about the show. But after discovering the amazing network of fans scrutinizing and LOLing about all the drama via Twitter, Facebook, blogs and message boards, I’ve recently revived my love of The Bachelor franchise.

Every Monday night, I’m live-tweeting the event with a dedicated posse of Bachelor fanatics. I read the Entertainment Weekly recap column (including the hilarious and sometimes harsh comments) on Tuesday morning, as well as reports on RealitySteve.com, the oddly accurate Bachelor psychic who somehow never gets his predictions wrong.  While I prefer the snarkier blogs about the show (the EW.com column written by Kristen Baldwin is gold), plenty of other options exist for fans to get their fill of Bachelor recaps and reviews - more than 110,000 blogs to be exact. Your show has really “taken off”, Jake.

This kind of network was exactly what I was looking for when I was an awkward high school senior watching your predecessor Alex figure out who got the “final rose.” It feels like the proliferation of easy-to-join, easy-to-use social media platforms and applications has magically opened up to the pop culture world, showing us how awesome it is to be “in the know”.

So did you feel the pressure, Jake? We were all tweeting and posting about what we thought was coming next and you didn’t fail to entertain us. In fact, even though only one couple has gotten married in the 18 seasons of The Bachelor and Bachelorette, we all keep tuning in because we want the star to be happy in the end. And now we have a robust network of people to talk about it with – even if we think they picked the wrong girl!

I hope it works out for you guys, I truly do. But until I see the previews for your fairytale nuptials, I will remain skeptical. I hope you understand.

Yours, Meghan.**

** For those of you not living in my crazy Bachelor world, Jake Pavelka is the most recent star of ABC’s franchise “The Bachelor”. On Monday, March 1, 2010, his season, aptly named “On the Wings of Love” since he’s a commercial airline pilot, came to a conclusion. Vienna, his new bride to be, was chosen over Tenley, the chipper divorcee. Vienna was the cause for much drama on the show, leading viewers to dislike her and hope she wasn’t the last one standing.

Originally Published by Meghan Sager at NMS Blog on March 02, 2010 in New Media Strategies, Social Media,Online Marketing, Pop Culture

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The End of the Snow... Sorry

All winter I've been displaying this cute snowman flag in my garden.

Since the snow just never went away I thought it was appropriate.

Then it dawned on me. Maybe the snowman flag isn't cute because of the snow. Maybe there is snow because of the snowman flag!

I have removed said flag (retired until winter next year) and put up a St. Patty's Day one.

Thus ending the snowcapolypse.