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They weren’t lying, Montreal is a very nice city. The traffic was almost non-existent, the people were cool (for the most part), and the food was delicious. The city seemed very safe. Girls were walking around by themselves early in the morning, and I didn’t feel the least bit worried for them.

The food was perhaps one of the best things in the city. I had to try poutine, since Mike Stickel raved about it. I thought it looked extremely gross in pictures and did not seem at all appetizing. We asked the hotel man where the best poutine was in the city and he directed us to a little place, so we took our empty stomachs not knowing to expect. I was weary of the “curd” because I had no clue as to what it would taste like, but all worries were relieved after the first bite. The gravy was absurdly tasty and the curd didn’t have a strong taste. It had a great texture, though, which was pretty close to mozzarella cheese. Why can’t this be part of the menu of American culture? Man, it’s good, really really good.

Also, the crepes we had on Sunday morning were choice. They were massive, filled with Nutella and topped with fresh strawberries and bananas. They were excellent and filling. Did I mention filling?

We also did a hike up Mount Royal, which was extremely slushy, but, in the end, worth it. The view of the city was excellent, especially since the sun came out and the visibility increased. The slide back down the hill was quite a bit faster.

Overall, it was an excellent trip, and I would love to go again when it was a little warmer. It wasn’t too cold (near the mid-50’s for the day on Saturday), but I’m sure it would be an even lovelier city with some things in bloom.

You can check out the photo set of the trip here.

I have used a lot of programs to track goals, weight, calories, etc, but this seems to be the most comprehensive and useful tool I’ve used.

You have your standard dashboard page called your locker room, where you see an overview of your progress of goals, listing of objectives, and journal entries, which provides a nice overview.

Workouts is wonderful. You can browse through a ton of user submitted workouts, which are rated by users. They have everything from a “Training for a 5k” workout to “Mass Muscle Building” and everything in between. You are free to join any of these programs. Want to know what exercises are in the workout or, more importantly, how to do them, they usually have a video that shows the proper technique and form for each one. If they don’t they usually have a picture and a detailed description. This is extremely helpful especially for gym beginners.

Nutrition is also very nice to track. You have the ability to edit your daily intake goals and then compare based on what you have eaten for the day. It also keeps track of your overall progress. The one downside to the nutrition section is that if you search for a food to see how many calories, carbs, etc. are in the item the results are very limited. CalorieKing is by the far the most extensive database that I’ve used and Gyminee does little to compare with it. The nice thing is that you can do a search through CalorieKing and then input it into the Gyminee database. I haven’t tested this myself, but the option is there.

Once you have signed up for a workout and go into the Progress section you have the ability to add in how you did with your workout. This is very nice and this is something that I have always had a problem with. Keeping a journal for me has always been a cumbersome experience, therefore it never lasted very long. I think this has a shot of working for me, though. For me this is by far the most useful tool gyminee provides. To be able to accurately track your progress like this is amazing and is a powerful tool in staying motivated.

The last three features (I’m sure I’m missing some) are groups, Journals, and My Gym Buddies. Basically Gym Buddies are your friends. In your account you can allow everyone to see all your information, just your Gym Buddies, or no one at all.

All said and done, I’m very excited to using this site for a long time. I really feel like I’ve found my one stop tool for all my dieting/exercise needs. CalorieKing was nice, but I feel this is two steps beyond, and that is saying a lot for something that is still beta.

Although he took at a jab at me and my Eagles, I’m still super excited for him to be featured by such a prestigious name, although he should be used to now since he’s been featured by the Wall Street Journal and ABC.com.

It’s truly a very exciting time for the wine world, and a big part of that is because of the hard work of Mr. Vay-ner-chuk. Congrats.

When I last posted my weigh-in 7 weeks ago I was at around 230. Since then I got up to 237. For the last couple weeks, I have really been in a butt-kicking mood. When I get in these moods, I usually go pretty hardcore.

So the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve been doing exceptionally well. I have seen progressive gains in weight training and have since begun doing HIIT as was mentioned by Colin’s weigh-in.

Tonight at the gym, tried some SuperSet training and then ran home from the gym. I would estimate this was about a mile and half with a pretty nice hill to top it off. While this is nothing special, this is after a week that has already seen a HIIT training session, a hardcore weight training workout, and 2 hours of basketball.

So, I’ve been trying to increase my calories to increase my muscle development. I am going to try to be extremely active for the summer. I’m excited to see the progress I make over the summer and hopefully I’ll keep it up beyond that, unlike last time when I wasted about 8 months to a year’s worth of training.

I know he was yelling in my ear about it since SXSW and talking about how it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I didn’t understand how he could be so amped about an app that takes screenshots and camera snaps.

After playing around with Skitch for awhile, I can completely see why he and everybody else is so excited about it. His overview says everything that I would say, perhaps more eloquently than I would, so check it out and check out Skitch.

He also had some fun at my expense. Not cool, not cool at all.

The man, the myth, the legend Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame recently took a jab at the Eagles and, by extension, myself in an interview conducted by Colin.

What will the JETS record be this year now that you’ve gone to the draft?

Gary: “16-0 with an easy win over the EAGLES;) honestly the 1st 2 games are brutal but a 10-6 is possible for sure!”

The counter-punch

Couldn’t I just let this offense slide? My Eagle’s pride prevents me from doing so.

So, I just wanted to take a little guess about what the final score of this year’s Eagles vs. Jets game will be.

Final Score: 10-0

Oh wait, I confused my guess with the Eagles all-time record versus the Jets. Let me repeat that, 10-0. For Gary, and all of the other forgetful, pitiable Jet fans, let me just run through a little Eagles vs. Jets history lesson.

Regular Season Series: Eagles Lead 7-0
Eagles Record At New York Jets: 3-0
Last Meeting: October 26, 2003 — Eagles, 24-17

The wager

If by a miracle bigger than the parting of the Red Sea, the Jets somehow get lucky enough to pull out a victory over the far superior Eagles, I will post a video that will make the embarrassment of my “To the Left” video be put to shame. Heck, I’ll even wear some Jet’s gear while I do it.

Final Thoughts

Regardless of Gary’s abominable slight, I am still a Vayniac and a proud one at that. For all those who have never checked out Gary’s vlog, even though my retinas are continually damaged by the sight of a bunch of disturbing Jet’s merch, it comes with my highest of recommendations.

Watch the TUG tribute to Gary and WLTV