So I decided to give Nashbar Online bicycle store a try back in June. I am in the process of building up a frame and decided to buy a Cane Creek headset and some disc brakes from them. I placed the order for this on June 25th. I got the standard automated confirmation email from them a few moments later. So far seemed like a pretty normal transaction.
A few days later I hadn’t gotten any email saying they had shipped the merchandise so I was curious as to it’s status. I logged into the nashbar.com website and there was no record of my order.
This was on June 30th, so I promptly emailed the Nashbar customer service address asking what was the status of the order since there was no record of it under my account……… no answer…….
So on July 2nd I decided to email them once again as there was still no record of the order under my account when I logged onto the nashbar.com website. So I emailed the customer service address once more asking if my order had been recieved…….. and nothing…. no response…… for 5 days.
On July 7th second I got this email from Nashbar customer service.
“I do apologize. We had some problems and are unable to release your order. Please resubmit the order online or call us at 1-877-688-8600. We will honor the original prices. Again, I do apologize.”
So I think to most people this would mean that something happened and if you wish to purchase something from us you will need to go to the website and RESUBMIT you order.
So at this point it had been 2 weeks since my initial try at buying something from Nashbar and I couldn’t wait any longer so I bought the brakes and headset locally. I was moving forward and enjoying the summer when on August 3rd I get an email from Nashbar telling me they had just shipped my order. Remember this was 39 days from when an order was placed and 27 days after THEY told me if I wanted the goods I would have to resubmit my order.
So I immediately called Nashbar and spoke with someone there who said it was too late to retrieve the shipment , but I could send it back once it arrived. So more work for me… great. I then noticed they had immediately charged my credit card. I only wish they were so prompt on responding to customer emails.
So the package arrives here in Canada and there is duty owed on the product. I then call Nashbar customer Service and they tell me that, “They don’t live in Canada, so they don’t know how to handle the duty charges.” All I really wanted to know is if I put a receipt in for the duty would I be reimbursed for that charge. After all this was THEIR mistake.
Thankfully I didn’t resubmit the order on July 7th. I am sure I would have gotten two packages then.
You know one would think Nashbar would feel that having a customer have to email several times to find out the stats of an order and then tell them to resubmit their order and then make them pay duty for something they never resubmitted an order for, they would tell the customer to please submit the receipt your duty charges, along with a receipt for the shipping charges (They were gracious enough to offer to pay for shipping).
We all have busy lives and one of the reasons I enjoy ordering products online is so they get delivered to my door, in a hassle free manner….. not all online retailers get this….. Amazon understands this. Nashbar.com most certainly does not. I am the sort of customer retailers want. I am a person who talks to everyone and if I have a positive experience I tell everyone. So if the service is great I recommend them to everyone and if the experience is frustrating, costing me time and money, well then I share that experience with everyone as well.
So I am reading the latest newsletter from the Toronto Cyclist Union and under the events section there is something that really made me laugh. They are having a Suburban Critical Mass.
That, by itself, is a fine idea. What makes me laugh is the location where everyone meets. The meeting place is the corner of Yonge and Eglinton. Now I know I always make fun of folks who live North of Bloor St… but I don’t think of Yonge and Eglinton as suburban by any means.
Link to newsletter events.
So I have recently lost a significant amount of weight in a really short period of time and I have had alot of people ask me what I did. So I figured I would write it out so it would be easier for folks to understand. I lost 38.6 pounds in 52 days. This was due to the office weight loss pool I was involved in.
I didn’t starve myself (other than the last day) and in fact I never ate healthier in my life. About 8 years ago, when I was was a travelling consultant in Philadelphia, I was leading a very unhealthy lifestyle, planes, trains and non stop restaurants and I had put on alot of weight. The Atkins diet fad was starting and I went on it in an extreme way and lost about 30 pounds in 5 or 6 weeks. So I discovered my body would quickly lose weight when I deprived myself of carbs (Sorry everyone in the weight pool - I am truly the biggest loser). That being said I don’t think what I did was very healthy. I essentially ate nothing but skinless chicken, the odd pickle and eggs for that period. Not sustainable, yet it did work.
This time I wanted to eat healthier, yet continue to lose rapidly. I also had recently read Michael Pollan’s book “In Defense of Food” and the summary of his book, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants” was the basis of my diet. This means I cut out preprocessed foods as well… if my grandmother wouldn’t have been able to eat it when she was a kid…. it was out. I combined that with trying to eat as low carb as possible…. lots of leafy greens. And I didn’t worry about fat (very much).
So what would I eat….
So no-go foods off the top:
-Milk
-Breads
-Rice
-fruits (Other than red berries - I love strawberries) - I know everyone says fruits are good for you. And they are. But they are high in carbs and I find the whole good carbs / net carbs thing confusing and to lose quickly, just cut them out for a couple months. If you are concerned take some vitamins.
-Cereals
Well let’s start with breakfast. I am not a big eater in the morning anyways, so if I was hungry I would have a hard boiled egg or two. An easy way to do this quickly in the AM is to boil some water and when it’s boiling, shut off the gas and put the eggs in the water and cover the pot. Then go have your shower, get dressed etc. The eggs will be ready when you are done (Only takes like 15 mins). Peel them and eat. I’d have a black coffee with Splenda and be out the door.
During the morning I would then sip on water or green tea / camomile tea till lunch. For lunch I would normally have a salad that was mostly greens (spinach and arugula), with things like eggs, guacamole, olives, some sprinkled goat cheese, some sliced chicken, artichoke hearts, olive oil and some sea salt, etc - low carbs stuff. Fat, like in the guacamole is fine.
Then tea / water in the afternoon.
Supper is lots of things. I would often bbq chicken (legs, thighs,etc) sometimes skinless… sometimes not, pork, lots and lots of fish. Tilapia, salmon, shrimp, etc. I wouldn’t say I avoided red meat, but I cut it down to about once a week. A really expensive tenderloin. And I would often have a salad with it. Or I would cook up some bok choy or chard with lots of olive oil and garlic as a side. Once again… lots of greens with some protein is essentially the formula. Eat Food (Low carb), not too much, mostly plants, was my motto.
Then tea and water till the next AM. No snacking! Yes that’s right no snacks! Okay if u really want something have a kosher dill pickle.
So fruits… my favorite fruit is strawberries. And I love whipped cream. So strawberries have carbs…. but not an outrageous amount. So once a week (okay sometimes twice) I would buy a couple pounds of strawberries and get some whipping cream (Not the pre-made ones… those are full of carbs) and whip it up myself and add some splenda for sweetness. I would then have several bowls of strawberries and whipped cream. MMMMM I loves strawberries 
So the weight seems to be dropping off for a week or two and then bam…. it seems to stop. This would happen to me and I have no idea if my solution has any scientific basis… but it really works for me. What I would then do is go “hard core for a day or two” to get my system going again. What this means is I wouldn’t have my strawberries snack, I would basically just have skinless chicken (or fish) for lunch and supper for 1 or 2 days. Sometimes I would have my chicken broth / egg / green onion soup (Boil chicken broth and when boiling throw in a couple eggs and a chopped up green onion). I like it with tabasco! And my metabolism would be off to the races again. And I would start eating as described above.
Alcohol - cut it out (more or less). I would go out with the guys and order salads and Coors Light. Not very often maybe over the course of two months 2 or 3 times and have 4 or 5 beers while out. And of course there was the tequila incident one evening…. but it’s zero carbs and was only a few shots. I actually think the bigger issue is I crave carbs if I have too many drinks, so its easier to avoid the carbs, by avoiding the booze.
Exercise - I exercised as normal… well maybe I rode my bike a bit more as the weather is getting more pleasant. But I basically stayed with my normal 15 kms per day on the bike (commuting to work). I am sure if you are a work out nut you will drop weight even faster.
So that is mostly it. I am sure I have forgotten a few things, but more or less that is my rapid weight loss diet. Lots of greens, nothing processed, little red meat, lots of chicken and fish, lots of tea and water - avoid carbs and stay focused on the goal! Pretty simple and boring really.
P.S. Oh - Also if you are in a diet pool - my strategy was to lose as much weight as possible in the 1st 2 weeks. I called it shock and awe. I figured I could get a significant number of folks to just throw in the towel if they thought they could never catch me. I then was as cocky as possible and told everyone how much I was losing. I’d like to apologize to the person who shall remain nameless, who bore the brunt of this… okay it’s Graeme