Greetings all,

I have a theory that I believe is quite unique that can be backed up by what I know to be irrefutable evidence.

You see I’ve been studying fish now for over 40 years and there is one commonality that I have witnessed during that time that cannot be disputed. Rest assured, there can be no counter arguments or counter claims. I have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that will take the sting and mystery out of so-called killer shark “attacks”.

Sit back and relax, take a deep breath as this astounding observation and revelation may shock you…

Guess what? After years of intense study, it is my belief and understanding that neither fish or sharks were blessed with an opposable thumb and forefinger. In fact, they don’t have hands (or arms) at all – amazing!

Unless they’re sold in supermarkets, fish fingers just don’t exist.

What the?


So that being the case the real question to ask yourself is (drum role please) “how do they pick things up?”

Ahhhh…with their mouths of course!

Fish use their mouths to test just about anything that takes their fancy and a popular misconception is that everything they pick up they intend to eat.

That is so wrong!

In fact nine times out of ten a fish will pick something up with its mouth and then unceremoniously spit it straight out. This is similar to how human beings pick up things with their hands and then discard them. Interestingly a newborn child will also display this trait. Ask any new mother and they will tell you that everything has a tendency to be picked up and tested in a new born’s mouth.

There are two morals to this story.

Firstly for fishermen it is important to consider the attractiveness and even downright curious nature of what we present to the fish to encourage it to sample the bait or lure in its mouth.

The other moral is that the shark has been blamed for “attacking” people and for being a real “man eater” whilst the truth is that they are not swimming around the ocean looking for people to eat. Think for a moment – how many people have actually been eaten whole by a shark? You would be hard pressed to think of a single incident and with the numbers of sharks killed and ripped open if it was the case there would be whole human carcasses flopping out of their entrails on docks across the world. It’s simply not the case.

Ask yourself how many people have been “attacked” and spat out and it’s quite obvious that the vast majority have.

And I believe it’s all because of the simple fact that poor old sharks don’t have hands…

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

Well I suppose that you’ve already heard the news about a croc attack in Weipa – the detail of which was both dramatic and horrific.

In summary around 4pm 28 year old Todd Barstow was casting lures from the banks of the Trunding Creek and was set upon by a reported 4 meter crocodile. The creature tore off one of his fingers and came back for seconds after Barstow slipped and fell. The beast tried to pull him back into the creek by the legs and Barstow fought for his life grabbing hold of a mangrove branch. After a 15 minute struggle he was rescued by a mate who heard his screams for help from the veranda of a nearby hotel. His friend hit the croc over the head with a tree branch causing the beast to let go and swim off.

Although not sustaining life threatening injuries Barstow was left with severe lacerations, dislocations and broken bones and was airlifted to Cairns Base Hospital for continued treatment. Croc bites are tricky to treat and are prone to infection.

Ok so what precautions must you take to avoid ending up as croc bait?

In my eBook “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa” I outline some simple steps to minimise the risk of croc attacks. You may think that common sense plays a large part (and it does) but I’ve seen a lot of complacency in croc infested areas in general.

Anyway the first step is to acknowledge that there are likely to be crocs in the vicinity and as such it pays to keep an eye out for them. If you do see a crocodile don’t do anything silly like try to feed or harass them. If you need to set up camp, keep it a good distance (at least 50m) from the high tide mark and don’t clean your fish or cook near the edge of the creek. Don’t throw your scraps or clean your equipment in the water either. If you must fish from the water’s edge stand a few meters back – I know this is hard to do when you’re catching fish and you’re keen to cast those lures but you only get one chance against a 4 meter plus crocodile. I recommend a no-swimming policy (even in shallow fast moving streams and even if there is a group of you). The final point is don’t take risks and keep your arms and legs safely in the confines of your fishing vessel. Dangling feet and arms are a tempting croc lure!

Interestingly in 2004, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) trapped nine crocodiles between 3 and 4.4m in length in the Weipa area and planted satellite-tracking devices before releasing them into the wild. Five of these crocs were captured close to the Weipa town – one in the Embley, two from the Hey and one each from Andoom and Wooldrum Creek. The “Crocs in Space” experiment provided valuable information about the movement of crocodiles in areas where they were likely to encounter “negative interactions” with local residents and fisherman.

You can learn more about fishing Weipa in Skipper Meggs “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa”

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

You know it’s just like finishing High School, your Degree or any other stage of life – getting to the 30 day mark of the 4 Hour Body diet for me was a bit of an anti-climax. Did I sacrifice a lot during those 30 days? Well I certainly didn’t do any major exercises but I did give up a few comfort foods like chips, bread and large flat whites. Then again I didn’t find that it was such a big deal to do that – especially with planned binge days.

Along the way I learnt that I love cream in my coffee and I’ve developed a taste for red wine of an evening. I won’t miss eating lentils and I don’t think I will go back to my old ways and I now look at food like bread, butter and fruit differently.

So the question you may have for me right now is probably along the lines of “Was I able to lose 20 pounds in 30 days?”

Well I started at 203 pounds so was I able to make the magical 183 pound mark on the 30th day?

Before I get to the weight result I’d like to share with you some impressive measurement statistics.

I started out on the 1st January 2011 with total hip, waste, thigh and arm measurements totaling 397cm or just over 156 inches. In 30 days I was down to 371cm or 146 inches – a loss of 26cm or 10 inches of fat. Most notably my waste measurement went from 112cm down to 103cm and I can see that in the not too distant future I can get under the 100cm mark for the first time in years!

Did I follow the diet strictly to the letter? Pretty much – however I did use different days for the dieters gone wild days and I did sneak less than a half teaspoon of raw sugar in my coffee on the odd occasion along with (shock, horror!) a bit of milk (not often though). Other than that I was pretty fanatical about doing everything exactly by the book.

So how did I go with my weight?

I went from 203 pounds down to 186 pounds – a loss of 17 pounds (7.7kgs). That’s not bad and for mine it’s near enough to the magical 20 pound target. In fact the very next day I was down 19 pounds and I suspect if I keep things up I will be under my goal weight of 182 pounds very soon.

Of course this now means I have to wear a belt with my shorts or face the embarrassing situation of losing them around my ankles.

So there you have it – a living breathing real life experiment using Timothy Ferris’s 4 Hour Body Diet to achieve some very impressive results. I’m happy to take any questions or comments that you may have and I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of updates.

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

What a night! The Doors Experience making you believe that Jim Morrison was alive and kicking and Rattle & Hum performing U2 songs as if Bono was in the house. Along with 17 good friends we sang, danced and drank the night away. I even bought the lead singer a beer after the gig.

Anyway, during the day I ate some bacon and eggs for breakfast (with toast), a hamburger with the lot and chips for lunch and beer and pizza for dinner. What a diet!

So what was the wash up from the night out and a day of excess eating?

I was down to 188 pounds before the day and woke up the next morning at 190 pounds. This was still 13 pounds lighter than my start weight of 203 pounds. All in all, the day had only cost me 0.8kgs – nice!

Ok, so I’m almost finished my 30 day trial – but will I be able to lose that 20 pounds Timothy Ferris claimed that I could within the first 30 days????

Stay tuned for the final blog and don’t forget I’m happy to take any questions or comments.

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

Well where did those first few weeks of 2011 go? I will be revealing the results of my Week 3 4 Hour Body Diet Trial at the end of this post.

In regard to how I feel at the moment after being on the Slow Carb diet now for three whole weeks here are some quick thoughts….

* The breakfast meal is the toughest for me to stomach – it’s really much heavier than I am use to
* I’ve started to be a bit slack and I have not been consistently putting on the ice packs at night
* I really don’t like lentils but I am starting to just eat them straight from the can
* I’ve added a bit of bacon to the breakfast meal (after stripping as much fat off it as possible)
* I’ve been out to dinner a few times and don’t really see much of an issue – I generally order steak and salad
* There may be an issue constantly having different meals to that of my wife and family

One of the other things is that I started to stagnate in terms of weight loss. I re-read the 4 Hour Body to see if there were any tips and Timothy Ferris recommends that breakfast should be eaten within half hour of getting out of bed. That’s a tough one for me to get done – I generally have to drop my wife at the train station of a morning and by the time I get back half hour is up. Yes I know, I need to get out of bed half hour earlier – but for me that’s easier said than done!

So how did I go overall in week 3?

Well here’s the good news….I was down to 86.2 kgs (190 pounds or 13 stone 8 pounds) which was roughly 4 pounds or a couple of kilograms lighter than my last weigh in during week 2. So far I have lost 13 pounds or close to 6 kgs in three weeks. That’s not bad hey?

Since the last weigh in I have lost 3.5cm around my waste, 1cm off my hips, left arm, right arm and 0.5cm off my right thigh for a total shrinkage of 7cm over the week (2.8 inches).

Overall I have lost 7.3inches or 18.5cm off my starting total.

Well it’s almost over but my next report will provide an update on my Gone Wild Day and the associated impact on my total weight. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

For those of you just joining this blog I’d like to repeat the fact that my second “Gone Wild Day” on the 4 Hour Body Diet was not held exactly one week after my first which was on a Sunday. Due to personal reasons (my birthday!) I chose to have my “Gone Wild Day” on the following Friday. I’m not sure what impact that will have on my overall results in the long run but for the record here’s what I did on that day…

For a late breakfast I had an egg and bacon roll and chips washed down with coke cola – how decadent is that! I was then taken out for lunch and had 2 and half slices of garlic bread and a seafood platter – grilled fish, scallops, prawns, pippies and calamari – with a lemon squash.

At that stage I was feeling like I had eaten a full day’s worth of food and I hadn’t even had dinner yet. I mowed my lawns which took about 50 minutes (I suppose that was exercise) and then a mate came over and we had three beers to celebrate.

I was taken out to dinner and settled on a steak with mushroom sauce, chips and salad and a serving of garlic bread. Due to the generosity of my friends and family I think I probably had another five or six beers and instead of birthday cake (not my favourite) I had a slice of fruit flan.

As you can see, this was a much bigger day (eating wise) when compared to my first Gone Wild Day and you’re probably interested in what impact that had on my overall weight the following day.

Well I went into this day at 88kgs (194 pounds) and I ended up the next day 3 pounds heavier at 89.4kg. Still not bad and well within Timothy Ferris’s range for the day. This was still 6 pounds (2.7kg) less than my start weight 14 days ago.

My next report will provide an update on my thoughts and results in Week 3. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

Ok, I might have mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I was going to include a slight variation to my second Gone Wild Day on account of my birthday. As a result, this report on my progress with week two of the 4 hour body diet will cover the five days following my first Gone Wild Day.

I’m getting use to eating lentils but I’m starting to replace mixed vegetables with spinach on a regular basis. For me it makes the meals (particularly breakfast) more lighter than scoffing down cauliflower and broccoli at 7:20am every day.

I’m actually loving the cold showers of a morning. It is summer time in Sydney so that probably makes a difference but I don’t cringe at all when I turn the hot water off and I do last for two to three minutes and could probably go longer with little difficulty.

This week I did do a couple of 40 minute walks of a morning but nothing too strenuous.

For the record I lost 1cm off my waste and left thigh, 0.5cm off my hips and left arm, I gained 1cm on my right arm (is it the spinach, showers and cold packs?) and I lost a whopping 2.5cm off my right thigh. This puts me down another 4.5cm from my total measurements in week 1 and 11.5cm from my starting total of 397cm. For those of you that are calculating things in inches I basically lost another 2 inches since last week and 4.5 inches from the start.

As far as the scales were concerned I weighed in at a respectable 13 stone 12, 194 pounds or 88kgs only dropping a pound or half a kilo since the last weigh in five days ago but down nine pounds (or 4kgs) on my start weight of 203 pounds.

My next report will provide an update on Week 2 Gone Wild Day. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

“Hey Ed,
I drank 12 beers yesterday, started off with an egg and bacon roll and hot chips, ate copious amounts of pistachio nuts and went to a BBQ at my brothers place last night and did absolutely no exercise. Oh yeah, I’ve lost 8 pounds since January 1st.”

What I left out in the note above to my skeptical mate was the fact that I also managed a couple glasses of coke cola and a caramel curly-wurly!

Now, before I move on – about the beer… yes I agree 12 is excessive and I very rarely have that many but I would like to point out that they were VERY spread out throughout the day and not drunk all at once.

More importantly this is how I felt throughout the day…

I felt relieved that I didn’t have to have the diet’s breakfast – it’s very heavy for me. I felt very guilty about eating the bacon and egg roll and chips and even considered not eating it. I tend to prefer water to soft drinks but had some coke cola because I thought I’d make the most of the day off. My BBQ dinner wasn’t all that huge and I skipped lunch in preference to having a few beers and some nuts with a mate.

Ok, so what was the damage the next day?

Drum roll… I put on one extra pound and ended up at 14 stone neat. That’s it – one pound. I’m beginning to like this diet but we’ll see if the testimony that “eating pure crap can help you lose fat” is accurate over the coming weeks.

My next report will provide an update on Week 2. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

OK, I was pretty excited about my results for the first week of the 4 Hour Body Diet trial.

Just before I share the results with you, I’d like to mention that I neglected to have a day off the diet after the first five days. Why? Well I was invited to a BBQ at my brothers place on Sunday and I knew that would be a big night so I saved my day off for that day. I’m not sure what the protocol is for days off but it’s my experiment and I’ll make a few changes here and there to suit my lifestyle. For example I just happen to have a night out planned next Friday so that will be my day off in the second week.

Right… drum roll please….after a week’s dieting I have lost 8 pounds or 3.6kgs! I’m down from 203 pounds to 195 pounds and its the first time I’ve been under 14 stone for 12 months. Wow, I’m loving that.

What’s more is that there has been a change in my overall measurements but not what I expected. I’m now a bit suspicious that I may not have measured myself properly in the first place but all I can do is share the stats. I am confident that my waste measurement is correct and that is the one that I would like to see reduced significantly (I’d like to shoot for 100cm).

Waste: 108.5cm (down from 112cm)
Hips: 104.5cm (down from 111cm – can this be true????)
Left Arm: 34cm (up from 33cm – ??)
Right Arm: 33.5cm (up from 33cm – ??)
Left Thigh: 53.5 (up from 53cm – ??)
Right Thigh: 56 (up from 55cm -??)
Total cm: 390cm (down from 397cm) (a loss of about 2.8 inches)

As I say, I’m happy with the waste measurement and it’s accurate. I’m surprised about my apparent disappearing hips and the increase in arm and thigh measurements. I must confess that I’ve done very little exercise to achieve these results and all I can put my weight loss down to is the actual dieting itself (and cold showers and cold packs!).

It’s starting to look like 13 stone is a reasonable goal for me to shoot for.

My next update will be about my day off the diet and the impact it had on my weight.

Until next time…

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs

Greetings all,

Well it’s been a very interesting week! As you know, I’ve been road testing Timothy Ferriss’s 4-hour body diet and I’m probably one of the first Australian’s to give it a go having bought his book off Amazon.com as soon as it was released.

Before I post my results, I thought you’d be interested in my thoughts and feelings about being on the diet for a week – so here we go…

I work from home so cooking lunches for me isn’t an issue. Even if I did have a real job I don’t think it would’ve been too difficult to throw together a combination of chicken, lentils and asparagus spears to eat at work.

I did have a few headaches earlier on in the week but nothing too dramatic.

What did I think of the food? Well, I must admit I tend not to look forward to breakfast because it seems like I have to eat a lot. I generally have two eggs, cauliflower, broccoli and lentils washed down with at least half a litre of water. I don’t mind lunch as I grill some fish and for dinner I mostly have chicken. On the whole the meals are pretty good and, in my case at least, seem to be more than I would eat normally.

On the subject of drinking…. I don’t mind water at all and I use to drink a lot of it anyway so this part of the diet suits me. When it comes to drinking alcohol those of you that know me well know that I like going to the Workers Club at least once a week to have a beer and a bet with my mates. This generally means lots of beers (and bets!) and a late night walk home. This week I had two red wines (and ice water) instead. I’m saving my cheat day for drinks with my brother tonight. I’ve learnt to get by on up to two red wines per day and I don’t mind it. I never use to drink every day anyway so the beer sacrifice is not a big deal.

On the subject of lentils…. I didn’t even know what they were before and when I first tasted them I wasn’t sure if I could keep going with them. I’ve learnt to tolerate them and now I even eat them straight out of the can. It’s amazing what constant eating will do to your taste buds. I replace the lentils with beans when I’ve had enough. The same can be said of vegetables and I reach for the spinach when it seems I can’t stand to look at another piece of cauliflower.

What about fast food? Well my wife wanted chicken during the week and I joined her eating Red Rooster, peas and lentils. It did the trick. We also had a night out at a pub and had dinner there and I had steak and salad (no chips, no mushroom sauce). That worked. No big deal.

What do I miss the most? Probably the odd flat white coffee with half a sugar, bacon and egg rolls and any sort of sandwich. I’ve sneaked a couple of teas or coffee with a dash of milk and a pinch of brown sugar. I tried cinnamon and it didn’t do it for me. Oh yeah, I also miss the odd coke cola or soft drink.

You do need some support from your family to attempt this diet because they generally don’t eat what you do. For me there is a fair bit of cleaning up to do and you need to get use to your kitchen smelling a bit different depending on what you cook. I know Timothy is a fan of cooking things in a microwave and this would cut down on cleaning. I don’t like food that is nuked so I tend to cook mine.

Oh, those cold showers and cold packs? They are intended to boost fat loss and increase muscle. Don’t ask me how – read the book. What I do is have a hot shower for a couple of minutes and then turn the hot water off and let the cold water run down the back of my neck, shoulders and upper back area while I count to 120. Thankfully it’s summer here and I’m really getting use to the cold showers (I even looking forward to them). I then drink half a litre of ice water and at nights (well I’ve missed three nights in the first week) I put on a cold pack on my neck and upper back area for 30 minutes.

Exercise? Well I almost forgot to mention this and that’s because it’s not necessarily part of this diet. Yes, I had a 40 minute walk one day, I did the lawns for an hour and I’m a Rotarian so I spent half an hour packing a van for a sausage sizzle. Most of that exercise was unplanned and the diet doesn’t rely on you making massive commitments to work out at the gym (in fact it’s quite against the gym workout mentality).

The results? Well you’ll have to read my next blog for those but I can tell you the cold showers and ice packs make me feel good so that’s a start!

Anyway, they’re my thoughts for the first week. Today is my pig out day and I’ll be very interested to see what impact that has on the process.

Until the next update…

Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs