In early January, I shared my 2011 lifestyle plan. It’s time to update you, even though the news is not so great at the moment. Just like in business, sometimes life plans don’t always come off according to the plan. As a quick refresher: I lost five pounds in December and managed to lose another three in January. Then, the wheels fell off the bus…
How I got off track.
The story (and thus really just an excuse) is that I went on the road, ate too much, exercised too little and, over the course of about three weeks, gave up almost all my forward progress. Ever had a bad sales month? Yes, it feels about like that emotionally. And after a bad sales month what do you do? Right, get back on the horse and ride, baby, ride!
How I’m getting back on track.
1. Telling you. Accountability is a great thing. I’m going to start updating the progress here once a month.
2. I said enough is enough. Sugar – you’re history for a couple weeks. Those two (okay, maybe three) handfuls of Reese’s Pieces I munched down while watching TV last night is the last of the sugar for a couple weeks while break the sweet tooth.
3. A food journal. One of my friends on Twitter mentioned hers just this morning. As a process control freak in my business life, it seems kind of amazing to me I don’t measure my food intake. I’ll let you know next month if I take this step.
4. Most important: Back to the basics of the 2011 lifestyle plan. It worked for two months so I’m getting back on the horse and I’m going to tell you in a month that I’ve lost about five pounds.
Weight this morning – 198.
Jim,
Knowing you’re into all things tech, take your point #3 one step further with Lose It (http://loseit.com/). It’s a web-based journal with a convenient iPhone App that lets you set your goal weight and establishes a daily calorie max. You then enter anything that goes into your mouth as well as any exercise to stay within the guidelines. It has nutritional info on all sorts of foods so you don’t have to try to figure that out. Then enter your weight every so often. As long as you stick to the guidelines, you’ll watch your weight drop on a nifty chart.
Craig,
I’ll take a look but I’m an Android guy so will need an app that works on that platform. I think the one I have (CardioTrainer) will allow me to track more than I do. Just need to do the research.
Jim
Jim,
Something you could consider as part of the accountability portion of your plan is a scale (or just do it manually) that can make your weight chart visible. Check out withings.com for a sample…who knows, it just might tickle your techie bone too. I have and use the scale, and love it. Dont ask me to share my web graph link yet…some day.
Steve
Steve,
In general I’m realizing I will need to track/journal more related to food and exercise at least for a while to make the lifestyle changes I really need to make into habits. Thanks for the scale idea.
Jim