the new initiative!

New year, new resolutions, yes? Is March too late to have a new year's resolution?

This year is a repeat of the last - get leaner. Ultimate goal is single-digit body fat %. However, that's going to be a long road, so the first step is losing 18 pounds to get to an even 220 (I'm very tall).

I have two not so secret weapons in this fight, my food journal and traineo. For the first time I've started logging everything I eat. This works two ways - writing it down makes you only eat what you're willing to write down, and I'm educating myself about my calorie intake. I've always just winged it in the past, but now that I'm paying attention, it's been an eye opener seeing where all those hidden calories are coming from. If you've never tried a food journal, I strongly recommend it. I'm going to keep mine until I hit 220, hopefully in less than 6 months.

And of course traineo. If you haven't heard of it, go to traineo.com and give it a try. It lets you track your weight, calories burned, calories consumed, and 3 custom logs (I use waist measurement and body fat %) and graphs them for you automatically. The best thing about traineo however, are your motivators. You can select friends, family, workout buddies, etc. who get a weekly email summarizing your performance. Then they can congratulate you or bust your chops when you slack. Great way to motivate yourself, or form your own personal support group. Most of my motivators like it so much they've signed up too. After all, who doesn't need to lose a little weight?

Wish me luck. 5 lbs down, 13 to go!