Keep your eye on the prize

Weight. It's something I've always struggled with for most of my life. Every now and again, I get fire under my butt to do something about, mostly I'm not that successful. My greatest weightloss triumphs have usually been due to illness - which is no success.

One week ago I decided to give it a long term shot - all because I got a smartphone.

Yes, you read that right. My smartphone is my dieting tool this time. There are tonnes of apps you can get for smartphones and that means there are apps that help with dieting. I wanted to keep things simple, if it gets to be too difficult, too inconvenient, I'll just say 'to hell with it'. That has been part of my issue with previous attempts.

So moving forward with the KISS mindset, I downloaded a basic calorie counter app. I set myself at a caloric limit that would allow me to lose a reasonable 2 lbs a week with my current lifestyle. Not that I don't want to exercise (or don't enjoy it), but with NaNoWriMo, I knew my exercise would be close to nil. 1500 calories was my daily limit, but I wasn't going to freak out if I was a little over on occasion.

Next came more research, looking for other advice and tips that may allow me to be more likely to succeed this time around. Some tips I ignored, others I considered and some I am actually trying. One of these tips was not to be so strict on my days off. I find it harder to eat healthy when I'm not at work, so I allow myself around 1700 calories, but the firm cap is 2000.

Some of the advice goes against what most experts tell you - such as weighing myself everyday. Yes, I'm well aware that my weight can fluctuate for a variety of reason that have nothing to do with losing weight.

The thing I've found is that even when the scale goes down by .1 lbs, it gives me encouragment, and when it goes up? Well that just reminds me that I need to stay on track that much more. Plus, I love the fact that my app graphs my weight. For me, visual display keeps me interested.

Of course I'm going to keep trying different ideas and suggestions to see what will work best for me over the next month or so. Eventually, I'm going to have a plan that actually works for me - not the diet other people say is the best for me.

So, at the end of one week of my current diet? I'm sitting at a total loss of 6 lbs. I'd say that is pretty encouraging. Can't wait till I can start adding some exercise into the mix.