Accountability & goals

So yesterday I made a deal with a new friend at Burn the Fat Inner Circle (which has rapidly become a central community for me) to become accountability partners (hey Eva!) — & already this is providing benefits. Yesterday she was willing to share an excellent meal tracking spreadsheet she’d designed in Excel, which saves me a lot of work in designing my own from scratch. I already had decided I needed to get a better sense of how I’m actually doing at the moment with caloric intake & macronutrient ratios — this helps a lot. Then today, she wrote & suggested writing out my goals for the week just a little more specifically & more quantifiably than before.

So here it is.

As I wrote earlier, I’m dating my startup as Feb. 18, 2008 (a Monday). That makes today the third day of Week 6.

Progress so far

• Since Feb. 18, I’ve lost about 10 lbs. (though of course it’s an inaccurate scale).
• Since Mar. 17 I’ve lost 2 inches around my waist & 1 inch around my hips; belt is one notch tighter.

Goals for Week 6

(I’m sometimes using abbreviations for days of the week. R is Thursday, because T is already taken up by Tuesday; Sa is Saturday & Su is Sunday.)

Fitness

• Turbulence Training: Three full TT workouts (combined strength/circuit training with HIIT cardio on rower) (TRSa).
• Core: Three TT core workouts on alternate days (WFSu).
• Cardio: A minimum of 5000m rowed on at least 6 days. Of these, at least one 10,000m row (training for late April half-marathon challenge).
• Flexibility: Stretch after warmup on all rowing days.
• Incidental exercise (walking, dancing, etc.). Get out in the sun, now that it’s getting warmer!

Nutrition

• Continue on current eating program.

Evaluation

• Record all meals using meal tracking Excel spreadsheet in order to evaluate my current caloric intake & macronutrient ratios, with a summary of results by Sunday evening (March 30). Summary will include a rundown of estimated TDEE & other info from the various calculators at BF Inner Circle.
• “Official” weigh-in & measurements Sunday morning.
• Take another set of “progress” pics.
• Based on all of the above, establish goals for Week 7.

Motivation & accountability

• Continue tracking progress at Concept 2 online log, workplace “health activities” tracker, etc.
• Continue making use of online forums & discussion lists.
• Keep up the blog.
• Keep up with my accountability partner!

Other

• Purchase or order a more accurate scale, already.
• Complete reread of BFFM & Precision Nutrition.