I’d like to thank Jen McCown (of MidnightDBA fame) for starting the new hashtag #GetHawt (Get Hawt Friday) on twitter. You can check out the official startup post on her personal blog here. The idea was to come together and hold a weekly blog party focusing on our fitness and weight loss goals.  Sounds familiar, right?  Yeah, without realizing it, I had let me blogging here slip.

Even worse, after stepping on the scales for the first time in more than a few weeks I realized I had slipped in my weight loss too!  I’d put 15 pounds back on my body.  I refuse to let it take a doctor noting in my records that I’m morbidly obese before doing something about the extra weight.

I’m getting back on the wagon!

Jen suggested the topic of “be accountable.”  I like it.  I wanted to share the technology I‘ve used in the past to be accountable.  I’m using Lose It again to track the food I eat and the exercise I do every day to be healthy.

The reason I started using Lose It was they had an iPhone app.  With that app I had no reason I couldn’t record what I was eating, and as a result being faced with the decisions I was making during the day.  When I would cheat, I had to enter it.  Then, I’d see how that affected how much fat I’d eaten during the day, or how much sugar I’d eaten that day.

By entering my exercise I could easily see the days I had done something, anything, to burn calories, and more importantly, those days I had made something else a higher priority than my health.

But there were positives too, I could see my weight loss on a curve.  Every day I could see on that line where I was, even when I couldn’t see the results in the mirror.

And since I‘ve been slack on using the app, I’ve found that they’ve opened it up to the web.  So as long as you have a web browser with you, you could join in on the action (android users).  You can keep track from your desk. 

They’ve even integrated some social ideas into the system.  You can now join with your friends to see their progress.  You can help cheer them on when they make it to a milestone.  You can help them stay honest on their diet (if they share the details with you).  Once you set up who your friends are online, you can work with them to stay on track. 

I’m inviting every one of you to join.  It’s free!

I can be there to cheer you on…so long as you’re there to cheer me on when I need it!

And now for my S.M.A.R.T goals.

I’m going to make it a priority to go to the gym two days per week.  I’m going to put in 20 minutes of Cardio, and I’ll finish with some weights.  I would like to maintain the muscle gains I made the last time I was going.

My primary goal is fat loss, I have been able to get to 20.7% body fat.  My long term goal is 15%.  Over the next month I’m going to drop 8 lbs, with an additional 8 the following month, that should put me back to where I was when I stopped being so strict on myself.

I plan to hold myself accountable through Lose It!  I’ll share my data with anyone who reads this blog and joins me on the journey.  That’s accountability!

Hrm, 2 months to take off 8 months of being slack.  Maybe that wasn’t so horrible after all!

So…what are your goals?  How are you going to hold yourself accountable?

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