Well now, isn’t this embarrassing. I only lost a measly half a pound in week one of my weight loss journey, and now I have to tell the world. So let’s see where it all went wrong. . .

First Mistake: my mindset. I figured if I only stopped eating crazy and making merry I would surely lose a pound or two. I ate so horribly for the last month and a half that I thought “better” would make a dent in my excess poundage. Wrong.

Second Mistake:  one carefree night. I figured one night of indulgence out with my boys wouldn’t do that much damage. After all, I ordered water to drink. Wrong.

Third Mistake: not counting. I have discovered the best way for me to loss weight is simple math — calories in and calories out. Of course in order for this to work, I need to know how many calories I eat. I have successfully used Calorie Count dot com for this purpose in the past and really like the online program. I have many of my favorite foods plugged in already and can easily track my progress through the days, months and years. The catch to this whole thing is that you gotta use it. I didn’t. I just guestimated and kept a semi-running total in my head instead of plugging it in. Wrong.

Fourth Mistake: excercise,  or the lack of it. I made my way to the gym only once last week. Okay, so my son was sick and it was quilting weekend, and the Chiefs were in the playoffs, and I had to buy groceries. . . The list can go on and on, but the fact remains — I didn’t make time to excercise. I’ve found that with a family to raise, mouths to feed and every other interesting thing I have going, I have to make a deliberate effort to schedule time to workout. Never mind that we own a treadmill, free weights and Wii Fit, or that we live in a neighborhood with nice sidewalks and a beautiful trail in our backyard. So with 168 hours of life to work with last week, I used just under one to reach my fitness goals. Sadly, wrong.

Okay, I believe in learning from my mistakes and so I’m hoping planning for a better week two. I plan to change my mindset and be active in my weight loss goals, I promise not to “reward” myself with a little indulgence if I haven’t actually achieved anything, I will actively use the tools at my disposal; and lastly, I will work up a sweat.

Of course I’m curious. What weight loss and fitness tools do you use to help meet your goals? I would love to read your comments and suggestions below.