Three years ago, after seeing several pictures of myself at a conference, I panicked! I stepped on a scale the next day and confirmed that, at 265 pounds, I weighed more than I ever had before. I decided to make a permanent change in my life, and set myself the goal of losing 100 pounds.
After many failed attempts I realized that what I needed was a simple plan that I could stick to. I needed to schedule my time better, track my meals and fitness activities, track my progress towards my weight-loss goals, and still have time for my business and family. My Pocket PC became one of the most crucial elements in helping to achieve these goals.
John Psuik: Top--at a computer show in 2002. Bottom--September, 2004 running in the Ironman Triathlon.
My Pocket PC gets a workout!
I decided to put my Pocket PC to work like I'd never done before. My first step was to faithfully schedule everything I did: every meal, workout, work-related activities, and even the time I spent with my family. There was nothing elaborate about the process. I started by simply creating simple entries using the most generic terms (Exercise, Work, Lunch, etc.). I wanted to get used to putting absolutely everything into Calendar, and was not too concerned about details (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: My first step was getting used to scheduling meals, workouts, and all of my personal and work-related activities.
When I was comfortable with this, I started adding more details about what I wanted to accomplish with the activity. For example, instead of simply entering Exercise I entered Exercise: Bike/45 min/600 cal; instead of Breakfast I entered Breakfast: Oatmeal, Coffee, Juice, 450 cal. Every day, every little detail went into my schedule. (Note: My company, Developer One, markets time and information management solutions for Windows Mobile devices. I manage my schedule with one of them, Agenda Fusion (http://www.developerone.com/agendafusion/), and most of the screen shots in this article are of that product. Similar results can be achieved with the Calendar application built into Windows Mobile devices.)
Over time it became an automatic process. Not only was I able to see where I was making mistakes in my diet, I was also at any time able refer to my schedule to see my results. It made for a great motivator on the days when I didn't think I was doing so well. As activities in my schedule are completed, I update them to indicate exactly what was accomplished. For example, if my goal was a five mile run, and I felt good enough to complete seven, I would amend my entry with the specific details. Example: Run: 5 miles (7 miles, 1:05). This makes Calendar serve also as a convenient journal. For those days that I had to miss or reschedule activities, I also noted these facts. Incidentally, using code words in your schedule (e.g., Exercise, Meal, Weight, etc.) helps organize things and makes it easier to review your progress in a certain area. For example, you can do a Find on Meal to check out last weeks meals (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Searches on code words makes it easy to review your progress in a certain area.
Small, achievable goals lead to success!
Printer-friendly version
