I mentioned in my introductory post that a big part of this project was going to be centered around my weight loss journey. As part of that post I said that back in 2016 I weighed in at 361.8 pounds and was able to achieve my weight loss goal of being under 190.0 last year when I weighed in at 189.4 pounds. That was a huge accomplishment for me, but it became quickly apparent that maintaining a weight loss like that would be more difficult than losing the weight in the first place. It became harder to restrict my diet and push myself to work out with the intensity I was as the weight was coming off and because of that I have certainly put some of that weight back on over the last year. I don’t know exactly how much weight because I have not been on the scale in quite a while, but as a part of this project I want to get back to 200 pounds and then figure out how to stay there. I am not ready to step back on the scale yet, though I will get there eventually. In the meantime I am going to monitor my actions by tracking my diet and my weight training routine using Google Sheets.
I chose Google Sheets because Excel intimidates me. Now that is just silly and I know that, but I didn’t grow up using Excel and I never had to use it for my job (until recently) so when I open it up and see all these buttons for formulas and pivot tables and the like, I get a little nervous. I have figured out how to navigate my way through Excel at this point, but I still get a little bit of anxiety when I have to use the program because I feel like I should be able to figure it out and I still haven’t.
I don’t feel that way about Google Sheets though, like the rest of the Google suite of programs I think Google Sheets is aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. I know it has the same functions as Excel, but it doesn’t give me any anxiety when I launch it so that is what I am using. It also doesn’t hurt that I am able to login to Google from pretty much any device and access the sheets that I have created. So what did I create in there?
I created a Dietary Tracker and a Weight Training Tracker. The weight training tracker is just a simple table that lists the exercise routines on the left hand side and then has a series of ten days to the right of that and repeats on down the sheet. It’s the same weight training tracker that I was using when I was losing the weight, except all my previous data is gone because I wiped it clean when I started this project over again. I need to stop doing that. I have added a new row on the weight training tracker though as Jillian and I purchased an MYX Fitness Bike last month as well as a subscription to Beach Body’s suite of classes. To ensure that we continue to utilize the bike, we have decided that when we reach 150 combined workouts we are going to Disneyland.
The dietary tracker is a little different then when I was in the weight loss phase. Back then I was strictly tracking calories and macros to the point where I was not being terribly healthy in my choices. I have decided this time around that I while I want to eat smart, I also need to make decisions that will not have a negative mental impact on me. For this reason I have ditched the calorie counting and the macro counting. Instead I believe that I have learned enough to know what I should and shouldn’t be eating so I have instituted a red, yellow, green system. A healthier meal that was planned in advance is a green meal, a yellow meal would be take out or a date night where it wasn’t the healthiest option but I was enjoying a meal with friends and family, a red meal is a binge meal or me going off the rails and buying myself something I shouldn’t be. In addition to this system I am also going to be doing intermittent fasting. This worked really well for me previously and I am not really a big breakfast person anyways. The intermittent fasting will help keep me on track earlier in the day so I can enjoy dinner with my family.
So that’s how I am using Google Sheets to track my sheet (sorry for the play on words, I just couldn’t resist once I thought about it) and if you want to check out Google Sheets you can visit:
DividuusOne 