272.6

The all-important Week #1 Weigh-in is here. And it is sweet! I'm down about 5 pounds after a fairly ambitious week. I've been here a couple dozen times before and the first week is always encouraging: full of ambition and dedication, shedding all that initial 'fluff', staying on-plan religiously. The hard part will be maintaining that dedication in the days, weeks, months to come.

I did something different this time.

Rather than quietly going about my way with my mission, I've made my goals public and I've done so via Facebook. It started with a brief status update ("...is learning to love jogging....slowly) which got a few positive nods from my friends & family. Then it struck me. Those little nods of encouragement really sparked me to keep at it. I decided to get accountable. REALLY accountable. I've created a note on my page which can be updated regularly. It simply states my goal (in 'smart' goal format, of course!) and allows me to track my exercise.

I've never made my goals public before. It's somewhat freeing, to be honest. Sometimes I forget that support goes two ways and I can rely on my friends and family as much as they rely on me. :)

So, in the spirit of small wins, here are few 'wins' I experienced this week:

• went whole week without drinking pop and actually got at least 65oz of water in every day
• ate on plan and managed to resist temptation
• joined sparkpeople.com and tracked my calories and exercise
• used the treadmill 3 times and did a huge hike with a stair climb

Week 2, here I come.....!