Changing Focus: Part 2

So, in a month and a half of ignoring the scale and just trying to do the right thing we found

I gained a couple pounds.

that sucks. So, we're trying something new. I signed up for an online food diary(myfooddiary.com) that tracks everything you eat, records calories, and you can "earn" more calories to eat by exercising (put in the type of exercise you do and length and it calculates how many calories you burn). It's the accountability that my simple online spreadsheet has, along with a ton of nifty number crunching features (including body size/changes, exercise graphs- how many days you exercised in the past week/month), a chart for weight, pounds to go, etc).

I'm totally digging it and I hope it keeps me on track for the winter. I definitely need to drop some weight (duh) and, after talking with my trainer at the gym, nothing else will improve my performance better in the pool/on the bike/on the trail than losing weight.

I think one of the problems I've had is a focus on being a better cyclist/swimmer, which unfortunately leads to eating a lot of food (carbs and otherwise). Fancy biking and swimming workouts make me faster/stronger, but haven't had much, if any, affect on weight.

So the current plan is to track everything I eat (so far so good), eat less calories than I burn, and exercise 5 or more times per week. Exercise is going to primarily be weight training, with jogging/biking on occasion.