Since I didn’t quite reach my goal of releasing a pound a week over the past six weeks I’ve increased the number of calories I’m burning off each week from 2,100 to 3,000; that’s about 425 calories per workout.

To track my progress I created an excel spreadsheet to log my workouts showing the distance, calories, and amount of time worked out for each day.

For example:

Bike 15.1 miles; 316 calories; 47 minutes
Elliptical – 2.2 miles; 156 calories; 2.2 miles
Total calories 472

After week one I burned 1,985 calories from the stationary bike and 729 calories from the elliptical machine, for a grand total of 2,714 calories.

As a part of my warmup/cooldown I walk laps before and after the machines usually totally around a mile per day. This week I logged 6.5 miles. I also do a 10 minute abdominal workout 5 days a week and yoga 2-3 times per week. I don’t include the calories burned for these activities – it’s sort of the icing on the cake.

I’ve still maintained taking out 300 calories per day, 2,100 calories per week, of my dietary intake. So between the calories burned and reduced caloric intake I’ve dropped 1.2 pounds this week. Whooo hooo! I finally reached my goal of a pound per week – at least for this week.

It would be awesome if the weight management really followed our plan. Some days/weeks are going to be good and right on track while others will not. The key is to do something that will help you work through the rough spots and keep you motivated.

Setting up a log of my workouts was just what I needed to track and see my progress.

What are you doing to stay on track with your goals this year?

In November I went shopping for a new pair of pants. The ones in my closet felt a bit tight. I knew I had gained a few pounds. While trying on clothes I had to go up two sizes from what I have bought in the past. What?! You’ve got to be kidding me! This is ridiculous! When did this happen? They must be making clothes smaller these days, or so I justified.

But no, the scale confirmed that I had gained 15 pounds over the past four years. My weight was teetering between my two pregnancy weights. Oh, this can’t be good – I’m NOT pregnant!

It’s just absurd that this could happen to me! I was an athletic instructor for 13 years. At the peak of my career my body fat was 10.2% which is extremely low, even for men. I was a lean exercise machine. I know how to maintain my body weight.

Although we have an elliptical machine and weights at home which I was using three to four times a week, it obviously wasn’t working for me. In November there was a little internal dialogue, okay a thrashing to make a change. And change I did. I joined the local recreational center to shake up my work-out a bit, with the added benefit of changing my body.

My New Year’s goal to turn my six rolls into a six pack by releasing 15 pounds of body fat through exercise and eating better began in November. So I got a jump start on many of you who are just beginning your new weight management goals. But whether you begin today, a week from now, or a month from now, whatever you consciously and consistently work towards will be successful.

So in November I began a new workout routine. My goal is to release 1 pound a week. Doesn’t seem like much, right? But actually a pound of fat is 3500 calories. To achieve this I had to adjust my calories by 700 per day – either burning off more or taking in less.

I chose a combination of reducing the calories I ate and burning more off per day. To begin with I reduced my caloric intake by 250-300 per day and worked out 5 times per week at 250-300 calories per workout, for a change of 275×7= 1925 for food and 5×275 = 1375 for my workout, totalling 3300, just under the 3500 calories per week.

As my body was getting used to this new routine I gained 3 pounds. Yes, I know muscle weighs more that fat. But really, shouldn’t I be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time?

For my mental sanity I decided to stay away from the scale for a while as my body was adjusting to the new routine. Five weeks into the new routine I began to notice my pants fit a bit better. So I stepped on the scale and it registered 6 pounds lighter than when I began.

Whoooo hooo! What a relief! For the last four years I have only seen the scale move in one direction. Now it was finally moving in the right direction! It really was working! Even during the holidays I was getting the results I wanted.

This week, begins my 8th week. During the Christmas break I gained two pounds back so my net effect is 4 pounds released. Although I haven’t reached my 1 pound per week goal yet, I’m so grateful for the four pounds that have left in 2010.

I’ve modified my original goal and have plans to shift my work-outs to permanently move the last 11 pounds out.

Every goal we set requires that we takes small steps to achieve it. For some reason, body fat seems to go on much easier than it takes to get it off. My original goals have changed since I began 8 weeks ago. Each couple of weeks I’ll adjust and shift work outs so my body is “surprised” by what it’s going through.

So whatever your weight management goals are for the year be patient with yourself. You can achieve it, but it takes time. It takes about three weeks for your body to adjust to the change. And in the 13 years I was an athletic instructor, week three is where most New Year’s resolutions were given up. People were frustrated because in that time frame they weren’t seeing results.

Making changes is about the transformation and journey instead of the destination.

2011 is the year of manifesting. How can I help you reach your goals this year? Join us for our monthly New Moon Manifesting conference call on Tuesday January 4, 2011 at 6pm PST (9pm EST). Click here to register.

Exposing my goal in this way makes me feel vulnerable. Will anything change? Will I actually reach it this time? What if I fail? I’ve worked on this for over a year and the results are the same. It would be safer to set the goal, work towards it and then tell my success story after I’ve reached it. But I’ve learned the journey is the most important part of any transformation. So why do I feel this time things will be different? I’m not sure. Perhaps hope? We’ve all been told that accountability is an important part of reaching any goal. Perhaps putting my goal out there in a big way will help me reach it.

Even with my best intentions the process got off to a rocky start. I woke up with a sore throat on Sunday. My workouts for the past three days didn’t happen. Although I’m a bit frustrated, in the past I would have believed that forces were working against me reaching my goal. I could have thought, “Great, I’ve created a blog for this, and I’m doomed from the beginning.” But it gave me some time to think about the process differently.

I know I need to take a different approach than my old thought process of just eating better and exercising more. Einstein says, “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.” So during my down time I’ve been asking myself, “What needs to be different to make the changes I want?”

Over the years I’ve learned there is one thing I can control – my thoughts and feelings. Do you realize that over 80 percent of our thoughts are unconscious? Yesterday I received a clue towards the solution. I was telling someone about this journey and she mentioned a program that Abraham Hicks offers called “Think and Get Slim.” So I looked at their website and watched a 9 minute video clip about the process, if you’re interested check it out at www.AbrahamHicks.com.

Esther talks about our thoughts and actions being upstream and downstream, and a metaphor of a reservoir being the energy and motivation used to inspire. If you think about it, moving upstream is swimming against the current; resisting the natural flow. And moving downstream is going with the flow. We cannot maintain moving upstream at all times. It is exhausting.

So I was thinking about any resistance I may have towards food or dropping weight and I remember hearing an interview a couple of weeks ago with tennis star Monica Seles. She has a book out talking about her lifelong challenge with her weight. She said, “My toughest opponent has been food.” According to the dictionary an opponent is an adversary. In an adversary relationship with food you’re swimming upstream in resistance. We have to eat! So during my meditations I will remove any thoughts or feelings that food is “bad” and replace it with creating a partnership with food.

Esther also talks about being vibrationally aligned with your goal. If I’m resitant to food or whatever the issue is, I create a vibrational tug-of-war between what I want and the end result. So, as I remove resistance, my energy shifts and the process of releasing weight becomes easier because everything begins to align to support the goal. The results will happen once the energy is balanced.