Today I found a great little iPhone app called Lose It!, via Jesse Stay. The timing couldn’t be better, since I have my iPhone with me everywhere I go… and I was just thinking I needed something to track caloric intake and exercise in an easy and convenient way.

Yesterday, I found a website called Calorie Count, which does the same thing and has a ton of info, but the iPhone app is just better for me, since I need something at hand… not something to remember to update hours after I’ve eaten or worked out. I also briefly checked out SparkPeople, but I work in social media… the last thing I need is some super-comprehensive social networking thing for weight loss. I don’t have that sort of time or energy.

Anyway, I need to get in shape and drop weight, and right away the idea of counting calories in an easy manner seemed a good fit for me. I like numbers. I like that it’s easy to do with technology. I like that it gives me a daily goal. I like pausing to think about whether I really need sour cream on the potato.

The lightbulb came on in my head that I am sooo sedate and that it’s sooo simple to burn a few calories doing, well, household things. 10 minutes of vacuuming daily is a simply thing I can do instead of doing it once a week. Getting off the bus a few stops earlier gives me another 10 minutes of walking I wouldn’t otherwise do. The iPhone app’s convenience is ridiculous.

Last month, I also bought a gym membership, so this week I’ll be getting in there twice a week. I’ll be doing weight training because I know it best (from my trapeze days)… and – conveniently – it’s a good way to drop weight since it raises your metabolism if you do it right. I also don’t mind building up muscle.

Tally ho!

I’ve been enjoying doing a lot of nothing, which amounts to poking about town, watching bowl games, and playing video games (I’m currently hooked on an iPhone game called Ice Age), but there are these pesky resolutions under my skin.

Yea, resolutions. Foremost is getting my house in order, which means clearing out more unwanted/unneeded things and keeping it a lot cleaner than it has been lately and clearing out some poor diet choices which have left me, well, large. Home and body. So, today was a deep clean for the house and lighter fare than usual for me.

They say it takes 3 weeks to build a habit, and I’m working on 3. I don’t normally make resolutions at the start of the year, but these bones need some shaking up.

It’s time for resolutions, and my top resolve is to start blogging again, one a day, every day. That along with getting into the gym weekly and getting out of town monthly – those are my 2010 goals.

New Year’s Eve was great – I took a drive down the coast to see harbor and elephant seals, then went up to Grace Cathedral for a 10pm showing of 3 Charlie Chaplin films from his Mutual days (including a rocking organist!), ending up in the thick of things down on the Embarcadero for fireworks and frivolity. It was, oddly, a recap of how I spent the 2000 NYE.

Kudos to SF MUNI and the SFPD for excellent transportation (free!) and crowd control. In fact, it was almost surreal in how subdued but happy things were down there. I got all the way down to the waterfront for front-row fireworks, then hoofed it up to Stockton and Market to catch the 9 home…. and it was festive and fun, not ridiculous and stressful.

New Year’s Day here is quiet – lots of open tables at various cafes I passed while out returning the Zipcar. I’m now ensconced for the day watching a muddy bowl game and rooting for LSU.

I thought I’d be in Colorado for this holiday, but I’m glad I stayed back here. I really needed this past week of sleeping in, lazy drives to the coast, and frolicking around the City I call home again. I’m feeling more refreshed than I have in a long while.

I’ll close with a CC licensed image from sebastiansuk.de // pitlanepics.de, who seems to have stood a block away from where I stood last night. Happy New Year!