Annual resolutions fade quickly. My new OneNote-based daily tracking tool, which I’ve been using religiously every day so far this year, has provided some insights that are fun to play with, and which make it easier to keep on track with those NYE resolutions.

For example: I log every meal — the date, the time of day, net calories and a brief free-text synopsis of what I ate. Same with exercise: date, type, time in minutes, distance in miles, and a brief note.

So far, over the first 10 days, I’ve netted slightly fewer than 1,500 calories per day. That’s intake less exercise, computed for my age and current weight, assuming a sedentary lifestyle.

The resting metabolic rate for a male of my age and weight is almost exactly 3,000 calories daily. This means, in effect, I’ve lost 4.3 pounds over the first 10 full days of the new year. My bathroom scale supports this math.

Which means I will hit my goal sometime in June, barring any unfortunate backsliding or “piggy” moments.

So far, so good. The daily tracking routine is salutary, although it will get easier when I can stop lugging around my laptop and instead use the Microsoft Surface Pro I intend to buy the day it hits the shelves.