Here's what I'm doing, maybe it will show you a path to success.
I've tried many times, oh so many times, to get FIT. I've had some moderate success and then bombed. Over, and over, and over. However, I'm always tweaking the formula and getting better each iteration. This is the documentation of iteration 20 or so, and going on until I get bored! If I succeed, you'll see how I did it and maybe it will help you too.
Pants aren't loser, scale isn't lighter, but I look thinner in the mirror. Weird? Optical illusion? Who knows. I have lost about a pound. I have been doing my pushups. Maybe I've burnt a little fat and added a little muscle? I might be getting 'newbie gains' again because I'd been SO out of shape.
I'll take it.