My darling friend Miss Pants, recently told me about a new, awesome website to track calories and workouts. It is called My Fitness Pal. It is a social media website that keeps uses a community of people to keep you motivated, but also is a great tool to track what you are eating. Dietitians and weight loss professionals are always saying keep a journal of everything that you eat. Does any one know how time consuming this really is? It is crazy to try and write every single thing down right when you eat it. This handy website is also accessible on your phone or other mobile devices.
The best part...it is a free app. You can also search and download directly on your mobile device from your app store or market place, which ever you use.
This is ultra easy for me to use. I either plan what I am going to eat and enter the amounts and calories in then, or I see what I am actually going to eat and then enter it in after. I also able to enter in all of my workouts and activities. This way I know how much I have to workout to not go over on my calories, or how much I get to eat based on my workout. Another cool feature is the nutrients part. It tells you a total of all of your nutrients that you are eating. Using your weight and age it figures out how much of each nutrient you are allotted for the day. This is a great way to track your sugar.
If you hate this idea, then there are several other calorie tracking devices, here are just a couple that I have used in the past.
The Daily Plate - this can also be downloaded as an app, search for LiveStrong.
Calorie King - by far the most comprehensive for eating out. Visit calorieking.com for their mobile version.
You can also go old school. Hand write it. Look at food labels, add it up all together and there you have it, a food journal. Some people say this isn't important, but if you want to know what you are eating and why you can't lose those few pounds, this will tell you when, where and what you are eating that is causing the problem. I have this problem, I diet and feel like I am eating healthy, but then I will track for a week and I will see where my problems are. It mostly has to do with sugar. What can I say, I am having an affair with chocolate. I tell it no, but it doesn't know how to take the hint.
Alright, I will quit ranting and raving. I am going to join the crowd and tell you to make a food journal. I challenge you to try it for a week. If you hate that is fine, if it becomes a habit, you just may become that much healthier!
