Getting Fit (part 2)

Yesterday I made the greatest discovery. Recently I purchased an Iphone--which has much more information than I really need. My daughter-in-law very nicely explained to me the different "apps" that are free. I found one for free NPR podcasts (to listen to while I am on the treadmill at the Y) and another that will help me locate restaurants in any town I might visit in the US (Urbanspoon.) Today I went surfing to see if there was an application to help me track my intake of food each day. And voila! There it was. It is a website that will supposedly sync with my computer. The name of the site is http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.

Several years ago, when I first started noticing the pounds (and inches) creeping up on me (around the age of 48 I think), I started a log of all the foods I ate. Then, I took it one step further and bought several books which gave the number of calories and fat grams in just about any food that I could possibly ingest. It was a lot of trouble at first but it was amazing how just having to write down everything I ate or drank made me so much more aware of how much food I was consuming every day. And then when I started counting up the fat grams, I suddenly became very smart about certain foods that just ooze with butter and fats. One of the foods that I have not touched since I started my own personal campaign against fats is croissants. Never, ever order a sandwich that is on a croissant. Instead, order whole wheat bread. You lose the fat and you gain the fiber. I call that a win-win situation.

This new way of tracking calories will be so much easier. All I have to do is type in, for example, Ocean Spray Cranberry-Apple Juice or 2% fat milk. The computer looks it up and tells me how many calories, carbs, and fat grams there are in whatever amount of juice or milk I drank that day. I mean, this is going to be so easy. Finally an "app" that is totally beneficial to me. You can also keep track of how much exercise you do every day. The reason why it will be helpful to have access to this information on my Iphone is for occasions when I am dining out and need some quick information to help me make my menu selections. (How's that for justifying the purchase?) Typing in all that food information is a little tedious on the smaller Iphone, so I'll probably do that part of the recond-keeping from home on my PC.

So, now that we know that exercise is good for us, not only physically but mentally, and now that we have a way to help us track our consumption of food and to increase our awareness of just what we are eating, we have begun to make strides in the never-ending campaign for better physical health and wellness. Why don't you try it with me! Or share with me your success stories and strategies for staying fit.

Again, the site is http://www.myfitnesspal.com/