Day 11: Don’t be a Tool, Use one!

This has been a crazy week so far. Meetings, boss in town, restaurants, Oh My!  I have no idea if I am going to lose any weight at all this week.  All I know is that I need help!  On weeks like these I have to track everything!  I have to work out every day too.  Do these things always happen?  No.  [I am human.]  I do try my best though.  I have come up with some tools that help me.

Tool 1: www.myfitnesspal.com, and the My Fitness Pal [FREE] App for iPhone

This is such an awesome website/app!  I remember writing down everything I used to eat only a few years ago when I wanted to lose a few pounds.  Oh to be back in my 20’s when it was soooo easy!  I digress.  It was so easy to forget something, and you basically had to guess when you went out to eat.  Now we have awesome things like iPhones and apps for the iPhones.  This is by far my favorite app.  Not only is it FREE, but it is also super easy to use.  You just enter all your personal info [weight, height, age] and your goal weight, and it will tell you how many calories you should be eating each day.  Then, you can track everything you eat!  You can even scan a barcode that is on the packaging of a food item, and it automatically has all the nutrition info in the app!  Crazy huh?!  I love it. 

You can also enter your work out information and it will calculate [not sure on accuracy of this] the calories you used for the activity.  These calories will then be added to your total calorie intake.  That means you have a “net” calorie goal!  That also means that if you want to eat a second [or third] piece of pizza, you can if you have exercised!  Woohoo!  You could also ignore the added calories, and get even more success with your weight loss.  I think I may try this method to step it up a little.

Tool 2:  Heart Rate Monitor, I use the Timex Fitness HRM

This is awesome.  I use this to see how many calories I am actually using during a work out.  The My Fitness Pal app it pretty accurate, but I want to make sure I am actually burning what it says I am.  That is where this tool comes in.  It has a chest strap that you wear that transmits your heart rate to the watch.  The watch can then keep track of your calories burned [based on person info you enter into the watch]. It will also track how many minutes you were in your target HR zone and how many you were above or below it.  This also helps we push it more in a workout.  If I am working out and want the most calorie spend for my time, I want my HR to be over 150.  If I look down at the watch, and it says 125, I know I need to push it a little more to get there.  It’s really encouraging!  You can also watch your calories tick away as well!  Oh, I just burned 10 calories with one squat…I’m gonna do 10 and burn 100!  Woohoo!

Tool # 3: Food Scale, Biggest Loser Digital Food Scale

The main thing I use this scale for is measuring portions of meat and pasta.  You will notice if you look at the box of pasta, it will say that a serving size is 2 oz.  How the heck do I know how much 2 oz. of pasta is?  You have to weigh it.  The same goes for meat.  A serving of chicken is about 4 oz.  Some experts say that is the size of the palm of your hand. Wellll, I have larger hands for a chick, so I think that would make about a 5 or 6 oz. serving.  I say weigh it!  [Remember the 7 oz wine pour from Day 4?  Yikes!]  Pasta is a diet killer if you don’t know how much a serving is.  You could be eating twice what you think you are!  That may be another 150-200 calories!  We need at least a 500 calorie deficit to lose weight, so that extra 200 could totally break the bank!

There are lots of other tools that are out there, but these are the ones I use the most.  What are some tools that you use? 

I hope you all have a great Thursday, and think healthy!!!  Woohoo!

PS...I have a confession.  I ate chips and cheese dip at a really yummy Mexican restaurant yesterday.  Forgive me diet...I have sinned.