Keeping Track of Things The Easy Way

        Following this blog is like being beaten about the head and shoulders with "Diet" "Exercise" "Discipline" over and over again. IT's a simple message, but why do so many people have trouble with it in practice?
            I think the biggest problem most people have is the question of how tightly they need to control their diet, and how much exercise is enough?
          So we start to "watch what we eat" and "be more active" but hey, I took the skin off my chicken, what's another handful of pretzels? And..I walked around the block...I can have another beer, right? But you dont' KNOW. The trick is Knowing. The nice thing is we don't live 20 years ago when the only way to KNOW was to write everything in a ledger and do the math. Yeah, that's not going to fly. And this is the healthy Miser's blog, so you KNOW I'm not sending you to Weight Watcher's to pay money to do something you can do for free.
            Here's the problem. Logging is work. The more of a pain it is, the less likely you are to do it properly, and it's really important. When people say "Diet and Exercise" what they MEAN is "Calories in, Calories out." Think of it like a budget. You have a certain amount to spend, and you can work harder to put more in your account so you can spend more. But if you don't pay attention to what you're spending and earning, you are on the road to bouncing a bunch of checks and ruining your credit score. So Are you type of guy that will write everything in a ledger and keep the math up to date? Yeah, I'm not. Thank GOD for smartphones!
             I did some serious looking around trying to figure this out, bounced around message boards, consumer research sites, rating and review sites looking for the best Apps, and through some trial and error , I came to the conclusion that there really is only one App I can recommend for this, and that's My Fitness Pal. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ Or just look for MyFitnessPal on I-Tunes or in the Play Store.
        So first of all, let's deal with the major focus of this Blog...It's Free. Completely Free. No "Trial Version" or "Premium Features" It's just free. Next, Let's deal with our basic laziness. It's EASY. This is a GOOD app for logging everything you need to. First, you Log in with Facebook, so easy to sign up, Then you set some profile Information in, current weight, What your goals are (It has settings even if your goal is to gain weight) It will help you keep track on Weight, Waist size, Neck size, Hips..whatever you want to set.
      Based on what you want to accomplish, it puts you on a net calorie budget, Basically, Ok, If you want to lose that much per week, here's how much you can take in every day.
      Now you start logging your Food. Here's where it gets good. It's got a freaking BAR CODE SCANNER. So for most things, you just scan the bar code, and it finds all the nutrition information about it on the internet, and Yes, ALL the information, so Not just calories, but Fat, Sodium, Sugar, Fiber, Vitamins, Minerals, Protein...Everything. No Barcode? No Problem. It has a search feature that lets you find almost anything you're about to eat, and everything you've eaten recently is always right there. We're all creatures of habit, so it makes sense,
          Now we get to the features for the truly lazy, like me. It lets you save whole meals...so The Handful of Vitamins, the Banana, the Yogurt, Egg Whites and even my coffee the way I make it all the same way every morning? Yeah. One button. YES.
       Exercise it similar, Search for an exercise you just did, and it pulls information on how many calories it burned. But Have I mentioned I'm Lazy? My Fitness Pal can automatically sync with other things you're using to track your fitness...I use Fitbit, For Example...My Fitness Pal automatically syncs with my Fitbit, so I don't' even have to log my exercise most days. I log everything I have to eat, most of it from previous days, and towards the end of the day, I know if I can cheat a little or not. EASY.
             So here's what you start to get a clue on QUICK when you really start logging. You really start to see what that handful of pretzels costs you. You start to see the correlation between the days you dont' see loss and the fact that you had WAY too much sodium yesterday. You start to really get a sense of what you can and cant' do if you want to lose. It gives you certainty. You KNOW when you are likely to see a good loss on the scale...and that starts to get you motivated to go a little closer to the minimums rather than the maximums. You you start to REALLY see the NET intake rather than just the total of what you took in...and  if you burned more than you took in, you KNOW you've got a loss coming in the morning. So it motivates you to do that again. and again.
        Then comes the day you hit the goal...What happens then? Afraid you'll rebound? I was. So I kept logging. And I used the logging (Still am, in fact) to pay attention to my diet as I learn what it's going to take to maintain, and to make sure I stay in the shape I'm in.
        This I think is the real difference... KNOWING....not just...FEELING. If I FEEL Like I'm doing more or eating less...It's just not going to work. KNOW.