My Fitness Pal. It's somewhat of a social network for fitness, but the app itself has lots of handy-dandy helpers to keep you on track.
This thingie is awesome. It calculates how many calories you should be consuming in a day to lose what weight you want to lose, and has a food diary that you can type in what you're eating and it will deduct those calories. You can even search chain restaurant dishes, there's over a million entries in their database!
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| Me, being a foodie, eating my weight in what is actually goat right here. |
BUT, it's not just about dieting, it also gives you MORE calories if you exercise!
To make this work, I've turned the entire thing into a game: have at least 100 calories leftover in my day, but only IF I've also exercised (don't want to starve myself or not get a healthy amount of calories). If I want to drink two beers tonight, but I estimate I will have most of my calories used by dinner, how many minutes should I spend on the elliptical? It's like a word problem, and you'd think that as a hater of both math AND exercise I wouldn't bother myself with it BUT when I have 100-200 calories left in my day it's a great feeling! Plus, you can add friends and such on there who are updated of your status and being held accountable in that way is very helpful to me.
I'm even trying to get those calories to be full of GOOD things rather than just be empty sugar-filled calories. So far this week I've actually eaten breakfast that wasn't just coffee (grapefruit, Greek yogurt, banana nut muffin), huge salads for lunch, and dinners such as kale and sweet potato swiss cheese quesadilla, baked chicken with roasted asparagus, and roasted veggies with vegan cheese sauce and a turkey burger with roasted red pepper pesto. I want to get rid of bread and baked goods unless I make them myself, and cut down on processed food in general.
Are you also trying the cliche'd "Lose Weight, Get Healthy" resolution like me? Here are some more helpful tools:
-Can You Stay For Dinner? -- This has got to be my absolute FAVORITE food blog. The blogger, Andie, lost 130 pounds all on her own with diet and exercise. However, she is a big proponent of eating for your SOUL, not the scale, and not depriving yourself. I love her suggestion of starting every meal with a hefty salad and making half your plate veggies. Her blog is packed with tons of lighter versions of your favorite recipes and I can say first-hand that you would never guess they were light.
-Livestrong -- Similar to MyFitnessPal, but with a bunch of articles on various health things. I was able to find out how to exercise off my NECK FAT, so you know these guys know their stuff.
-Stupid Easy Paleo -- My former high school science teacher runs this blog. She is very into fitness, CrossFit, and the Paleo diet. However, her recipes here look so tasty, you don't even have to be paleo to enjoy them!
-Mark's Daily Apple -- For those who like the idea of paleo but don't want to follow it strictly for whatever reason. I'm likely to try this diet to maintain my weight once I lose what I want to. He allows for a bit of flexibility, and really goes into the Primal/Paleo diets and what they do and mean for your body.
-Women's Health Best Packaged Foods -- I discovered this yesterday and it is amazing. If you must get something that comes in a box with too much packaging, these are your best bets. I will definitely keep some of these in mind next time I make a grocery trip!
*YES IT'S MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION YES I KNOW THOSE NEVER WORK AND YES I AM FULLY AWARE I WILL GO BACK TO EATING BADLY AND NOT EXERCISING THANKS.
Note: I am aware that calorie-counting is not the best way to lose weight. My plan is to hopefully drop the initial weight I've gained over the holidays and then try to slowly make some lifestyle changes to
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