Fitnesspal

I haven't always been huge on tracking calories, carbs, etc. But as I am working towards the healthiest weight of my life, I figured I would give it a shot. Now that the pounds aren't flying off because I don't have nearly as much to lose as I did before, I want to be held accountable for something more than the number on the scale.

I will post later about how I feel about weighing yourself daily. But for now, I just wanted to share how I use myfittnesspal. I have the app on my phone which makes things a lot easier. But if you don't have a smart phone or tablet that you can do this on, you can access it from your computer as well. Once you make an account and enter your height, weight, activity, and how much you want to lose, you can get started! You can utilize the app in many different ways. After using it for a few months now, I found the easiest way for me is to upload everything I plan on eating throughout the day in the morning. This way, I know I won't get off track. Today for example I am away from home for about 13 hours, so I have to plan what I am going to take for lunch and dinner. I plan on going to panera for dinner so I wanted to plan my breakfast and lunch accordingly so that I don't go over my calories, fat, or carbs by getting a soup and salad for dinner. Again, this method works for some people, others would rather track as they go and just eat less for dinner or skip dinner all together if they need to. I love dinner and food for that matter so that method does NOT work for me.

After purchasing a cheap food scale using myfitnesspal also got a lot easier. On most items you can just scan the upc code and it will pop up with serving sizes. So, for example, this morning in my omelet I weighed out my spinach and green peppers so I knew how much of a serving I was using. 2 cups of spinach in an omelet was way too much for me so weighing it out helps you know how much of a serving you are getting!

I also find that by tracking everything on here I am less likely to get off track. Don't get me wrong, I don't think "indulging" every now and then is awful, but I  don't want to make a daily habit of it. On a side note, there is also an option where you can choose to record your workout from the day. It will then record how many calories you burned and increase the amount of food you can have for the day. I personally choose NOT to do this because to me, 1300 calories is enough for me to be eating in one day, I don't want to be tempted by seeing I have more I COULD eat. So I just avoid it stick to the macros that I could have if I wasn't working out, even though I am ;)

Obviously using calorie tracking apps is not rocket science, but I think it is always interesting to hear how other people use it, that's why I shared it here. If you have any questions please let me know! :) Also, feel free to add me Drakegirl2013

If you're in Minnesota, get outside while it is still nice. Rumor has it the weather is gonna change to being silly cold real fast!

Have a beautiful, positive, active day!

Tonya