Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Getting Back on Track with "My Fitness Pal"

Has anyone tried www.myfitnesspal.com

It is a FREE online fitness plan with tools that count your calorie/fat/carb/protein intake and track exercise.  You input your current stats and your goals.  Each day you enter what you eat and it tracks calorie/fat/carbs/protein.  You also input any exercise that you do and keep track of all the water you should be drinking.

"My Fitness Pal" has nutrition facts for over 1,000,000 foods.  For example, (on a whim) I started using it today.  I was at work and I usually eat out--I know, I really have to start bringing lunch, I know!  I ate a Dunkin Donuts multigrain bagel (no cream cheese) and then for lunch I went to Freshii and got a Vegan Wrap.  My Fitness Pal had both of these listed in their data base with all the nutritional info...here are my results before dinner or even a snack:

Eye opening isn't it?!  I thought I eat somewhat healthy today, jeez 78 calories left?  What the hell am I going to have for dinner?!  Carrots and lettuce?  I'll have to exercise or I will starve tonight!  When you input the exercise that you've done it allows you to consume more calories/carbs/fat/protein.

When I got home from work I went for 30 minute run/walk and got chased by the biggest German Shepard I've ever seen!  Does being scared shit less burn calories?  Eeek!

Anyway, after exercising (and having a heart attack) things looks a little better:

For dinner I had grilled chicken on a bed of baby romaine lettuce, boy am I stuffed (yeah, right).  I'm going to bed early so I don't think about ice cream, wine or chocolate...cry myself to sleep.  Hope I don't have a nightmare about that dog.

Here are my final numbers for Day 1.
 
Apparently I made some not so great choices today, seeing it spelled out and in my face will/should help me make different choices.  I think this is a great tool to get back on track...and hello, it's free!!!!

Check it out:  http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ they have an app for your iPhone and iPad too!  With the iPhone app you can actually scan food labels, pretty cool.

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