I'm feeling pressured to lose weight.
Not by the media and all their airbrushed models, nor by the "you can't be too thin (or too rich)" mentality of the society we live in. Not even because the time for making resolutions is upon us. No, the pressure is coming from my jeans. You see, part of the perfect storm of health issues I dealt with last year was a medication that not only left me feeling exhausted but also left me with an extra 10 pounds. Ten pounds that my slacks cannot hold.
Ugh!
Now that I'm finally off that medication, I'm hoping to shed those pounds. I first want to clarify that my opinions are about me and not in any way based on anyone else. I had someone say to me, "If you think you need to lose weight, I wonder what you think about me?" Honestly, I'm not looking at anyone else or making any kind of judgments. I just want to be healthy, stop being uncomfortable and fit back into my pants. Evidently I want accountability too, because here I am sharing this with all of you.
I've actually been half-heartedly been trying to lose this weight since October. I say "half-heartedly" because I thought I'd try some of those easy, sounds too good to be true weight loss products. Turns out, they are too good to be true because nothing has made a difference.
Until now. I've discovered a very helpful (and FREE!) tool and wanted to share it with any of you who might be in the same boat. It's an app called My Fitness Pal. You can put it on your phone, tablet, or computer, so if you're reading this, you can use it. Now I'm not big into technology, mainly because of the time and effort it takes to learn how to use it, but this app was pretty easy to figure out. Since nothing else was working as far as weight-loss was concerned, I decided it was time I started tracking what I was eating and thought this would be easier than the pencil and paper I was planning on using.
I was so right!
I began by entering in my basic information: height, current weight, goal weight, etc. and it calculated a daily calorie goal for me. If I don't exceed the recommended amount, I should lose a pound a week. And the first week, I did! - then I found it again over Christmas :( Still, I'm encouraged because this is the first movement in the right direction that my scale has made.
It really is like writing a list of what I eat, only easier. It has a huge database of foods (even from restaurants), so all I have to do is type something in or scan the bar code and the nutritional information will come up. It remembers previous meals, so with just a click I can enter a food I've had before. For home-cooked meals, which is primarily what we eat, I can enter (and store) all the ingredients for a recipe and it figures out the nutritional information for me.
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| Photo courtesy of Google |
This is how I learned that the homemade granola I'd been eating has been my undoing. As far as calories go, I may as well have been eating macaroni and cheese!
If you're looking for an accountability partner, this app also allows you to link to friends to share your progress.
If you're looking to lose weight, I hope you'll find this tool as helpful as I have.
If you're looking to lose weight, I hope you'll find this tool as helpful as I have.
Lisa
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oh how neat!!! I wonder if I can get it for my iPAd?? I"m assuming....and it's free?? I'm so gonna do this. I don't really need to lose weight although I've put on 8 lbs in the last couple of years that my ob/gyn claims is related to menopause. LOL.....but....she says I actually am fine...I would love to take those lbs off though.....my big goal (I don't really do resolutions) is to "be still and know God" for this year....to really be STILL and practice His presence (I'll be doing a blog postings about this in the next weeks) and also to eat even more healthier than I've been. This app sounds perfect!!! Thank you for sharing about it and many blessings to you as you begin your weight loss goals!!