Livestrong

For the last month I have been using a journal to record what I eat, drink and the time of food intake, how much and what I do for exercise, and occassionally my current weight. So far it has been working out pretty well and has helped to hold me accountable. I have tried journaling before, but could never stick with it because I became unmotivated and lazy. I think my biggest issue, however, was that I didn't want to have to face what I was eating and have to write it down in my journal. This time has been different and is the longest I have been able to stick with it, and I've actually come to enjoy tracking what I eat and drink, and what I do for exercise. I pick up on patterns, such as what time I'm more prone to snack. I also am able to see how far I've come in my fitness over time. Basically, I'm learning more about myself and what my body is experiencing daily.

As I was reading the comments off of somebody else's blog the other day, I noticed somebody mentioned the website www.livestrong.com . It sounded like a cool website to check out for various health and fitness related topics. While on the site, I found a tool called MyPlate. This tool can be used, free with site registration (yes, another username and password to remember), to keep track of what you eat, what time you eat it, exercise, water intake, weight tracker, and helps you to set goals. I thought it was super cool and worth giving a try. I have been using it for a week now, along with my normal journal, and what I like the best is that it not only keeps track of calories, but also cholesteral, sodium, protein, fat, sugars, and carbs. It forces you to really see, in number form, how much of those things you are putting into your body. There are days, even when I think I'm eating healthy, that I wind up being surprised by my sodium intake, etc. I also like that you can input what you do for exercise and for how long and it will compute the calories burned, then subtract that from your caloric intake. All in all, I think it is a great website, especially for somebody looking for a little help with monitoring their caloric intake. But even if you aren't interested in using MyPlate, there are all sorts of interesting articles and links that are related to health and fitness. It's definitely worth checking out!