...to the My Fitness Pal app for the iPhone. I love seeing precisely how many calories I am eating each day and testing myself to see if I can come in under calories, or right at my limit. I love seeing if I can do enough exercise to squeeze in enough calories for an extra snack at night. And I love that I can log in online and check all of my foods, calorie counts for the week, review my progress, etc. It has a huge database of foods, and I have yet to encounter a problem finding a food, or something very similar to a food, that I've eaten that day. It's becoming a serious addiction. Although I suppose it's better for me to be addicted to this app, than to be addicted to food.
Our family is having a little "biggest loser" competition and this has become a fantastic tool to keep me on track. Yes, I've veered off the path a couple of times, but this helps me kick my own butt back into gear and I'm extremely grateful for that.
Yesterday I was telling Todd about the app and before I could finish telling him about it he said "dammit...well, there goes my multi-million dollar idea". Apparently he had been thinking about developing an app where you could count all of your calories and track your exercise. I wish he had developed the app...it's so genius, maybe we'd be rich by now!
Regardless, it really is helping me stay motivated. I find myself being very cautious about everything I eat, knowing that it may or may not be detrimental to my allotted calories for the day. And I've become more aware in making healthy food choices. Yesterday I made chicken corn chowder in our crock pot. But I found a low fat, healthy recipe online that was low-sodium chicken stock and skim milk based. Naturally Todd balked at the idea of it because a cream based soup never tastes as good without the cream...but the soup actually ended up tasting really good, and with the calories we saved in the soup itself, along with the veggies we (both!) stocked up on, we had extra room for a little crumbled bacon and some low-fat shredded cheddar on top. Delicious, healthy, and we were both full enough that we weren't eating our arms off when we got into bed.
I also finding myself swapping any drinks for water, and when I get the afternoon sweets cravings at work -- where I used to scrape together all the change in the bottom of my purse to buy a package of otis spunkmyer cookies from the vending machine -- I now make myself a cup of green tea with splenda. Zero calories, and it keeps me preoccupied...which I find is more of the reason for my cravings -- boredom.
Whether I'm showing big improvements on the scale or not, I am already starting to feel better. I don't feel as bloated and squishy. And it only fuels my fire harder to continue on this healthier path. I like where I'm headed, and I'm determined to continue!
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