Handy Dandy
I found a couple of very handy tools for my keeping-track-of-what-I-eat and keeping-track-of-how-far-I-run. The first is a website and app that sync together, called My Fitness Pal. It makes tracking what you’ve eaten so easy. If your food has a bar code on it, you can just scan the bar code with your smart-phone and all the nutrition information will pop up and you can record how much you ate. If there is no bar code, then you just type in a search for the food. It’s usually there or you can add in the information if you have it. Also, you can keep track of your exercise and calories burned. It’s very handy. Be aware: the Android app uses up a lot of memory on your phone because it can’t be transferred to the memory card. For me, it’s worth it.
The other useful thing I found allows you to map your running route so you know how far you went. You can save routes and also plan ahead if you are going to be away from home or just want to mix things up a little. I’m not sure how well this would work in China, and I wish it had trails on the map as well as roads, but it’s certainly worth checking out. I’ve found it very handy and I use it in conjunction with the other website.
I am appreciating these tools because I like winning (as I’ve said in the past) and this regain-my-health-challenge is one I intend to win.
winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂
Weathering The Journey 
My Fitness Pal is a *great* website, but I do wish they’d create an iPad App and also make it easy for friends/family to share meals/recipes between accounts. 🙂
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If I had an ipad, I’d probably wish that too. Can’t you just log onto the website with an ipad? Also, I think you could use their blog feature to post recipes to share, but I’m still really new to the site and may be speaking out of the uneducated, unexperienced side of my brain.
I am just really loving how easy it is for me to track what I eat. Already I’m getting a better idea of what appropriate portion sizes look like on my plate.
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Yep, I just login through the website, but it’s really nice having an App there on the desktop. (The iPhone App looks huge and funny on the iPad’s screen!)
You can blog the recipe to share, but you still have to enter each ingredient on each account, etc.
I love the ease of use for tracking what you eat and also your exercise, and I also think it’s great how they list how many extra calories you’ve “earned” through your exercise each day! 🙂
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“You can blog the recipe to share, but you still have to enter each ingredient on each account, etc.”
I can see that would be a pain.
I also love “earning” calories. It’s always nice to have a little wiggle room!
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I think the BEST thing about the site is that it is FREE! A lot of similar sites are only “sort of” free — you can sign-up and do a few things, but to get all of the benefits you have to pay. But everything about My Fitness Pal seems to be free!
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Yes, free is a great price to pay. The deeper I dig into what they offer, the more astounded I am that it is free. However, I could do with less of Jillian Michaels’ abs – er – ads. Kidding (a little), I know the ads are what keep the whole thing running.
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