My Fitness Pal

Do you track you daily food intake?  Well, I didn't either.  That is, until my trainer had me start doing it.  She gave me a minimum and maximum for my daily calorie intake.  So, because I was paying for results and I didn't want her to fire me, I started tracking every single thing that went in my mouth.  She suggested using http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.  There is also an app for the Iphone.  That means, that you are able to enter your meals wherever you are.  And there are a lot of restaurants and meals already in their system.  So, if you eat the Panera Bread, Thai chicken salad...Type in, "Panera Bread Thai Chicken salad.."  It then asks you how much you ate.  For instance, 1/2 or 1 serving.  And then you click add and it is added to your daily calories consumed.

At first, it's a little time consuming.  Why you ask, because I cook a lot of my meals at home and I would have to enter each ingredient and amount that made up a recipe.  It does have a nice feature that lets you enter a meal though.  So, I would enter Spinach, cucumber salad with balsalmic dressing.  Then, I'd enter each ingredient and save it in my meals.  The next time I ate it all I had to do was go to my meals and click the Spinach, cucumber salad with balsalmic dressing.

This app is very handy.  I've been very watchful lately of my fat intake and sodium intake.  It tells you all of this too.  It keeps track of how much protein you take in, which is helpful if you are trying to get lean.  That is one of my goals!  It also lets you add in your workout activity.  Supposedly, then you can eat additional calories, but I don't do this.  I workout a lot...So my weakness is going to be my diet.  And that's what I want to keep in check!

Of course, I don't do this everyday.  But it is so helpful when I do.  A handy tool in my journey to health.