Getting Fit

COOL TOOLS FOR GETTING HEALTHY…

is the actual title of this post. For some reason my WP Editor will NOT allow the changed title to show on the published post!

Me, while driving out of the YMCA parking lot after a workout, on the way to grocery store: Wow, my head is so sweaty that my hair feels like I washed & towel dried it.
Son, 7: I sure HOPE the people at the store THINK you did!

Funny, but I didn’t really care that I looked like I had just left the gym. I don’t have time to shower prior to leaving there, so I do shower once we get home. But I just didn’t think about how I appeared to others. I didn’t look THAT bad, honest! =) And I will look considerably LESS, er, bad, after I start getting in shape. Most of you know I have a thing for techie stuff. I love gadgets or electronic things I can use to feed my insane addiction better my life. Since I am taking the approach that I need to get healthy, not just lose weight or exercise or eat better, but get healthy for health’s sake, I naturally started out right away to find some goodies I can use.

One excuse I have used, and have heard others use when it comes to weight loss is “I need to get back on Weight Watchers, but I can’t afford it.” This is a very valid thought. Even the online program costs money–around $60 up front for the first 3 months, in fact. I don’t happen to have that kind of money sitting around to spend on cyberspace. I did join meetings from Feb.-July 2009, but I lost 12# & found it again through the stress of last summer’s transition for our daughter. It was just too expensive to justify continuing when I wasn’t working on it. “What I really NEED is that food log & point counter they have online”. That’s my main excuse folks. I was dependent on THAT, a gadget, you could call it, but a very handy one!

Enter Apple’s iTouch iPod. Mine is 8Gb and I have a BUNCH of apps for it. My current fav (besides my YouVersion Bible) is called iWatchr. This app is as close to the WWOnline Point Tracker & Weight Tracker as you are going to find. It cost me .99, and for another .99 I added the Extra Features. So for $2 I have an app that:

Tracks my weight, daily, weekly, and/or monthly.
Keeps a daily food log. I do have to enter my foods by hand into a ‘favorites’ screen, but then it’s a matter of clicking the “LOG IT” button and it’s on my daily point count.
Calculates points. I enter calories, fat, and fiber content and #servings and it tells me how many points it’s worth.
Tracks my appetites. I can go into it at any time and chart my current status as Hungry, Content, or Full. This helps me to recognize my hungry times and plan for them.
Tracks my intake of anything I want to keep a daily tally of. It allows up to 8 of each item, and gives checkboxes to mark them off. Mine is set up to track 5 Fruit/Veggie servings, 2 Dairy, 1 Vitamin, 1 Calcium, and 8 cups of water. I could add lots more if I needed to.
Keeps track of Bonus Points– you know, those 35 extra weekly points you get on WW as an overflow for special situations (pizza with friends) or to spread out over your week? Set your weekly extra points, and then if you happen to go over on your daily amount it will pull from your extra points total.
Has an activity calculator so I can convert my exercise to bonus points. It also has a handy ‘Send to Log’ button which sends the APs over to the Bonus Points for the day!

Other Apps for iPhone or iPod:

StepTrak Lite is a free step tracker. Turn it on, click off your power button to conserve battery, and it will count all of your steps for as long as your battery runs. It also gauges your speed/intensity and has a Twitter function so that you can tweet your progress.

PocketPoints is a free points calculator, for those of you who don’t need all the full functionality of iWatchr.