Health goals

I've been letting weather and a hectic schedule lend me an excuse for not exercising as much in recent months. Inspired by my friends Tanya and Ju at FilKONtario (I notice Allison's been inspired by them, too!), I've decided to smarten up.



Jeff and I don't own a weight scale. I weigh myself once a year when I go to the doctor's for my annual check-up. However, this doesn't mean that I don't know when I'm putting on the pounds; I can usually tell from the fit of certain form-fitting clothing. And well...it's time. :-)

For me, the solution is finding a way to stay accountable, and this means keeping track of what I eat and how often I exercise. Just the act of keeping this sort of journal makes me much more conscious of my fitness/eating habits, I find.

Anyway, I'm trying out the Livestrong.com app for the iPhone. It's $2.99, and synchs with Livestrong.com (a joint project between the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Demand Media), which has a free "Daily Plate" service where users can track fitness and food goals.



I wanted an app that would make it easy for me to keep track of food and exercise. The downside: you have to be connected to the Internet for the app to be able to access the nutrition database of more than 525,000 food and restaurant items. The upside: I usually AM connected to the Internet because of my iPhone. And when I'm not, I figure I can occasionally be able to wing it with common sense. (Have I mentioned that I love my iPhone?)

I also like the fact that in addition to my calorie count, I also get a summary of daily fat, sugar, carb, and protein intakes. I realize that the numbers are all just estimates, but even rough figures give me a better sense of how I'm doing than before, especially with my sugar intake.

My goal is to get into a healthy lifestyle again so that by the time colder weather rolls in, it will be much easier to keep it going through the winter.



Livestrong.com also enables users (if they want) to connect up with a whole community for mutual encouragement and support. I'm opting to keep my profile private (the screenshots today, by the way, were taken from the iTunes store...I don't tend to have glasses of champagne on a regular basis) and use friends for mutual support.

Like tonight, when I meet up with Allison and Jodi!

Also trying to cook healthier meals. Last night I made an Eggplant-Beef slow cooker meal ("Greek style") from The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson, and served it with bulgur. Jeff loved it, yay! I've loved all the recipes from this cookbook so far; they do require more prep than typical slow cooker recipes, but I've always found the result to be well worth it.

Happy Thursday, all.