Dieting sucks. What? Because this is a part-fitness blog,
you thought I was going to say it rocked? Come on. This blog is for fun-loving
people. And while the right diet has the ability to make you look and feel
better, it is never fun.
Because even the most reasonable diet will ask you to cut
back considerably on desert. You should
also forget about flour, grease, fried things, cream, salt and more. You should
also stay away from artificially enhanced/colored products, and anything that
screams not-healthy.
Can you imagine having your friends over and instead of
serving carrot sticks instead of chips? Well, unless your friends are models or
Hollywood, they won’t like it. And it is hard to stick to your diet when
a) Others are eating
all the fun stuff,
b) You have a busy schedule,
c) You don’t have enough
money for the healthier, and typically more expensive dishes at restaurants.
Thankfully, I found a much more fun and doable diet-tracker
thanks to my fitness pal. There is a website called
MyFitnessPal that a good friend of mine recommended to me so that we could both
keep to our New Year’s resolution (that we would spend 2012 fitter and
healthier.)
The website is free and very easy to use. You sign up, and
then fill in a form about your weight loss goals (and yes-your goal can be as
realistic or optimistic as you want. You can even choose to follow a plan that
will help you maintain your weight.)
You choose how much weight you want to lose over what period of time (the recommended is 1 KG each week) and how much exercise (minutes and frequency) you are willing to add to the mix. I believe it is better to follow a longer route that will slow down your weight loss, but won’t turn your each meal into a living hell.
Why shouldn’t you eat that chocolate bar if you can keep the
calories within the limit? It is much better to make your lifestyle healthier
and less-fattening then going off your annoyingly strict diet? Besides, if you
only diet for a certain time and let things go to hell afterwards, you can’t
maintain your new weight, what is the point?
After you set and record your goals, you start keeping a
food diary on the site that you can choose to share with others or not. You
note everything you eat and drink, they have a pretty good collection of food
and drinks to give you the calorie count. They also have an automatic calorie
adder, in case you already know the exact numbers.
You can also add recipes, record your workouts and be aware
of your progress at any given time. And the best part is, the site calculates
how many calories (both in total and divided into protein, carbs and vitamins)
you need to take each day to reach your goal. And after you finish completing
your entry for the day, it shows you how much you will weigh in how many days
if every day goes like this.
It is fun, fast and free. It is great for those who don’t
want to spend too much time fussing over calorie count and focus on healthy
eating.
I should however
note that this tool will be more helpful if you have a basic understanding of
what is healthy, and what is good for you individually. Good luck to all
my fitness pals out there!
What about you?
Have you used myfitnesspal? What do you think about being your own fitness
coach and dietician?
