Dieting with MyFitnessPal- How to Make Sure Your Diet is Customized and Non-Lethal

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?

Unconventional Fitness Acitivity 5: How Freelancing Can Keep You Stay Fit

Image via cartoonstock.com

Well, this one is tricky because the peace of your mind pretty much depends on how much money you are making (and how much you are enjoying yourself), whether your hands and arms are healthy (well carrying around your office around like a turtle and typing like crazy can hurt you at times) and well, physical health and a good internet connection also help.

Now, when I was first planning this post in my head, all was fine in the world. I was healthy, productive and was taking my own advice. Remember the unconventional tips about developing a crush, dancing and hanging with your attractive friends? Yeah, well- I worked a lot, danced about 3-4 times a week  (each session lasting for at least 2 hours), hung out with my best friend who is really attractive (and currently attracting a lot of guys, even the ones she doesn’t want to attract) and I am on the lookout for cute guys who might be worth my time. 

Then, on a couple of Tuesdays ago, I hurt my leg during dancing. Now, I am supposed to rest, which is a really difficult thing for a hyperactive person to do. I couldn’t dance at the Friday parties. Then my modem broke and my home internet connection went to hell, which is a bummer since I am supposed to stay a lot more at home to do that resting and even though I haven’t been typing all that much lately, my arm is now hurting too. 

Oh, yes. Mind you, I didn’t put on any weight since I combined my freelancing routine with dancing. Trust me, I’m not dieting. Or cutting back. At all. So I am pretty OK with keeping the weight constant. But if you watch what you eat a little, being a freelancer might help you shed some pounds too. Here’s how:

*Stop picturing freelancers and writers as people who don’t leave home. I barely stay at home because all the sofas, mess and housework can get in the way. And even walking to your bus stop is some action, especially if you live in a big city.

* Well carrying all that stuff around means you can work anywhere, so you don’t really need to cancel any 

spontaneous opportunities that come your way.

* How heavy is your bag? I think it should count as a minor (or major, depending on the size of your laptop) heavy-lifting activity.

* You can exercise at home. You don’t go to an office where you spend majority of your waking hours. So who’s to stop you from dancing to your favorite songs?

* You can go to the gym in the middle of the week, during other people’s office hours.

Let me know if you can think of more…