Between the craziness and the stress that comes along with all that, I've been a hot mess when it comes to taking care of myself.
For me, when I get stressed, I tend to not eat - the opposite of most people - so I dropped a bunch of weight that I really didn't have to lose (read: bunch = 5 pounds. When you're just over 5 foot tall that counts as a bunch, right?)
Needless to say, once I felt like things started to calm down a bit, I found that my hand was constantly shoving food into my mouth - glorious, fattening food that I hadn't tasted in months. It was delightful, till I started seeing the numbers on the scale get a little higher than I like.
The worst part was that I wasn't healthy. Taking a page from the book of my diabetic fiance, I decided to start logging my food intake.
I tested out a couple online food logs, one that a friend of mine had blogged about using during her successful 20 pound weight loss drop. But it was mostly just about food. I like to be active as well, and wanted to capture that in the same location.
So I checked out Daily Burn. Now granted, I've only been using it for a couple weeks, but already it's come in incredibly handy.
In fact, when we went to the nutritionist earlier this week, she wasn't aware of the app, but when we were trying to recall what we ate for dinner the night before, I was able to get out my iPhone and read back not only what we ate, but the nutrition of what was consumed and how long we exercised that evening as well. She loved it, and decided to add it to her list of resources to share with all her diabetic patients. Good stuff right there! I love when I can help out, especially with fun techie options like this.
One thing that I really love about Daily Burn is that there's a free iPhone app available. So, even if I'm not near my computer (which we all know is rare, but I do always have my iPhone handy) I can log my food and/or exercise before I forget.
Along with that, it also has a Food Scanner app. When I discovered this, I was immediately sold. For $4.99 in iTunes, you can get the Food Scanner app that, when you hold it up to a bar code on your food package, will automatically give you the nutrition info and allow you to add it to your log. It syncs right with the Daily Burn app (even though they are separate on the screen). What an amazing time saver. Coming from someone who doesn't like to pay for apps, I must say it's totally worth the $5.
This is cool: when it comes to tracking nutrition, if there are things you eat regularly, you can save those as your favorite foods so that you're not going back to previous days and having to select them, or having to re-search and enter every time. This program is all about convenience...which is great for those of us who already have enough things in life that eat up time.
Another feature that I really like is that you can track your sleep. Some people might not think too much of this, but I like to see my sleep patterns, as I've had bouts of time where I just don't sleep all that well. Combined with all the nutrition and exercise info, it lets me see if maybe it has to do with having a heavy meal before bed, or not exercising enough or maybe it's that darn stress again.
And of course, like any good online log, it lets you track your weight on a daily basis down to the tenth of a pound. For someone like me who fluctuates a couple pounds every day and doesn't have significant weight loss goals this is fabulous. For those who are looking to lose weight, it's a really nice feature because on your homepage, which is referred to as the Locker Room, the weight loss chart is right there, front and center, so you can see your progress over time.
Though, if weight loss isn't your #1 goal, then you can switch up the progress charts on the front page of your locker room so that your goal stays front and center.
Daily Burn is free for the basics that I listed above. If you want to purchase the Pro version for $75/year, you get a lot more stuff:
- Advanced Nutrition Tracking
- Advanced Body Tracking
- Pro Training Plans
- Advanced iPhone Features
- Unlimited Favorite Foods and Favorite Exercises
- Meal Planner
- Integration with iCal (another convenience factor I'm all for!)
- Grocery list
- Advanced Progress Reports
If you're really looking to make progress in weight loss, health, nutrition, exercise - any or all of the previous - I'd definitely recommend the Pro version. Though I've never used it, I can only imagine that it's extremely helpful in ensuring you reach your goals.
I'd love to be able to check it out, see what the Pro version is all about. Heck, if I had a chance, I'd even video blog about it :). So if any of y'all out there have it, let me know so I can take a look-see.
Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of this online food log for a number of reasons. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a way to track your daily activities and eating habits. Even if you're not looking to lose weight, it's a great way to keep yourself in check when it comes to your health.
All you New Year's Resolutioners out there, this might just be your best tool to help reach your goals. Definitely worth checking out...what do you have to lose.
Check out the Daily Burn here.
Cheers!
-A
No comments:
Post a Comment