Weight change since last week: -5
Total weight change: -2.4
Woo hoo! Weight changes! In the right direction! Yay!
So what did I do this week? I started using My Fitness Pal. The website is a little clunky and awkward looking, but the app is a lifesaver.
So what do I like about it?
- It's easy to use (and free). Unlike the Weight Watchers app (which I paid 17 dollars a month to use), the food selections are huge, since it's information compiled from the users. Pretty much any food you could ever want to eat has been input by someone, sometime. If it hasn't, you can enter it yourself.
- The progress page shows me drops in my weight in a pretty little graph. I like being able to see that line go down, and hate to see it go up. I weighed myself every day this week, and it was awesome to see a pound drop here, two pounds there. Additionally, if you have a ken to measure yourself in a specific area, you can do that. The app has tracking of weight, neck, waist, and hips.
- I can enter recipes. I cook at home. A lot. It's cheap. And with this app, you can choose the ingredients you added, tell how much of it you used, how many the recipe feeds, and save it for future use. This is a great feature for me, because I circulate some of my favorite recipes into my meal plan over and over.
- I love the friends function. My brother uses this app too. I can see how much exercise he's doing, how much he's lost, and we can comment on each other's progress. It's good to have him showing me up and challenging me to do well.
- The Home page shows me how well I'm meeting my Recommended Daily Values. This is one place where Weight Watchers was seriously lacking. It ignores things like vitamin and mineral intake, figuring that if you meet the healthy checks, then you're good. That may be true, but looking at the fact that I only got 20% of my Vitamin A for the day makes me wonder what foods have it and how to improve that area. This curiosity leads me to learn more about nutrition and knowledge is power, if you weren't apprised of that already.
- Last but not least, the weight predictor. The app has a button at the bottom of the page that says "Complete this Entry." When you click it at night, it tells you "If every day were like today... You'd weigh ______ lbs. in 5 weeks." Man is this great motivation to use it the next day! When my weight jumps up two or three pounds in water weight and I think I overate or I suck at life, clicking "Complete this Entry" keeps me going and reminds me that I'm still on the right track.
And thus concludes my fangirl love of this app. What weight loss tools and tricks have you guys found so far? Julie's comment on "What week is this again?" had some great motivational tips, so give them a look-see.
