My Fitness Pal (proof that there's an app for everything)

I've been told i need to write a blog about my exercise routine as of late so, here goes.

Melissa and I have had a membership to a local gym for over a year now.  We have gone through spurts of exercising and spurts of NOT exercising.  But since April, I have been trying to make a concerted effort to eat less and exercise more.  I never used to worry about what I ate when i was growing up.  I worked on the farm and for the most part, I burnt enough calories that I could basically eat anything I wanted. Then I went to college and gained about 20 pounds.  I came home and found that when I reduced my portions(by packing a lunch for my summer job away from the farm), I lost the weight pretty easily.  I observed this same pattern every year in college and every summer.  THEN, I got a job got thrust out into real life. When Melissa and I got a gym membership, I thought that I could eat anything i wanted since I was working out.  The main problem is that I didn't work out consistently enough.  I still gained weight.

In March of this year, after a particularly heavy meal, I weighed myself and I was nearly 250 pounds.  I had never weighed that much.  I decided to do two things: Eat Less and Exercise MORE.  As some of you may know, I do like using apps on my iPod touch.  I have a Gas Cubby app for tracking my gas mileage on my vehicles.  I have a budget app that Melissa and I use to keep track of our spending.  I have a Bible app.  I have a calendar app.  I have a grocery app. The list goes on.  I decided to dust off an app that I had downloaded a while ago, My Fitness Pal.  This app is a calorie counter app.  I realize that calorie counting alone is not the answer to healthy weight loss, but for me, it is a good way to encourage portion control. Another thing that really helps is that Melissa usually tries to cook healthy things like quinoa, wheat pasta, salads, lots of vegetable dishes and other stuff. Anyway, this app gives you a goal of calories for the day, based on your weight, your lifestyle, and your weight loss goals.  You input the food you eat into the app and it will automatically keep track of the calories and other nutrition information as well.  You can also track your weight.  If you exercise, you actually get a calorie credit and you can eat more.  The app also allows you to have friends who also use the app like Facebook.  You can see each other's progress and encourage each other if you want.

I also tried to implement part two of my plan to lose weight, Working Out.  As I look back, I think my main goal in exercising over the last few months is to continue to be acive.  I have learned that keeping things switched up is good.  If you get settled into a routine, your body gets used to it.  By using a variety of routines, you can be more effective.  I still get sore muscles because when I change something, I discover new muscles that have been lazy.  Also, I try to give my body a little time to rest too.  At minimum, I take Sunday off.  I usually end up taking one more day off during the week because of our schedule.  It varies and sometimes I only take one day off.

Anyway, on with the whole exercising thing.  I started working out more in the evenings, after work.  That took time away from our evenings.  Then, Melissa got really busy at work and started having to go in at 6am.  Normally, when that happens, I just go in to work too.  However, I started going to the gym instead.  I would get a good 35 to 45 minutes of exercise in and then shower and get ready for work.  It worked out pretty well.  I was settled into a routine of Stairmaster cardio and weight machine training.  I have been focusing on cardio more then weight training because I wanted to lose weight.  I also was trying the occasional bout with the treadmill.  I hate running.  I never felt like I could run, and I always used the excuse of being heavy.  "Running is too hard on my joints" i would say.  Anyway, I started running on the treadmill some, and it was getting easier.  I could run farther and farther.  We went running outside some too. (Well jogging)

Then, we went on vacation up in Maine with Melissa's family.  Brad, my brother-in-law, had been running quite a bit and he recently got a really cool GPS watch for running.  It actually tracks your route (if you are outside) and will also track your heartrate, pace, distance, and elevation.  After your run, you can upload the information onto the web and view your route and many other things.  As an Engineer, I really liked that idea, so when we got home, I decided to get one too.  It wasn't very cheap, but if I use it 3 to 4 times per week, i feel that it will be a good expenditure.  (I often think about how often I will use something, or how long it will last when I am thinking about buying something new)  Here is a screenshot of a run I did a while back. The pace is in minutes per mile, so the higher it shows on the graph, the slower I am going.

I have lost about 25 pounds since march and my shirts now fit much better.  I think my doctor will be happy since he tells me to lose weight everytime I see him. :)  Here is a picture of my weight over the past few months.  This graph is generated by My Fitness Pal.  It's an encouraging tool, when the trend is in the right direction.  As you can see, they fed us too much in Maine in July.  Even though I exercised several times during our week up there, my weight jumped!

Well,  I would like to be an encouragement to anyone who is trying to lose weight or eat healthier or exercise more.  I never thought I could jog even a mile, and now I can jog THREE miles.  I still love to eat and sometimes, I still eat too much, but portion control is the Winning Strategy :)

In a subsequent blog, I may go into the things I am learning about running and everything.  I am really excited and I hope to be able to keep running/jogging for a while.

Until Next Time....