Notice the HEAPING pile of green beans, the fist sized chicken parm, a small portion of noodles (still trying to find the refrigerated kind in multigrain) and one piece of bread. This all leads me to my "step it up" goal, motivated by my sister and niece when they were here.
All in all, I have always been pretty good about eating healthy, exercising and drinking water. But once I turned 40, it feels like you have to really work at it and thankfully, this past weekend, I got just the extra inspiration and tool that I needed.
My niece introduced me to an app on my phone called My Fitness Pal. You basically enter your starting weight (don't worry - no one sees it!) and your goal weight. It calculates the calories you should consume each day. You can add in food and water, and it is even smart enough to be able to scan a barcode on packaged food. You also log any exercise you do, so obviously, those exercise minutes give you a greater allowance of food options.
It is the simplest thing I have ever used to track, and one of the bonuses of it is that you can have "fitness buddies." So for example, if I see that my niece worked out for an hour, I can comment something like "way to go". Because I am really focused now, I would like to invite anyone who is interested to download the app on your smartphone (it's free) and send me a friend request. My user name is mariccarroll and this will be a fun way to have new virtual workout buddies who have common goals. This will help me be more accountable and I'm excited about the prospect!!!
Don't be shy - if you are working on your fitness, let's do it together. The more the merrier, and I can't wait for my first weigh in next Monday when I hope I can actually show a loss. We are in such a great electronic age where we have access to tools that can improve our lives, so I'm ready to take advantage of it for sure!
Hope to have some new workout friends the next time I post! And I will truly try to focus on healthy meals - well balanced and tasty!
To all - drink your water, eat healthy, exercise and take your vitamins! I started taking my vitamins with dinner b/c they would nauseate me so much in the morning - it made a huge difference and I have actually taken them 2 days in a row. I want to be around as long as I can for my wonderful family!
So thanks again Sue and Sarah for really jump starting me. We can all do this!!!
WTG on those fitness goals, Mari! I haven't tried Fitness Pal but have used Sparkspeople (online) and the WW app for my smartphone. I will have to check this one out and see if it fits my needs as well!
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