Welcome to the next edition of Weight Loss Wednesday! Last week, Kelly discussed various Exercises To Help You Lose Weight At Home, and the week before that I talked about how having a healthy competition with your friends can help your weight loss. Back when I told you a few months ago about Using Your Cell Phone To Lose Weight, I started my weight loss journey. I began listening to music on my Verizon Incredible paired with beats audio and used a few apps to help me keep motivated with walking. Since that post, I have lost over 20 pounds (just a few ounces over, but that sounds pretty good right?)
Even with using the exercise apps on my phone, I knew that the largest contributor to my success (and continued success) was/and will be keeping a food diary for weight loss. By tracking every calorie that goes into my mouth it makes me more conscious of what I am eating and what foods have a higher caloric value. Then I can make an informed decision as to whether it is worth putting in my mouth. So many times, I would catch myself absently begin to pop the kids snacks in my mouth. I mean what is a few Cheerios here and there? Added calories!! By keeping a food diary, I was really able to take a critical look at my eating habits and then apply the changes I needed to make.
I used CalorieKing to find calories in food items that were not already listed on my FitBit app. Both can be downloaded from Google Play for free. Every time I ate or drank something, I would enter the caloric amount on my cell phone. You would not believe how easily I adapted this habit into my daily life. My cell phone is the one thing that I always carry with me. So entering the information was pretty easy. It was also pretty handy to have the internet at my finger tips to look up strange items like “How many calories in octopus salad” within seconds.
Now, since I also own a fitbit (which pairs well with Android devices like the Incredible) it also monitored my activity level through out the day. This enabled me to be able to deduce how many calories I had burned versus how many calories I have eaten. Then I know how many calories I have left! Tracking my food consumption daily really opened my eyes to all the unnecessary calories I was consuming such as food I tasted while cooking, nibbles from unfinished kids plates, and sodas.
I honestly contribute my weight loss thus far to my Incredible phone from Verizon where I was keeping a food diary for weight loss. It is also small enough to fit in my pocket when I walk, yet the screen is large enough to see what is going on. I also found a notes app to remind myself of ideas when I was walking. We all know I am addicted to my technology, such as Instagram, FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail. Have you ever used a food diary? Have you ever considered keeping track of what you eat on your phone? Has it helped?
I keep a food journal via
I like how I can easily add specific brands of food that I eat. I also has a exercise log which helps me keep track of what calories I’m burning.
That’s pretty neat. I’ve tried keeping food diaries in the past but it have never been successful. This method sounds like it would work well because like you I always have my phone with me too. I’ll have to try it out.
And octopus salad? Eww. Sorry for the commentary, I just had to. 🙂
LOL – It is actually pretty yummy!
This is one of the essential steps of weight loss in my mind. I never thought about keeping it no my phone though. I’ll have to try that out because I am always loosing my little notebook!
I have used a food diary many times… if you use apps, like MyFitnessPal, it will calculate the calories for you too 🙂 making it really easy!!! Great post
Oh cool! I will try it Thanks