Okay, I had a couple of things I was very excited to share with you, faithful readers. The first is I'm REALLY, REALLY trying to improve my diet, not only to lose weight, but more to be healthier and feel better (have more energy, etc, etc). My dad had high cholesterol, and as I'm approaching 30 (in a couple of years...but STILL), I realize that I need to begin taking my health a LOT more seriously than I have been up to now.
If any of you have kept a food journal, you know just how HARD it is to do. I think I started keeping one four years ago (which helped me to lose 15 or so pounds), but I had a hard time keeping track of it. I'd forget for days at a time, and then be thinking "hmm, what did I eat." And since I'm awful at math, counting all those calories was THE WORST. So a couple of days ago, I was trying to find some kind of free website I could join to keep a food journal, and maybe even exercise journal, and who knows, maybe even tips or motivation to keep up the momentum. I found a wonderful website that I would like to share with you. It's called www.everydayhealth.com, and it's free. Since my goal is to lose 10-15 pounds (I'm not exactly overweight, but I feel I'm slowly getting there--I've definitely put on weight and would like to be able to fit in my wedding dress since it's already altered without having to pay extra to get more taken out), I entered my height, weight, and it gave me a guideline of how many calories to consume daily. I know calorie counting sucks, BUT this nifty tool makes it easy. I think that there database has restaurant dishes, brand names of foods in grocery stores, and if you can't find it on there, you can just take the nutrition label and add the name of the food, serving size, and any nutrition info (though I usually just stick with calories). It adds it all up for you (yay! No math for me!). In addition to that, it keeps a tally of any exercises you do, whether that's running, playing fitness games on the Wii, washing dishes, or cleaning the house. You enter your weight, and how long you were doing a particular exercise for, and it calculates calories burned. It's convenient because there's even a color coded system at the bottom that says whether you are over or under your "calorie budget" for the day. I hope to continue using this tool, as it is proven that people are more likely to lose weight when they keep a food journal. It serves as motivation and lets me know how I'm doing for the day, and what area I need to improve in. I'm also trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, as well as drink more water, and there's even an icon where you click a glass for every 8oz. glass of water consumed for that day.
Another couple of things that I am definitely loving lately are Just Dance 2 for the Wii, as well as Gold's Gym Dance Workout. The Gold's Gym game also has kickboxing, and some "mini games" like matador (I'm not too good at it, Matt is though), bullriding, canoeing, sword fighting, and running. The Latin dances are basically dance moves you'd do in Zumba, and it also counts your calories for you. It seems to be like Wii Fit in that it gives you motivation by giving you "stamps" for every day that you work out, I think that there is a weigh-in option on there as well, I just haven't hooked it up with my balance board just yet. I'm still waiting to get the Zumba game for Wii, I have heard that it is awesome, and I look forward to getting that very soon!!! I've definitely decided that I like a good dance workout though, because it is much more fun, and doesn't feel like exercising.
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