Ever since I graduated college, I have put on weight. I don’t really look like I weigh as much as I do which is a blessing. Part of it is being in front of a computer working on various projects. Part of it is a very unhealthy diet. Or so I thought.
I recently purchased an ipod touch. You’ve seen some of the drawings around here that I’ve done with the “brushes” app. I recently found a little free application called “lose it!” and I am actually pretty excited about it.
I’ve heard how so many people have lost weight by cutting calories. I am just not one of those kinds of people that want to go hunting for the “nutrition facts” label on everything just to write it down in a little journal that I have to keep on my person at all times. Basically, I thought a lot of why I was putting on the weight was trying to make a living in front of a computer.
When I was working as an associate pastor at a local church, I spent 16+ hours each week working on a powerpoint/presentation for them. Finding graphics, putting it all together, adding the songs, then editing videos and uploading it all to the web for Sunday presentation took up a lot of time. On top of that I blogged professionally and did freelance web design on the side. Basically, my whole day was in front of the computer.
This wasn’t so much the problem though. It sure didn’t help, but it turns out that it isn’t the main issue.
During all of this, I continued to eat like I did back in college. Pizza, Little Ceasers, Mt. Dew, Taco Bell, and the dollar menu at McDonald’s were frequent meals. I would guess that I was eating twice my recommended caloric intake each day, if not more.
Over the last few days, I have instituted the “lose it!” app into my life. My first day using it, Friday, I was 844 calories over my daily budget of calories and I was still hungry according to my brain. I had downloaded the application on Friday night and input the days meals after the fact.
Saturday, I cut back and watched what I ate, entering it all into the application and ended 545 under my daily budget of calories. On Sunday, I ended the week with 238 calories over for the course of three days because of the Friday surplus.
The little screenshot above tells you how I ended yesterday. 1257 under my daily budget of calories. I was estatic with myself for being able to manage it. The best part was I wasn’t even hungry. Now, after three days of actually eating right, I feel more energy already and have been doing more things with Aidan (my six month old son) too.
Last night we went grocery shopping. I was actually pretty excited about looking at the nutrition facts on foods that I normally eat and being more disgusted with the way I managed my diet in the past. I may not have lost all the weight I want to lose just yet, but I feel better knowing that I am working on it. So here I am four days later, sipping my zero calorie cola (the ones I think taste disgusting) and thinking, “this isn’t so bad” at least I can still have a can of pop and not feel guilty about it.
If you have an ipod touch or an iphone, check out the Lose It! application.
