Half Assed Fitness

So my love affair with My Food Diary has come to an end. I've been won over by another diet tracking program called Cronometer. It's become my preference for a couple of reasons but my favorite feature by far is the vitamin and mineral tracking that it does.

In addition to the basic macro nutrient tracking (fats, proteins, carbs) it does vitamin tracking, and also includes 11 common minerals that are important as well. This feature has helped me identify my problem areas like, not getting enough Vitamin D or iron. After seeing that the numbers for these were consistently low, and after doing a significant amount of research, I opted to add a couple of supplements to my diet.

The second thing I like about it is it's 100% free. I did try the Gold version for a month but I didn't find myself drawn to the Gold features enough to continue paying for them. The free version is perfectly satisfactory for my needs.

I also love the fact that it offers ways to dynamically customize your macronutrient target ratios. Just choose default (None), Zone, Low-Fat-Raw-Vegan (LFRV), Ketogenic, or Paleo from the drop down and your targets are automatically set for protein, carbs, and fat to the minimum amounts needed by your body to achieve your goals. This causes all of the displays to update accordingly and saves you a lot of work!

Unfortunately, I'm not a gadget person so I can't speak to how well it works with fitness trackers but I does have the capability to link with several device accounts to help you get a more accurate picture of your overall health.

Overall, I'm very pleased with Cronometer, I've been using it for almost 3 years now and it's been an invaluable tool in making decisions that help improve my health.

I have thrown out my body lotion, face moisturizer, makeup remover, hand lotion, foot lotion, lip balm, Neosporin, and Vicks Vapo Rub, all of them, right in the trash...and I have replaced them all with Coconut Oil.

How did I not know about this before? I'm not even sure how I ran across it recently but I'm glad I did.

Even using the most natural beauty products you can find can't stack up to the pureness of Coconut Oil. One ingredient, that's it. It doesn't get much better than that.

I have noticed significant improvements in my skin, less dark spots, rough patches that are not there any more, softer skin, less acne. I burned myself and thought, why not? I put some Coconut Oil on it and the next day it was better. Vastly better. I also use it in my nasal passages. That's what I was doing with the Vicks, not so much for the mentholated aspect of it, mostly just to moisturize my sinuses, especially when sleeping. Did you know that stuff has petroleum products in it? Bleah!

In addition to rubbing it on my body and face all the time, I've been using it to cook with and adding it to my Bulletproof Cocoa when I need a snack.

The Gymboss Interval Timer is a small pager sized device that makes interval training simple. Whether you are using it for running, HIIT training, Crossfit, whatever activity you choose, the Gymboss helps you move from one activity to the next easily and hands free.

Since I tend to need music as inspiration at the gym, one of the main features I like about the Gymboss is that it has a vibrate function so that I can tell it's time to change activities without stopping to look at the device or risk not hearing the timer beep over my headphones.

Other features that make the Gymboss a great tool for me are the water and shock resistance features. Living on an island in the Pacific, humidity is a part of life, water resistance is a must for the longevity of any tool you use out here. Shock resistance is important when you are clumsy like me and tend to drop things. Besides these benefits, the functionality of the Gymboss makes it useful in a wide range of activities and is customizable for each one.

• One or two different time intervals from 2 seconds to 99 minutes
• Auto mode keeps repeating through intervals
• Set up to 99 rounds
• Manual mode acts as countdown timer
• Stopwatch Function
• Alarm by beep, vibration, or both
• Alarm duration of 1, 5, or 10 seconds 

There are many interval timers available out there, the main reason I chose the Gymboss was because of the 30 day money back guarantee, the one year warranty, and the price. $19.95 for a customizable, convenient tool to help me get in shape? How can you go wrong?

I've been using mine for almost a year now and it's never let me down, it is going to be a vital part of my new running program as well.

Try the Calorie Counter at MyFoodDiary.com

For lunch today I had Hormel® Compleats® Beef Steak Tips which consists of rib tips with mashed potatoes and gravy. There are 33 different varieties of Compleats® but I only have 3 different kinds available to me here on the island. All of them consist of 10 oz portions and run anywhere from 200 calories to 390; most of them are in the 210-290 range though.

Ill be the first to admit that there are healthier, fresher choices out there than prepackaged meals like this, but sometimes this is all you have time for. They are very convenient, no refrigeration is necessary and they cook right in the container they come in. I have to say, the are quite filling as well. For the number of calories, you get a decent amount of food. Add a piece of fruit or some carrot sticks on the side and you've got a well rounded lunch or dinner and a reasonable number of calories.

It's a lot like canned soup as far as the taste goes, I haven't tried them all obviously but the Beef Steak Tips wasn't bad. The potatoes were a tad dry but I ended up mixing it all together which helped. For the price ($1.49 here) and the convenience and the calories I'm not going to complain. Besides, it's not much different than the chow hall food we get here, but at least this is portion controlled.

According to their website:

Hormel® Compleats® are satisfying meals that feature quality chicken, beef or turkey as well as flavorful vegetables and pasta, potatoes or rice.

I give them a thumbs up!

1/12/10 - I just had to add this in case some of you thought my review was a bit off the mark. I still feel that the Compleats® are a great value for their fullness factor and the low calories is a plus. However, I just had the Chicken Breast With Gravy and I was not impressed. It needed salt at the very least. Granted it only has 200 calories and we all know calories taste good but this was just passable for palatable. I will continue to try the different varieties as they become available just to see but I would recommend skipping the Chicken Breast and Gravy if you haven't already tried it.


Try the Calorie Counter at MyFoodDiary.com

One of the restaurants we regularly frequent started carrying Boylan's sodas. This was during my refined sugar free trial and I noticed that they are made with all natural ingredients and cane sugar. I was having a bit of a hypoglycemic moment and thought I'd give it a try. I tried the Black Cherry and whoo hoo it's sweet, but yummy. I may have been a bit overly sensitive having had no refined sugar nor any other type of sugar other than from fruit for over two weeks at this point. I almost couldn't finish it and if I hadn't been eating, I know I couldn't have. One thing I enjoyed about it was that it wasn't overly carbonated. Black cherry has always been one of my preferred flavors and this one was just as black cherry as the next. While the sweetness was on the same level as other black cherry soda's, cane sugar sweetness is just different.

A couple of days ago, I tried another one. This time I tried the Creamy Red Birch Beer. It's very red but tastes very much like root beer. It's a fun drink, the color is very cheerful and the vintage styling of the bottle makes it extra fun. I'm a root beer fan too but normally I can never drink a whole one because of the intensity of the sugar. With cane sugar, it's more of a mellow sweetness. Birch beer and root beer aren't exactly the same;

The difference between birch beer and root beer: They’re close, but made from different barks. Birch beer is made from birch bark extract (and can vary in color depending on the species of birch tree the sap is extracted from). Root beer is made from non-specific roots and barks (often sassafras and/or sarsaparilla plus herbs like wild cherry, wintergreen and ginger. The original root beer, created in the mid-1800s by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Hires, was actually a beer — a very low alcohol, naturally effervescent beverage made by fermenting sugar and yeast with the aforementioned ingredients. Today’s products have no alcohol content.

—Karen Hochman

I'm going to try the remaining flavors since I've enjoyed these two so much. There is a Creme Soda and an actual Root Beer I'm interested in trying. I'm not a cola fan so if anyone has tried the Cane Cola version of this, let us know what you think.




Try the Calorie Counter at MyFoodDiary.com

Water is life. It is vital for your survival and the proper functioning of your body in general. Water can be a natural appetite suppressant, it helps your body eliminate toxins, and if you don't get enough you may feel tired, dizzy, experience headaches, joint pain or become constipated. Severe dehydration can even result in death.

Water can also get really, really boring! Even with a squirt of lemon or lime, there are times when you just need something else!

You have to be really careful or you can take in an unprecedented amount of calories in your beverages. Other than coffee and tea, water is really all I drink. Until I found this:

There are several kinds, all of them are zero calorie, sugar-free, aspartame-free and have zero carbs, no artificial colors or flavors, no sodium, no caffeine, and no preservatives. There are so many zeros it's almost hard to believe. The very best part? they are really good and there is no weird aftertaste

I've personally tried the Diet Black Cherry Soda, the Diet Tangerine Lime, and the Diet Root Beer. I enjoyed them all very much and would like to try the other flavors but I haven't found them locally. Let us know if you've tried any of the other flavors and let us know how they are!

I love this stuff!

So far I've put this in spaghetti sauce, used it for veggie tacos, and veggie enchiladas; I'm sure it can be substituted pretty much anywhere ground beef is used with fine results.
I'm not a fan of tofu because of the texture. With textured vegetable protein (TVP) that is not an issue. It's a tad bit on the chewy side but other than that I often can't tell the difference between a sauce with meat and one with TVP. I suppose it's not as fatty and rich as beef, next to each other it would probably be fairly obvious.
The calorie difference is quite noticeable:

• 6oz TVP = 180 calories
• 6oz 95% lean ground beef = 278
• 6oz 80% lean ground beef = 417

Even if you aren't interested in going vegetarian, substituting this once in awhile can help reduce your calorie intake and it's really good too!

I ran across a tool today that I am very impressed with. It's called My Food Diary and it automates all of the food and exercise tracking that I have been doing manually for years. The beauty of this tool is it can be used as a weight loss tool, it can help you maintain your weight once your goal is achieved and it can also give you more accurate details on your nutrition.

The nutrition factor is why I've decided to sign up for it at this point. Keeping track of calories when I was trying to lose or maintain my weight was one thing but while I'm trying this vegetarian diet or if I continue with it beyond the trial, I need to make sure I'm getting enough nutrition as well.

There is a place to track your water intake, make notes about your day, input recipes so you can calculate the nutrition information per serving and several calculators and quizzes to use for education purposes. Another great feature is the daily summary that shows how close you got to your daily goals which makes it much easier to focus your efforts the next day. Here is an example from my report for today:
If I can make it work, I will post the reports from the site each day instead of the format I've been using. It will make it easier to read and will include a summary of my nutritional information which I was not calculating previously.

I've tried a couple of other online tracking systems but I really like this one so far. I am also impressed that it is only $9 per month. That is very reasonable and considering you can access it anywhere you can get an Internet connection, it's convenient too.