Food Diarys

A food diary is a great way to keep track of what goes in your bod.  There are several methods for this, of course.  Online, pencil and paper, spread sheet... you get the idea.

Being the geek that I am, I use the online method.  This has several advantages.  First, it is on the web (in the cloud for the geeks in the room) and available from just about anywhere with an Internet connection.  Second, the site generally has a large catalog of items including serving sizes and nutritional information.

One of the best parts of online food diaries is that, these sites usually support thousands if not hundreds of thousands of other users.  Discussion groups for support, recipes and fitness, just to name a few.  You also gain the benefit of sharing your information easily with friends and family who use the same service.

Here are three of the more popular sites:

MyFoodDiary.com  - $9/month
This site is my choice.  The interface is clean and easy to use.  The catalog of items is extensive and very accurate as far as I can tell.  It also provides a recipe calculator, body log, exercise log, forums, charts, graphs and much more.  I have no problem paying for a good product.  This site is a great deal for just $9 per month.

SparkPeople - Free
SparkPeople was recommended to me by a friend who has used the site daily for a year or more ... she swears by it!  It is a great site that offers a TON of features for free.  This site has a very large community.  It's focus in on sharing and community involvement.  The tools are very useful, if just a little "clunky" to use.

MutiMirror - Free
Also recommended by an enthusiastic friend, The MutiMirror online food journal is also very community based.  The tools are very similar to SparkPeople and MyFoodDiary.com.  The main difference is the emphasis on nutritional balance and analysis.  This site is packed with ways to measure and analyze your daily/weekly/month/yearly intake.  At this point in my plan, this site is a little more tool than what I need.

There are others: Fit Day, The Daily Plate ... Lots and lots.  Click here to search Google for even more!

Using a food diary will help you keep track of what you ate, what worked, what didn't work so well and a great way to share ideas and recipes with others that are attempting the goal.

I hope this has helped one or some of you!

Thanks for listening, and I hope to see you back here soon.
- Randy

New Content

I have added some new items to the page.

On the right-hand side, I have added a list of links to maps I have created while on my daily walks.  Also on tht right,  I have added a section for links to sites that I keep an eye on or links to online tools that I use.

I will keep these updated as I go.

Thanks for listening.  I hope to see you back here soon.
- Randy

The Plan

To quote the great American TV hero Col. John "Hannibal" Smith…

“I love it when a plan comes together”

My plan of attack is based my life experiences, past attempts to achieve the same goals and lessons provided in a book called “59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot”  by Richard Wiseman.  (I will post a complete review of this book soon.)

Published late last year, this book is a great guide to many thing including happiness, motivation, creativity, and decision making … among other things. 

I decided to used the template outlined in the chapter on motivation.  This template asks you to define your goal, the steps (sub-goals) you will take to reach your overall goal, define what the benefits are of achieving your overall goal and who you are going to about your goal and sub-goals.

Here we go:

The overall goal
My overall goal is to lose 100 pounds.

Sub-Goals
Step 1:

• My first sub-goal is to lose the first 15 pounds!
• I believe that I can achieve this goal because I have finally decided that this is the best thing I can do for myself.
• To achieve this goal I will:

1. Maintain a food diary
2. Exercise daily
3. Keep a journal of my progress

• This will be achieved by February 22, 2010.
• My reward for achieving this goal will be <I don’t know!>

EDITORS NOTE: For the most part, the remaining six steps are the same.  The only difference are the achievement dates:

• Step 2 – March 23, 2010
• Step 3 – April 21, 2010
• Step 4 – May 20, 2010
• Step 5 – June 18, 2010
• Step 6 – July 17, 2010
• Step 7 – August 15, 2010

The benefits of achieving this goal are …
1. I have a better chance of meeting my future grandchildren
2. I will feel better
3. I will fit in to my clothes again!

Who will I tell about my goal and sub-goals
In case you haven’t noticed, I am telling everyone!

So there it is.  What I plan to do.  Now, I have to stick to it.  I am in no way under the delusion that I will not falter or slip in the next seven months.  The key is to learn from and recover from those challenges and keep on keepin’ on!

Thanks for listening, and I hope to see you back here soon.
- Randy

Getting My Fat Butt Moving

Here is my walk from today!


View Day 2: Downtown PHX in a larger map

And So It Begins!

Welcome to the "No Fat Randys" campaign!

After a significant beating from my doctor, and a good long (scary) look in the mirror, it is time for me to lose some weight.  I am not going to tell you what my starting weight is because it is embarrassing, but I need to lose about 100 pounds.

I am not going to attempt to tackle all of it at once. That would be stupid. I have broken the goal out in to smaller, more manageable pieces. One step at a time. Healthy. Not going to starve myself or take pills that give would give me the runs every time I eat.

I am not going this alone.  I have the wonderful support of Nora and Marisa.  Believe me when I tell you that there is no luckier man in the world than me.

Why am I blogging about this?  Well, as I have learned in the past few days, one of the fundamentals of goal setting is to make your goals as public as you are comfortable with.  Let friends and family know what's going on.  This does a few things:

1. Makes you more accountable for achieving your goal. 
2. The more folks who know about your goal, the more support you'll get!
3. If what I am doing and posting can help someone else, right on!

Over the next seven (or so) months, I will share as much as I am comfortable with: Tools I am using, websites to visit, my plans and my goals.  I will try not to bore you with mundane daily events and crap.  For example, you will never see a post that reads "Hey!  I love .35 pounds yesterday!  Yahoo!  Yeah for me!".

I will be using some very good online tools and utilities to keep track of my progress and make sure I am on task.  I will post links to keep y'all in the loop.

Part of my plan is to keep this blog updated as much as possible. If I stick to my plan, you will know!

If you have a comment or suggestion, share it! I would love to hear from you.
 
Lastly, if I have posted something that is you think is helpful to others ... let them know!  Feel free to pass the link to anyone and everyone.  I'm not shy.  Obviously.

Thanks for listening, and I hope to see you back here soon!
- Randy