The Daily Burn

I love to work out to the limit that my injuries allow. In fact, I wish I could work out harder but the body ain’t willing.

So I was reading a “Shape” magazine on a Bay Area flight home and one of the things I saw was a free application for the Iphone of the daily burn. Have you ever wondered, like me, just how many calories you really consume each day? Or what is your protein ratio to carbs? Well, this is a PERFECT way to find out!

First let me preface this by saying yes, I have an Iphone now. My husband made me take his once he got the 4G one. And, to be fair, I begrudgingly needed a better phone since I go to LA and am in the car a lot and I would actually sometimes call him a couple times a day to check my email from his lab. Those who know me KNOW I hate gadgets and STINK at learning technology - - I am ready to go back to horse-and-buggy days anytime and still prefer to write by hand my daily planner just as I’ve been doing since 1990 in my freshman year of college.

The first and only thing I DID want on this blessed phone was the Tetris app and I got that on a couple weeks ago. For me to download this as my 2nd app shows just how serious I am about this website. I love it. It is very informative! You look up exactly what you ate for meals and snacks; click on it and it maintains that info. At the end of the day you have the entire breakdown of calories, protein, carbs, and fat intake. It also has a water meter- how many of the eight 300ml glasses are you truly drinking each day? Depending on my job and/or travel I don’t always make it – yesterday I only did 6 glasses. The day before I did 10. I especially appreciate that the site works with actual brands - I had hummus at lunch and when I put in the brand name as well as ‘hummus’ it popped up the exact size and picture of the one I buy at CostCo. I put in ‘Activia Vanilla yogurt’ instead of just ‘yogurt’ to get the true nutritional info. Brilliant!
I highly recommend it to everyone. Although I hate doing it on my phone – takes way too long and I think I am already getting carpel tunnel in my fingers using the silly thing (please don’t get me started on texting from an Iphone – ugh). Well, if you are like me and hate being on your phone, do it on your computer or laptop online! Much easier – que bueno!

Lastly: be honest! I even put in the tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and the little bit of feta cheese I throw on my dinner salad, heck – even the cinnamon and 10 almonds I put on my oatmeal in the morning - - it all adds up and at the end of the day I am pretty confident that my nutritional results and chart are close - give or take 10-20 calories.

There is more to the website – track/plan your workouts – I am not even tackling that part of it. But I did put in my current weight and the 5 pound weight-goal loss I’d like to lose since having a very bad injury-ridden year. It told me that for my height, age, weight, and activity level to lose my 5 pounds I should be eating about 1860 calories. Yesterday I cleared 1455 – and 300 of that was a total splurge of desert which I normally do not do. It’s interesting that with even my discipline and low fat, low-calorie diet how quickly things can add up. But that said, I am pretty sure most every day I average 1000 calories – and NOT enough protein for sure. I average 50 grams of protein per day and I need about 130grams – YIKES! More tofu and egg whites need to be added!