Tools

An accurate scale

scale Most bathroom scales are not all that accurate. They are plus or minus a pound or two. A good scale will measure to the tenth of a pound. The best will send your weight directly to your smart phone. Wet steamy bathrooms are not the best place to put it. The best place is in front of the refrigerator. The best time to weigh yourself is in the morning after emptying your bowel and bladder. 30% of your weight is in your gut. your weight can vary several pounds due to water and food held in your digestive tract and bladder over night.

Food Scale

food scale

Write every thing down! (there are App. for that)

Probably the most important application on your smart phone is an application for recording everything you eat and do. I use lose It. The basic package is free. My wife uses it and is quite happy. I bought the premium package. With the premium, you can link a digital scale as well as other devices to monitor your health. What you get is a method of entering calories and activities. The list of foods and activities is quite extensive. Sexual activity has a calorie burn and it is on the list. I have found "Calorie King" is a good supplemental book to figure the caloric value of a lot of fast foods. It is easy to add foods into the lose it program.

Commit to a Healthy Weight

  • Dinning out should be special and done in moderation
  • Fast food is a guilty pleasure. Fast as an act of contrition
  • It took about a year to get to our goal and we have maintained it for the last three.

I believe the reason for failure is a commitment to a short term goal, not the life time commitment to a healthy weight. Healthy weight is a long journey. Slow and steady is the winning strategy.

Like any project, let's start with a list of tools: