Sunday 18 March 2012

A Moment on the Lips...

This week, I discovered My Fitness Pal, a useful (and addictive) little App which encourages you to log everything you eat, calculating the nutritional values and helping you to stick to a daily calorie goal. 


I've never been one to count calories - I've always been fairly happy with my size and have never owned a set of weighing scales - as far as I'm concerned, if I can do my jeans up straight from the wash without having to roll around on the floor too much then it's all good. 


Since having Ruby and embarking on this challenge, things have changed slightly. I am a lot more aware of what I am putting into my body knowing that Ruby will eventually be eating the same, albeit in a slightly different format, and I have also been doing a bit of reading up on nutrition and sport - it turns out that you really do get out what you put in. Bloody clichés.


So, one week into the food diary: I'd like to say it was painstaking, but it really wasn't - the App holds nutritional info for pretty much every product you can think of, so it's really simple. At the end of each day it will tell you whether you are over or under your calorie goal, and what weight this would make you by your target date. 


What makes it really interesting is that it also gives you consumption targets for vitamins and minerals - something I just assumed would be easily achieved. At the end of week one, I have fallen off my homemade pedestal after a series of startling results: 9% Iron, 22% Calcium and just 6% Vitamin A. This is bad times. A lack of iron leads to fatigue, weakness and irritability, as well as affecting the uptake of vitamin A. Bearing in mind I only achieved 6% of my Vitamin A target, this is not ideal. On to Calcium; depriving yourself of the recommended amount can lead to Osteoporosis and something called 'Bone Spurs'. Sounds fun, but it's really not - when the body lacks Calcium, it starts to leach it from your bones, usually through your heels, leading to to little explosions, not dissimilar to volcanic eruptions. Bork. 


Worryingly, I also consumed 95g too much sugar. I am blaming this on an addiction to Milky Bar desserts, but in reality, a lot of the sugar is contained in my morning cereal. 


This week, I'm going to make a real effort to cut down on the sugar and up the vitamin/Calcium content to see if it makes any difference to my energy levels. 




Sam x

1 comment:

  1. I've been using it for a while {no, we will not be connecting. You will not be seeing what i eat!} But I like the way that it allows me to scan what i have eaten and adds it to the count. My daily goal is 1250 - which kills me but a cadbury light choc mousse is only 61cals and low fat/carbs and satisfies my chocolate needs. xx

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