How to keep track of your every move

To succeed this fall at the NYC marathon, I've determined that I need to get down to my "fighting weight". Nothing crazy, but hauling a few less pounds couldn't hurt! I feel that I do a decent job of training, but could do better - so I have a schedule that I'm going to be following. That's only half the battle though - the part that I feel like I have a handle on, but probably don't is my food intake.

It's easy to fall into the trap of telling yourself, "well I just ran, I can eat whatever I want!" To a point, you do have some latitude with caloric intake, but running a few miles isn't license to eat a cheese steak (even though I like to tell myself that it is)

Offering some motivation each time you pick it up

So, I decided to keep track of my food intake, with two fabulous pieces of technology. The first, is the "Lose it!" app. It's free if you have an iPhone, and probably on other platforms as well. There's a website too if that's preferred. But basically I can put in my meals and exercise and it'll give me a daily report of how I'm doing. Sounds nerdy, but you do sort of get into it - it's like keeping score. You can even scan the bar code on food packaging and it will automatically input what you're eating. The other item in my fitness arsenal is this little bad boy pictured to the right. The FitBit.

This guy is like a pedometer on crack. It tracks your steps, but it also tracks the number of stairs you climb, miles traveled, calories, and then syncs with the FitBit website - which links with "Lose it!". What all this means is that if you're active - you take the stairs at work, walk instead of drive somewhere, etc - this will give you credit and help you more accurately track your calories burned in a day - so you know what you're real food targets are.

There is no one-size-fits-all food plan, and maybe this is what ends up frustrating people. If you work out and walk a lot during your day - you are burning more calories and in turn need to eat more than someone who isn't as active. It's a great way to get serious about your nutrition and honestly isn't that hard. The FitBit unfortunately isn't free - but maybe trying the lose it app first (which also allows you to manually enter exercise) is a good way to see how you like this method. I'm a fan, but I'm also pretty type A!

Drive Slow