Measurement tracking tools?

rebeccamcdonald214

I'm struggling to get back to my healthy lifestyle. Being an entrenpeneur/dance mom/stressed out AF has been kicking my butt in 2018

Can anyone recommend any free meal planning apps? I dont care for MFP for entering homemade recipes and the library has a tonne of discrepancies.

What about progress tracking apps or tools aside from weight alone? I like tracking my measurements as well as weight.

Could I also ask for your kind words of encouragement? I've gained back half of the 60lbs I've lost in the last 12 months and I was only halfway to my original goal. I had 55lbs left to go and now being back go an 85lb goal is sort of defeating my will but I also dont want to go back to needing to lose more than 100 😅

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

kommodevaran

There are many meal planning apps, several free, but I can't recommend any, because the best one is your own head, your imagination, your taste preferences and your knowledge about nutrition; what you can make is limited by cost, skills, time, equipment, space, availability of ingredients, and if you cook for others, what they are willing to eat. An app can't give you more than a sheet of paper/blackboard/spreadsheet can.

You can log other measurements right here: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/measurements/check_in

I think that if you work on prioritizing tasks/time management, you'll find it easier to manage weight too.

countcurt

Kommodeveran makes a couple of good points. OTOH, there are some tactics that can work for you. Keep in mind that in exchange for ‘free’ you’ll likely have to invest more time and double check all the NI since most of the NI is input by users and is inconsistent in accuracy and in level of curation.

For free, the best thing is just to google some key ingredients and add the words ‘low calorie recipes’. You’d be amazed.

Emeals.com and weightwatchers.com both offer vast meal planning options. Both will provide you with NI and shopping lists. The cost is pretty modest (about $2-3 per week) and may offer some additional benefits/features as well.

While I agree that your meal planning is specific to your situation, my wife and I have found these sources to be excellent starting points. They’ve also allowed us to expand our palates. And to recoup the money spent on them by matching meal plans to what’s on sale at the market any given week. We feel comfortable enough that we can buy some vegetable or protein on sale without any idea ahead of time what we’re going to do with it, knowing we’ll find an idea in one of these sources.

You could also consider going to a bookstore (or Amazon) and finding a printed book with low calorie meal recipes.

Sadly, there is an upfront amount of ‘sweat equity’ you have to put into this to be really successful. Unless you’re Oprah.

Evelyn_Gorfram

rebeccamcdonald214 wrote: »

I'm struggling to get back to my healthy lifestyle. Being an entrenpeneur/dance mom/stressed out AF has been kicking my butt in 2018

Can anyone recommend any free meal planning apps? I dont care for MFP for entering homemade recipes and the library has a tonne of discrepancies.

What about progress tracking apps or tools aside from weight alone? I like tracking my measurements as well as weight.

Could I also ask for your kind words of encouragement? I've gained back half of the 60lbs I've lost in the last 12 months and I was only halfway to my original goal. I had 55lbs left to go and now being back go an 85lb goal is sort of defeating my will but I also dont want to go back to needing to lose more than 100 😅

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Can't help you with tracking apps - I just use MFP and gently grind my teeth at its inconveniences. But encouragement I can take a stab at -

You've lost 30 lbs and kept it off!!!

Take that to heart, own it, revel in it, and be god*kitten*ed proud of it. You earned it and it is yours. Through hell, high water, entrepreneurship, dance-mom-ing, and stress levels that would fell any lesser creature, you've kept those thirty pounds at bay. Lots of people regain some of the weight they've lost, but most of us* regain all of what we lost and then some.

(*I do mean us: not counting my own progress in the last few weeks, I've gained back every pound I've ever lost. But that's no reason for me not eat healthy now, lose weight sensibly now, and do the best I can for myself now and in future.)

And now that you're coming back to put in some more work and garner some more success, you're way ahead of the game. You have those 30 lbs already lost, you have the experience and know-how you got while losing them, and you have the fervent support and encouragement of this particular stranger on the internet.

Clear eyes, full heart, can & will lose weight!

rebeccamcdonald214

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

rebeccamcdonald214 wrote: »

I'm struggling to get back to my healthy lifestyle. Being an entrenpeneur/dance mom/stressed out AF has been kicking my butt in 2018

Can anyone recommend any free meal planning apps? I dont care for MFP for entering homemade recipes and the library has a tonne of discrepancies.

What about progress tracking apps or tools aside from weight alone? I like tracking my measurements as well as weight.

Could I also ask for your kind words of encouragement? I've gained back half of the 60lbs I've lost in the last 12 months and I was only halfway to my original goal. I had 55lbs left to go and now being back go an 85lb goal is sort of defeating my will but I also dont want to go back to needing to lose more than 100 😅

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Can't help you with tracking apps - I just use MFP and gently grind my teeth at its inconveniences. But encouragement I can take a stab at -

You've lost 30 lbs and kept it off!!!

Take that to heart, own it, revel in it, and be god*kitten*ed proud of it. You earned it and it is yours. Through hell, high water, entrepreneurship, dance-mom-ing, and stress levels that would fell any lesser creature, you've kept those thirty pounds at bay. Lots of people regain some of the weight they've lost, but most of us* regain all of what we lost and then some.

(*I do mean us: not counting my own progress in the last few weeks, I've gained back every pound I've ever lost. But that's no reason for me not eat healthy now, lose weight sensibly now, and do the best I can for myself now and in future.)

And now that you're coming back to put in some more work and garner some more success, you're way ahead of the game. You have those 30 lbs already lost, you have the experience and know-how you got while losing them, and you have the fervent support and encouragement of this particular stranger on the internet.

Clear eyes, full heart, can & will lose weight!

I dont even have words. Thank you so much I needed to hear this.

rebeccamcdonald214

countcurt wrote: »

Kommodeveran makes a couple of good points. OTOH, there are some tactics that can work for you. Keep in mind that in exchange for ‘free’ you’ll likely have to invest more time and double check all the NI since most of the NI is input by users and is inconsistent in accuracy and in level of curation.

For free, the best thing is just to google some key ingredients and add the words ‘low calorie recipes’. You’d be amazed.

Emeals.com and weightwatchers.com both offer vast meal planning options. Both will provide you with NI and shopping lists. The cost is pretty modest (about $2-3 per week) and may offer some additional benefits/features as well.

While I agree that your meal planning is specific to your situation, my wife and I have found these sources to be excellent starting points. They’ve also allowed us to expand our palates. And to recoup the money spent on them by matching meal plans to what’s on sale at the market any given week. We feel comfortable enough that we can buy some vegetable or protein on sale without any idea ahead of time what we’re going to do with it, knowing we’ll find an idea in one of these sources.

You could also consider going to a bookstore (or Amazon) and finding a printed book with low calorie meal recipes.

Sadly, there is an upfront amount of ‘sweat equity’ you have to put into this to be really successful. Unless you’re Oprah.

I totally decided that I was being my own roadblock. So I used a day timer, planned out some meals, entered recipes into MFP and went grocery shopping. I did a tonne of googling and feel so much more in control now

countcurt

Cool.

I do get that one can become consumed (pun intended?) by this process. It doesn't have to be that way. Depending on your kids' ages, you can build some of it in to parenting time. You get to educate them about healthy eating, share some opportunities for creativity ("Hmm...I wonder what we can do with blueberries") and model positive healthy behaviors for them. If they're old enough, they can participate in meal prep.

It only takes a couple of meal ideas to fall back on, as well. Here's one we use that takes about five minutes of work. Routinely:


3 lb chicken breasts
3 cans diced tomatoes
spices

Place above in slow cooker on low for 4 hours. After three hours, add diced vegetables (we use zucchini and/or fennel and/or celery- whatever we've got hanging around) and corn or beans. We sometimes add a little corn meal to thicken it up. When done, you can either 'pull' the chicken or serve it in whole chunks. We pull it.


Nice thing about this is you can go Tex-Mex (we use 2 cans mild RoTel and one can regular tomatoes plus taco seasoning accompanied by cheddar/jack) or Italian (garlic powder, herbs accompanied by Parmesan). Serve over Spinach, or in wraps/tortillas or over pasta.

There is quite a bit and it freezes great.