Workin' out

When my friends came for a visit in April, I managed to get rid of 16lbs in a couple of weeks by paying attention to my diet (total calorie intake below 2000-2500kcal/day) and do some cardio each day. Wasn't easy. They went back home and slowly I gave in to Mr. Bacon, bagel, beer, hamburger etc. So I became 225lbs (101.25kg) again. Well I'm 6'3" (192cm) so it is still not bad, but still.

So I decided to take one last chance and reach my dream weight. Something around 180-190lbs (80-86kg). It will be tough! So I called for help, and my Motorola Droid 2 is helping me now.

I have tree applications:

1. miCoach from Adidas for my cardio
2. JeFit for my workout
3. MyFitness Pal - Calorie Counter for keeping track of what I'm eating

Unfortunately only exercise or only cutting back on calories do not seem to work for me. I need to combine them. Believe me, I would rather run 2 hours every day just to be able to eat everything I want! Well I used to be bigger in high-school. My record was 262lbs (118kg). If you have so much extra fat on you, even the slightest changes in your lifestyle can make a big difference. Especially if you didn't really do any exercise before. Unfortunately your body (that bastard) gets used to exercising and will not burn calories that efficiently after a I while (it seems to me). So back then not eating after 6pm and doing step aerobics 3-4 times a week helped, so I managed to go down to 213-218lbs (96-98kg) in 1-1.5 years.

Well my goal is now to loose at least 2lbs (~1kg) each week so, by Christmas I could be 190lbs. Challenging. Especially that I think there's something in the American food, that makes you feel happy when you eat. It is addictive as a drug... I never felt that way before about food. I did like eating and I always enjoyed a good meal but who doesn't?! Feeling happiness is new, regardless if it's candy, pastry, meat or bacon...

So I'm using modern technology to help by achieving my goal, and the purpose of this post is to review these applications I've found very usefull.

Counting the calories

MyFitnessPal

This app is just great for keeping track of the calories. It can scan the bar-code from the packaging and has a huge database including even some home made dish. Even things like NO-Explode from BSN is in its database! The workout part of the app sucks and mainly because of the list of exercises available is pretty lame.

You can set a daily limit so you can see if you are still allowed to drink that beer in the evening or not! When you synchronize, it even gives you a little bit of encouragement and tells you (based on your stats you enter) that in a couple of weeks what should be your weight if you'd continue what you just did today. You can keep track of your weight each day to see the progress, too.

Pros: easy to use, huge food information database
Cons: workout part sucks, it's just better to type in the calories you burned by any of the physical activities you performed throughout the day.

Move
Even though I had no problem on step aerobics (well after a while) or on a spinning class (which I loved since it helped with stress big time!), running was not my thing ever. I rather used the elliptic trainer instead. The reason was that after 15 minutes I felt like coughing up my own lungs. Well, not any more. It seems that being overweight and fit can strangely coexist. After giving up smoking, my lung capacity and stamina increased drastically. Now I would not trade the treadmill or running with anything else!

miCoach from Adidas

I like the treadmill because I can control my time and speed. If you don't keep up, you fell off the band. I have now no problem running 60 minutes at a 9:30-10:00 min/mile average pace. Maybe it's not much, but running 6 miles (10.8km) an hour is damn good to me.

Running outside however I never liked. Until I've found this application. It has built in workout plans. Even for strength training but I don't like that part. The running part is the strong property of this application. It is either using Adidas gear and/or your built in GPS in your device to track your workout and it has a various number of workout plans you can highly customize online and sync it to your phone. It keeps track of your route, and stats; and a voice will talk to you if you run too slow or too fast so you keep your set pace, and on a regular basis it also tells you how much you already achieved. You even have a wide variety of voices and languages! This last two feature what makes this app great. My problem was mostly that I cannot control my speed unlike on a treadmill, but now this problem is history!

Those U shaped parts are the red lights when crossing the road

A good advice though if you want to start running: get a pair of good running shoes, otherwise you'll hurt your joints. It doesn't have to be an expensive one! I got a Nike Air for $45 on sale from Sports Authority and I love it! Another thing as the weather turns colder and mornings are chilly is proper clothing. I just bought a pair of Nike running leggings. (I wear a pair of short over them, so don't laugh!) It's better than pants since it's not disturbing because it's tight, it absorbs sweat and breathes and keeps you warm. Again on sale it was $45.

Pros: it manages your music, talks to you, keeps track of route and other info, makes sure that you stay in your pace zone, it works without the Adidas gear
Cons: it's a bit hidden on the website to create completely custom workouts, stuff apart from the running part is a bit not my taste.

Working out
They say the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns while you're idle. Being a software engineer means you sit in front of your computer the whole day. You stand up and leave your desk only to grab something to drink or eat. So you're idle the whole day! Plus who doesn't like muscles on a guy?

JeFit

This app is just perfect. From the web page you can select from numerous workout plans other members already compiled and you can sync them to your phone, or you can use the built in database of workout exercises to compile your own routine! If something is not in the database, you can even create your custom exercise! For built in ones you can install a small package that shows animated drawings how to execute each exercise properly. It keeps track of your workout and body stats so you can see how much you achieved, and even manages the resting time in between sets, so you don't sit on the bench doing nothing for too long.

Since I'm using it I only found about 1 or 2 exercises missing from the database, but they were related to the machines my gym has. My problem was most of the time that I forgot how much weight I used the last time, and with this application it's not a problem any more.

Pros: huge workout plans and exercises database, sleek user interface, simple but does everything you need, animations
Cons: with the last update my plan is messed up, on the ordering screen the ordering is OK but on the workout screen the ordering is messed up; it's either a corrupt data issue or application issue; the online community is not too strong, but you don't really need it anyways!