It Just Sort of Happens...

As you all know I've been gearing up for my birthday half marathon the past couple of months. I haven't so much been training as generally running every day and getting used to that before I add on the miles.

It's been working out.

Pun intended.

Now that I'm staring May 5th in the face (proverbially speaking, and from a training standpoint), my goal is to dust off my old Team Challenge training plan and put it to good use in the next 6-8 weeks.

But this is all just a side note.

What I'm really here to tell you about today  is that working out regularly and eating healthy(ish) can really help you lose weight.

Oh, really Mandi! I've never heard that before!

Yes really, and you're lying about that last part.

You see, when you start exercising about a hundred times more than you usually did, the weight tends to come off naturally. Something about extra muscle movement and these weird things called...dramatic pause..."calories" (use your Morgan Freeman voice).

There's something even more compelling I'd like to tell you about though.

Oh, really Mandi? What's that?

I'm glad you asked. It's called "a Smartphone App," and, specifically, "Lose It."

Basically, it's an app where you type in your weight, what you'd like your weight to be, how many pounds you want to lose each week, and then it calculates how many calories you can eat daily and when you can expect to reach your goal weight.

I know, not rocket science, but the thing is...

It's working!

I say that in a whisper because I'm afraid to scare it away if I draw too much attention.

Seriously, though. Tracking what you eat seems like a time-consuming, overly complicated endeavor, but I find that when all of the information is at your finger tips it's pretty easy. I wouldn't, for example, log into a website every day to do it, but when it's right there on the home screen of my phone...easy peasy.

There are plenty of other app choices out there for you to use if interested. Fit Gizmos rated their Top 5 here. I liked Lose It because it included the balance of calorie intake and output. I still use Daily Mile because it's better at logging my mileage to stay on track with training and see where I've come, but in Lose It you can log the amount of time you exercised and it will add it to your daily calorie bank.

I've found that I feel really bad when I've only just met my goal for the day and not overachieved in some way. Maybe that's why this kind of weight loss works for me - I'm a bit Type A.

____________________________________________________________ Current Couch Potato | Aspiring Runner
Mandi recently completed her first marathon! Her next goal is running a full half marathon (no walking!) by her next birthday (May 13, 2012).


Follow her journey.
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