Lose It

I have been on a diet and exercise program. I started this particular program in earnest, in the Spring. My method revolves around your basic diet and exercise. The "diet" part, is really more of an eating lifestyle change. I count my calories religiously. This is something my doctor has been trying to get me to do for years. I have lost weight before, but I usually plateau after 10 to 15lbs. Counting calories has always seemed like quite a hassle, and in fact it is. But there are ways to make life easier. I would not be able to to this so easily without the use of an iPhone app called "Lose It!". It is so helpful to always have a divice with me with the means to enter and record EVERYTHING I eat. At first it is rather eye opening. I thought to myself "I actually eat all this?!" The "Lose It!" app is free for your iPhone or iPod touch and you can get it through iTunes. I learned about the app from Steve Dahl. Dahl, a radio legend and local treasure, left radio and has moved on... or should I say down... to his basement to do the Steve Dahl Show "Dahlcast" (also available from iTunes.) Dahl has used the "Lose It!" app to great success, and has mentioned it often. "Lose It!" has me enter my starting weight and my goal weight. I then choose whether I wish to lose 1 pound or 2 pounds per week. Based on all the numbers, "Lose It!" tells me how many calories I should eat each day, and how long it should take me to reach my goal. Each time I lose a pound or two and log it into the app. It gives me a new slightly lower calorie count to aim for. (This makes logging a weigh-in, bittersweet) As I go through my daily log, I also enter in all of my exercise. Based on the exercise calories burned, I can use those calories to eat a bit more, but I try to abstain and keep to my daily allotment. I started this program at 235 (I previously weighed 255 before I started this program but then leveled out for quite awhile). My initial goal was reach 200lbs- this goal was to be reached by mid August. Today, I weighed in and found myself at 199lbs. This is a few weeks ahead of schedule and I could not be happier. I cannot remember with any great accuracy the last time I weighed less than 200, but it was not in this decade, I can assure you. I believe it was somewhere in the mid 90's while at college. So now I have embarked on a new goal weight of 175. This, I feel, will be much more difficult because at 175lbs we are talking high school weight here... To give myself a little boost of incentive; I have authorized the "Lose It!" app to automatically update my Facebook status with log entries for my activity. Many Thanks to "Lose It" and most importantly, my wife, for all her encouragement. I could never do this without you, babe. So if any of you see me standing outside a Dairy Queen, or in the corner at a party feverishly tapping away at my iPhone; that is just me trying to log my calories and figure out what I can eat. And if you happen to drive through Joliet and you see a bald guy who appears to be sweating far too much, for the jogging and/or powerwalking he's doing... That is probably me as well. If that bald guy is holding an iPhone, then you can count on it.