Diet Trackers

I've decided to try out free diet tracker apps. I'm hoping to find an ideal one: one where you scan the items in and then choose portion size of what you ate. It would be so easy to scan items; after the Fooducate app I am obsessed with scanning food UPCs. I'm not so concerned about how many calories I am eating, as how many nutrients, Vitamins and Minerals, I am consuming. I've been considering taking Vitamin supplements lately (blogs to follow about this) but I want to be sure that the Vitamins that I think I am insufficient in are actually low in my diet.

The app that I downloaded today (for my HTC Verizon phone) is called Calorific. Its a pretty simple app, which makes it idea for those wanting to track calorie intake. You basically choose a food category, close to what you consumed and then choose a serving category. There is a search option to type in your specific food, but items are not listed as a food bank like some diet tracker; they are simple like fruit, vegetable. The items also have a color associated: green, yellow, or red. This is to track your percentage of good foods (green) vs. bad foods (red). They use the MyPlate Nutrition breakdown like the gov uses now. It uses a plate to demonstrate what percentage of you diet is the good food vs the bad food. Its a good app if your looking for simple calorie counting. I'm searching for more, so I'll continue my search. If you have any suggestions in which apps I should check out, let me know!

A Video that Sums it All up

Fooducate

I discovered this app through my favorite blog: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/. I haven't made use of it too much yet, but it is proving to be very educating. It allows you to scan barcodes of food items and then gives you the letter grade of the product and a few facts about the ingredients that it contains. It does lack information about Fresh 'n Easy products, which are a main staple in my life, but it allows you to take pictures of the items it doesn't contain in its library and send them in so they can add them. It's a free app, so check it out!

The Reason

The New Year always brings resolutions, whether they are new or old ones that were never completed, people will put themselves to a test for 352 days. In this fashion, I've been prompted to start my own "resolutions," but to extent these as life changes and not a temporary trend. I want to rid my life of processed foods, add exercise back into my life, and share these new life "make-overs" in this blog. I've always believed that knowledge is power, and as a student at UNLV, learning a plethora of nutrition information, writing this blog and sharing interesting, not well known information with others is a step toward what I want to dedicate my life to. I hope that even if this blog doesn't reach that many people, I will at least stay on track of my goals. So here is to the start of a new year and a better life.