The Results Are In

DustBunny	Good Days
Bucko	7/7 Great Job!
Miss Alaineous	7/7 Most Improved!
Uncy Carl	5/7
Froggy	4/7
Kelly S.	4/7
MC Wolfe	3/7
Behrmark	3/7
Little Karnak	2/7
Moi	2/7

Week #4 of the DustBunny Good Days Initiative is in the books, and some of you are really kicking BunnyButt. Bucko and Miss Alaineous, in particular, should be commended for their consistent good showings.

On the other hand, some of us might be losing a little steam (or in my case, never had any steam at all). In fact, we’ve lost a few Bunnies over the past month (you can always come back!). So I’d like to share something with all of you – something that I’m going to try to see if it will help me live healthier. And maybe it can help you too.

For the past few months I’ve been following a blog called 344 Pounds. It’s written by Shawn Tyler Weeks – a regular 25-year-old guy from South Carolina who’s married and has a daughter, a dog and a real day job (he’s not a full-time Blogger). In January, 2009 he weighed 344 lbs:

And now he weighs about 200:

The thing I like about Shawn is that he’s no weight loss guru with some kind of special program to sell. Shawn’s approach to weight loss/healthier living is simple: He counts calories and exercises. That’s it.

Furthermore, he places no restrictions whatsoever on what foods he can/cannot eat. He eats pizza, burgers, Mexican food, etc – as long as he stays within his daily calorie range.

The more I’ve read his blog, the more sense he makes. Counting calories doesn’t cost a penny (unlike Weight Watchers and other programs) and isn’t complicated. So I’m going to give it a go - after a few false starts that I never mentioned here on my blog.

One of the things that Tyler suggests is using MyFitnessPal.com to count calories. All you do is start a free account and it will count your calories for you. MyFitnessPal has a huge database of foods and their nutritional value. After you eat something, you simply log onto MyFitnessPal, find the food you just ate, and add it to your daily total. You can also track your exercise and even communicate with others in the community regarding weight loss.

If you have a smart phone, you can use MyFitnessPal’s mobile app to count your calories on the go. And here’s the neat part: you can actually use your phone to scan the barcode from the packaging of the food you just ate instead of doing a search. The food you just scanned goes right into your meal totals.

It’s like one of those Wedding Registry scanning guns for lonely fatties who’ll never get gaymarried even though you’ve proposed to Franky G a dozen times.

For instance, last night for dinner I made a turkey and cheese sandwich. Each item was scanned as I took it out of the fridge: Arnold’s light wheat bread, Borden fat-free American cheese singles, and Hellman’s low-fat mayo. Three simple clicks and the sandwich was added to my calorie total for dinner – without having to log into my computer.

I’ve also added a MyFitnessPal widget to the right-hand sidebar of this blog which will track my weight loss for all to see. Oy.

In other news, this afternoon I have my very first appointment with a mental health professional (a Psychiatrist). Double Oy.