The Gadget Queen's Guide To Weight Loss

That dreaded plateau. The dieter's nemesis. We've all been there ... some of us have frequent flyer miles to that gawd-awful place.

That's where I am right now. Or, more accurately, where I was a few weeks ago. For the past two years, I've been working my poor old body into a lather with almost religious devotion, attending Taekwondo classes 3 nights a week, taking time off only when the dojang was closed for holidays. I've lost some weight, have built up lots of great muscle tone, increased my endurance beyond my wildest expectations, and have conquered my personal issues with self-confidence and public display by entering (and winning, I might add) several regional tournaments.

However, I was paying ZERO attention to my diet. I mean ZERO. As in indulging in giant bags of M&M peanuts on a weekly basis. And it caught up with me. I had started gaining back some of the weight I had lost.

So, I spoke to my Master and was told that my problem was simple...if I want to lose weight, I need to be in a caloric deficit every day. Simple problem...not so simple solution. I know my limitations. I've done the Weight Watchers thing before. I apparently have D.A.D.D. - Dieter's Attention Deficit Disorder. After a few days of weighing and measuring and tallying and agonizing, I get bored and chuck the whole process out the window.

What I need, I've decided, is a process that's simple, easy to follow, and requires minimal effort on my part.

For those of you who don't know, I love my gadgets. Love 'em to bits. From my pretty purple cell phone with its crystal-covered Bluetooth ear piece, to my iPod Touch, to hubby's latest object of our affection, the iPad I'm using to create this post - you'll never find me without my toys for any reasonable length of time.

So it isn't much of a surprise that my iPod Touch gave me the answer I was looking for. While surfing for apps a few weeks ago, I came across a little FREE gem called LoseIt!

LoseIt! is a calorie counting app for those of us with very short attention spans. When you sign up, the app asks you for your age, height, current weight and (I think) gender. Then it asks you what your goal weight is, and how many pounds you want to lose per week. Being a reasonable app, you're limited to a max of 2 pounds. It then calculates how long it'll take you to lose that weight, giving you the date you'll reach your goal. It also tells you how many calories you can take in every day in order to lose the weight you want every week.

Then the fun starts.

Every day, you enter in the food you eat. The app comes pre-loaded with all sorts of foods from almost every major brand name and restaurant out there, along with generic foods like peanut butter or bananas. Bear in mind that this is an American-based app, though, so Canadian content is scarce. The good news is that you can add custom foods with all of the nutritional information you want to capture. You can also enter recipes and the system will calculate the caloric content for you! As you enter food and drinks you've had throughout the day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, the system counts the calories down for you, letting you know how many calories you have left for the day and whether you're over or under your daily goal. As you weigh yourself weekly or monthly or whenever, you record your new weight in the app so it can keep track of your progress.

Since misery loves company, the app lets you find friends who are also using the app, so you can keep tabs on each other, encourage each other, call each other out...whatever floats your boat. You can set alerts to send you e-mail reports on a weekly basis, or to remind you if you've forgotten to enter a meal at any point. You can also set it up to send updates to your Facebook or Twitter accounts so you can share your progress with your friends...which might help to keep you honest.

Did I mention that the app is FREE? Not too shabby, huh? After 3 weeks and 9 pounds, I'm still trucking along, annoying the heck out of my husband by whipping out my iPod Touch before every meal, and Googling nutritional information before going out to any restaurants. I figure this app is going to be as important to me for the rest of my natural life as a blood sugar monitor is to a diabetic. After all, if I don't stay on top of things, I just might be needing a blood sugar monitor one day, so I might as well stick with this particular gadget that lets me play games or listen to music at the same time. Like I need another excuse to grow more attached to my gadgets.