Tuesday, March 11, 2014

"There's an app for that."

One of the difficulties with healthy, on-campus eating is tracking what you are putting in your body. Some foods that are typically assumed to be healthy, such as salad wraps, can be deceivingly high in saturated fats and carbohydrates due to oils, dressings, and poorly made tortilla wraps.  I have never been one to "calorie count" but I do like to know nutritional facts (protein, carbohydrates, fats, etc.) of the foods I eat.  This is important to me not necessarily for weight loss but to assist in reaching my fitness goals.  Different types of workouts are optimized by different types of nutritional intakes.  For example, if I am planning on going on a long run I will consume more carbohydrates and slightly increase my non-saturated fat intake than if I am planning a weight-lifting routine which would require an increase in protein and less carbohydrates and fats.



So how can a student who lives on campus and is limited to on-campus dining options track and record their nutritional intake?  Fortunately "there's an app for that."  But in all seriousness there really is.

Featured Smartphone Application

MyFitnessPal is a free app available for Iphone and Android smartphones.  It is designed to help you reach your weigh loss goals by tracking caloric intake (I do not use it for this feature) as well as other important nutritional data.  The reason this app sets itself apart from the other nutrition tracking websites or apps, particularly for LMU students, is because it has a very large meal nutrition database, which includes Sodexo meals.  For those who do not know, Sodexo is contracted to run all of LMU's dining services.  The app allows you to look up meals you purchase, log their nutritional statistics, and review your daily/weekly totals.  This is a great feature, especially when you are trying to manage specific intakes, such as high protein and low saturated fats.  Using the app is easy as well.  All you have to do is:

  1. Download the MyFitnessPal app.
  2. Set up your personal account (all you need is an email and to answer a few fitness-related questions).
  3. Search "Sodexo Campus" in the "search for a food" bar.
  4. Browse the meal selections and find one that aligns with your nutritional needs for that day/week.
  5. Add the meal to your personal tracker and the nutritional totals will automatically be added to your daily/weekly totals.
  6. Purchase your selected meal.
For example, if I already know I want to get the turkey burger at the Ignite Grill in the Lair I will open the app on my phone, search for "Sodexo Campus Turkey Burger," choose the correct meal from the list, and press "Add Food."  Below is an example of what the screen should look like.


What's Next?

Next week I will feature another highly effective, high-intensity exercise and compare my current health and fitness levels (weight, abdominal circumference, strength, endurance, etc.) with those taken three weeks ago.

Final approach in sight. Over and out.
MJH



  




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