Less Stress, More Life

Stress kills, we've all heard that...and it's true.  In addition to sapping your focus and productivity, disrupting your peace, and making you feel, well, miserable, stress leads to heart attacks, strokes, and even obesity.  It causes rising levels of hormone that attack every cell of your body.

Telling someone "not to stress" probably causes more of the same, in addition to making you just want to, quite honestly, slap the person that told you that since they obviously failed to recognize (or seem to care about) the reality of whatever situation is causing your stress in the first place. That's a platitude with no real solution. In order to conquer stress, you need a real strategy. It requires work, effort, and a plan. 

Strategy. If certain situations cause you stress, it's time to make a list of potential strategies to address these situations. Just putting it down on paper will help to make the situation a bit more conquerable. Finding a group of people similarly situated to help brainstorm solutions also helps, and nothing wrong with a little venting - so long as it leads to productive strategizing.

Exercise.  Well, the thought of it might create a bit more stress if it isn't part of your regular routine, but once it is you will find the release of endorphins and lowering of cortisol (and reduction of your waistline) a major stress-reliever. Join a gym if you like, or just start taking free, regular walks. A run on the beach is my favorite, but when that's not practical, a walk around the neighborhood will do just as well.

Meditation. Often shrouded in mystery, meditation is a real stress reliever, and can be practically done at any time of the day.  It can be as simple as finding a nice quiet place (my favorite is the local beach) and just taking a few moments to relax and enjoy the view. You can begin with a positive-thinking exercise.  

For a great start to your day, try this simple mediation technique:  

Think positive thoughts about how you want your day to be. Laugh at any obstacles that arise throughout your day.  

Massage. Aside from the many other health benefits of massage, it is an amazing stress-reliever.  Find a local therapist. If you found the perfect fit the first time - great! If not, get some recommendations and try a few until you find just the right one.  Best investigation experience you'll ever have :)

Implement these ideas and you'll see less stress, and find more things to enjoy about your life.  

Hint: 'like' the facebook pages below for updates and discounts.

Parenting strategy idea here or here.

Massage recommendation here and here. 

Product Reviews: MyFitnessPal vs LoseIt

New Years Resolutions almost always involve Health & Fitness goals.  To that end, we'll continue this week with another product review.  Last week I reviewed 2 fitness apps to get the new year off on the right 'foot' (pun intentional). This week we'll look at 2 apps that help you keep track of your nutrition.

Last year I spent 2 months on crutches following a wretched little mishap on the running trail.  That, combined with another couple of months of slowly getting back into a decent fitness routine and lots of lessons learned.  

Lesson 1: You can maintain your weight without exercise.  Well, you can but you have to eat WAY less, and that's really hard to do, especially if your body is used to a certain level of both activity and fuel.  Besides, it's no fun at all. 

Lesson 2: Keeping track of your food intake is critical, regardless of your activity level, if you want to attain even the most modest of fitness goals.  I've heard it said that you can't outrun a bad diet, and that's true. No level of exercise will compensate for poor nutrition.  And no exercise and no food monitoring will most likely equal weight gain :(

I've always preached the benefit of a food diary, and for years I just used a self-created excel spreadsheet but it wasn't always practical to carry around my laptop, so when I got my first iPod Touch, I found an app called LoseIt.  It's free and has been very helpful and convenient.  I just moved to an iPhone and was interested in comparing other similar apps, so  I decided to also try out MyFitnessPal, also free.

So let's compare the 2 apps:

Similarities: 

Both are Free. MyFitnessPal is ad supported, while LoseIt is just plain free.   

Both have community aspects, such as friend requests, community bulletin boards, things of that nature.  The community aspect seems a bit stronger on MyFitnessPal, and there are some weight loss tickers you can add to your profile if that appeals to you.  I don't much care about virtual friendships, they don't motivate me, but it's very helpful for many to have a circle of supporters in your journey.  I have added friends who I've convinced to try an app to my friend list and that was helpful to encourage and motivate each other. 

Both will calculate both calories and comprehensive nutrition information, include an activity tracker, barcode scanner, and reports function. MyFitnessPal has multiple reports that you generate online, LoseIt has a few reports that can be automatically emailed to you as an excel spreadsheet).  The reports function is a great feature, especially if you are working with a physician, nutritionist, or trainer - or if like me, you just want to track your own data.

I love the activity tracker since you get to see it give you extra food to eat - that's the best motivation for exercise I've ever found ;-)  Unfortunately, you do get a serious wake up call when you realize it's not that much more food, but still every calorie helps.

The barcode scanner is just cool! I didn't have that on the iPod Touch since I bought mine before it included a camera, so I had to enter any new foods that weren't in the database manually.  Most foods are there, but it's still way-cooler to scan than search :)

Key differences:

LoseIt: An app-based program with a web back-end.  The app was developed first and web-based logging came separate.  What that means is yes, you can do whatever you need from either the app or the web but the power really is in the app. 

Like it's name, it is weight-loss focused. There are no options for those wanting to use it for weight gain.  Well, I suppose you can, there's just no setting for it.

It's also a simple algorithm, so whatever you set it for, it will allot a calories/day limit that sometimes is far below safe.  I hope that's something they will address in later updates.

LoseIt has a much cleaner interface and you can move foods from one meal to the other within the app. You can also easily access previous meals so you can just add or modify them for a different day.

MyFitnessPal: A web-based program that seems to have added the app as a secondary support for the web.  You can do most things from the app, but some things can only be done from the web (like move an item from lunch to dinner instead of delete/add). 

There are weight gain or weight loss options, which is great for bodybuilders or those needing to gain weight. While gaining weight has never been difficult for me, I do have friends and family for which it is a problem and being able to set that goal is quite helpful for them.

The program will not let you go below 1200 calories/day - which is a safe limit, and without medical supervision no one should go below that anyway.

There are more food options in the database, which is very convenient for eating out or if you have a more international diet.  I've often used the MyFitnessPal website to custom-add foods to my LoseIt app.

You must actively save meals for the app to remember it. That works if you really want to save a meal, but I'd still rather it remember meals automatically without having to save it since I may or may not have the same thing again. Not a big deal, but still...

The app remembers recent items only by meals, so if you want to have the same thing for dinner that you had for lunch, you won't see it under recent items for dinner - you'll need to re-add it and then the next time it will be there. Again, a minor annoyance.

The app-interface is a bit cluttered. The web-interface is a much better user-experience.

Recommendations:

I'll start by saying I'm still using both, and I do like them both - for different reasons.  On this one, I find no clear winner and which app you prefer may ultimately depend on how and when you use it.  

If you want a primarily web-based program where you access your app only when you're out, then MyFitnessPal is probably your best bet.  Also, if you're looking for weight gain, it's one of the few options out there.

If you want a primarily app-based program with occasional web access, then LoseIt offers a much better user-experience on your mobile device. There are fewer foods in the database, and if you eat out or have a more international diet then you may find yourself having to custom-add foods.  And if you're only looking for weight-loss or maintenance, then this app could be for you.

Whichever one you choose, and I do highly recommend choosing one, use it daily and you will reach all of your fitness goals for 2012 and beyond!

Product Review: Nike+gps vs Runkeeper

If you got a shiny new iPod touch or iPhone for Christmas or are gearing up for a New Year's fitness resolution, then you're probably looking for some fitness tracking apps.  We'll compare two of the top contenders here, the choice is ultimately up to you but I'll try and share my experiences with these two programs. (Android options are beyond my experience, but I'll take a leap and assume the core features are about the same)

Nike+GPS ($1.99) vs Runkeeper (Free)

I'll start off by saying that both of these are great programs. I have used both for some time now and each has it's significant benefits.  I've often switched back and forth between the two and have yet to formally narrow it down to only one program.

Nike+GPS is available from the apple store for $1.99. It will coordinate with the Nike+iPod program if you've been using that application so all your runs will be available on your account.  Also, you can switch back and forth between the programs, a nice little feature if you've been tracking your progress through the nike site for some time.

Runkeeper is now free from the apple store, and there is an Elite subscription for $19.99/year that gives you access to additional features such as advanced reporting & feedback options, discounts on fitness classes and live broadcasting of your runs.

Community:

Both have a friends feature and community aspect that works well if any of your friends are also participating and you can post your runs to both facebook and twitter with either program.

The Nike website also has some nice features such as moving to different levels based on total mileage and some positive reinforcement messages from athletes.

Nike also has the ability to receive 'cheers' from your facebook fans, a nice little feature if you're competing in a run, or if you just want some kudos on your every day run.  This feature is only available as part of the Elite subscription in Runkeeper.

Features:

Runkeeper is the hands down winner on total feature set.  You can track various activities and you have several feedback options.  Personally, I like having feedbacks at both mileage and timing intervals. Nike only allows one or the other.

Nike+ also integrates with sites like dailymile, which is a really nice feature if you're using that site as it will import all your runs with ease.

The gps function is weaker on the iPod Touch than on the iPhone, and Nike+ has a built-in accelerometer that helps compensate for weak gps signals, and also allows you to use the app with some degree of accuracy on treadmill runs as well.

Runkeeper will integrate with certain heartrate monitors while the Nike+gps app currently does not (though the Nike+iPod (another free app) will and as said before, you can switch back and forth between apps and still save all your runs). 

Nike will loop your chosen playlist if your run goes longer than the music you selected while Runkeeper will not, and there is no option to re-start the music. If your activity exceeds your playlist in Runkeeper, you'll have to manually go back into music and make a selection.

Recommendations:

If you live in an area with spotty gps, you're only wanting to track runs &/or walks, you want to use a single app for your indoor treadmill runs as well (or primarily indoor runs, or if you use the iPod touch, then Nike+gps is a hands-down winner.

If you like tracking multiple activities, prefer more feedback options, and are using an iPhone in an area with decent gps coverage, then Runkeeper is a must-have.

Shortcomings: I really wish there were a shoe mileage tracker on either of these programs.  For now, I've downloaded a free app, but it would be nice to have that feature fully integrated.

Start the year off right, download a free or cheap app and get out there!