2008-08-07

Interesting!

I joined SparkPeople last night. It is that diet site that may have been mentioned on one or several other blogs and I thought it sounded interesting.

According to the information I input about my age and height and weight, and the high cholesterol, I should be eating about 1800-2000 something calories/day. I input what I figured would be what I ate in a normal day and I get about 15-1600 calories from the food alone. (We will not discuss the coke intake - besides, it is about half what it was and I am going to change that to even less)

I was well within the fat amounts, low on the protein side and the carb side. I am going to just track my usual eating for a few days and see what needs to be tweaked.

The one thing I can't find is how to tell it that I am allergic to foods, when I ask it to give me a food plan for the day. It wants me to eat bananas and well, frankly that ain't gonna happen. It will also I am sure ask me to eat shellfish and mushrooms and peppers too! I am sure I will find a way to do it though.

I will also be tracking my exercise with it. It is quite the site, it has exercises from beginner on up and you tell it what you are doing and it tracks everything for you.

There are groups on there that you can join and get moral support from and challenges to join. You can set up friends and blog even. So if anyone that reads this is a member and would like to be "my friend" or just stalk me on SparkPeople my name over there is FATREB. Yeah, I figured Sibu would be insulted at being used for a diet place and Pegasus was already taken.

Have a good day all.

15 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

Easy allergy tests: Seems to me I read somewhere that you stand up and hold the food in question in your hands and close your eyes. If you start to fall forward you're okay, if you start to fall backward the food's no good. I may have that backward, however, and I don't know where to check it.
Or hold a bit of it in your non-dominant hand and make a circle with thumb and index finger. Use your dominant hand to pull the thumb and finger apart. If it's difficult the food is good, but if it is easy the food is bad for you.
I use this tests for determining if I need to buy a particular crystal.
Or there's always medical tests.
I may not have been all that much help.

Reb said...

Uh, thanks Leah! I have a pretty good idea what my system won't tolerate. I am fortunate that they are just intolerances too and not usually toxic allergies.

Jay said...

I've never heard of that site. I'll have to check it out.

Reb said...

Jay, the only pressure is what you put on yourself, which is kind of nice.

the Bag Lady said...

Sounds interesting, sis. I'll have to give it a look.
And good for you for taking that first step.

Reb said...

Thanks Sis. Have a look, it's free after all.

Hilary said...

It does indeed sound interesting. Good luck with it, Reb.

Reb said...

Thanks Hilary.

Fortune Cookies said...

reb - they want you to eat bananas for the potassium and fiber, you can get both from apricots, or dark green leafy veggies such as spinach or turnip greens.
As far as determining if you have an allergy to a food, you have to isolate the food. Easier to go to Dr. and have allergy tests run. Otherwise, you eliminate all but the one thing you may be allergic to, then slowly add more foods to the diet until you have a reaction. when the reaction happens, the last food item added is the trigger. make sense?
Thanks for the 411 on that site by the way! I'm off to check it out now.

Reb said...

Thanks FC. I just can't digest bananas, they sit like rocks for days in my system.

Barbara Martin said...

Reb, I have a herbal remedy book that has a method on how to find what foods you are allergic to. Tomorrow I will send you via email the method. It has to do with your heart rate after you eat a particular food. Your pulse will quicken during an allergic reaction: I've had this happen with prescription drugs.

Anonymous said...

YAY I love that site because of the fact their caloric recommendations are so realistic!

Miz.

Reb said...

Barbara, thanks that sounds great.

Mizfit, it is kind of cool to track what you are eating.

Anonymous said...

I used to do SparkPeople (KCinLacey) but haven't logged on since I moved. I found I was spending more time reading forums than I was getting off my butt and exercising!! Bad of me, wasn't it? Now I just spend too much time reading blogs...
However, it is a helpful site if you don't get too lost in the forums. ;) You don't have to eat their menus - just documenting your food intake and seeing where you are spending your calories is pretty cool. Or pretty humiliating.

Reb said...

Kcinnova, thanks. I am going to avoid the forums for the most part I think anyway, because I spend so much time blogging. But yes, It is helpful to find where your calories are coming from. And the exercises they can set for you are a help to.