Back in December, someone posted on Facebook asking about a website/mobile app called Lift. It was supposed to be something to help people establish new habits or work on achieving goals.  I hadn’t heard it, but I decided to give it a look.  That choice has spawned a whole bunch of activities on my part since then, and I think the process is interesting.  There are a lot of tools out there to use on your phone, tablet, or computer.  I use several of them to try to improve my overall health.  The most important thing is, you still have to do the work.  The tools are just that — tools to help keep you on track to achieving your goals.

I use Macs, iPhones, and iPads, but there are Windows and Android apps or websites (well, websites work regardless of platform, that’s one of the nice things about them) for all these things (in some cases, the apps are the same; in others, you’ll need to find a Windows app to accomplish the same thing).

Last February, I began using a website/app called Lose It!  Lose It! is for keeping your food and exercise log electronically.  Lots of websites/apps will do this with varying options — Weight Watchers and SparkPeople are two others I’ve used.  The free version of Lose It! will do basic things — allow you to set weight loss goals and generate a recommended daily calorie limit to work with to achieve the goal you want in the time you want to do it.  Play with the numbers until you get something you can live with. The Premium version allows a lot more goal tracking as well as integration with other apps you might use, like RunKeeper or Fitbit. I quickly decided it was worth $40 a year, and I just renewed for $10 off that by renewing before the expiration date.  Lose It! is very reasonable in how they’ve put together their business model.

In May, I traded my manual pedometer for a Fitbit.  I’ve talked about that before in this space.  They also have a premium mode, but I haven’t chosen to subscribe to it.  So far, I get enough value from their free part of the website and linking to Lose It!.  I don’t enter food into Fitbit, but Lose It! will synchronize what I enter with Fitbit.  Synchronization is incomplete between the two apps, so it took a little trial and error to find out what works best.  For me, I input food and exercise into Lose It!, a input water into Fitbit, and I enter weight in both of them.  I track most other goals in Lose It! (carbs, protein, blood pressure, heart rate, and a few more.  Sleep synchronized from the Fitbit, so I set up tracking on Lose It! for it — if manual entry was required, I wouldn’t have done it.

In December, I began using Lift.  Lift is built upon the science of positive reinforcement. The website/app is under nearly constant development.  You can generate a task for yourself to do every day, you can devise a plan of your own to follow, or you can sign up for any or all of their existing plans that meet your needs.  I’ve seen people with a dozen or so going at any one time.  I am more comfortable with just a few.  I started with three: Daily Decluttering, 3 Months to a New You, and Become a Writing Machine.  I’m on the second time through Daily Decluttering and Become a Writing Machine.  I’m in the second month of 3 Months to a New You.

During Christmas week, I saw a tweet about Lift’s Quantified Diet Study. They’re taking a look at ten popular diets (all healthy).  It’s a scientific study, and they encouraged people to allow a random selection of their diet.  That wasn’t going to work for me — I had to have a diet that wouldn’t disrupt my husband’s life, and he’s a very picky eater.  I was in luck, though, I could select only those diets I was willing to participate in.  I made sure I was “randomized” into The Mindful Eating Diet.  This would integrate completely with my husband’s preferences and it would help me work on the single most influential aspect of dietary success — my brain.

Shortly after beginning the Mindful Eating Diet, I took a look at a 12 day plan called Meditation 101.  It provided a brief introduction to meditation.  I enjoyed the plan, but didn’t want to repeat it again and again, so I archived it when I finished.

I also developed a personal technique using my phone’s camera app and a journaling app (Day One) I had on the phone but hadn’t found a use for.  I talk about it in a Medium.com article here. This article has been picked up by four or five communities on Medium, so some people must be finding it useful or at least worthwhile.

I’m very encouraged by this process of using the phone camera to help me modify my eating habits.  As a result, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve chosen to reduce portion sizes for breakfast cereal (no, you really don’t have to fill the bowl) and ice cream (same principle).  I’m also looking at several other areas to modify in my diet as a result of preserving the meal and analyzing it later.

From the mindful aspect of the program, where I put the fork down between bites, chew carefully paying attention to flavor, texture, and whether I really want to bother with this food again, I’m eating more slowly and have found several meals or foods in my diet I don’t particularly care if I eat very often.  I’m going to phase those out.

I put these observations in the Day One entries for that meal — either the before, during, or after picture, depending upon where it’s more appropriate.  No, I don’t journal throughout the meal.  I also don’t take a picture if anyone other my husband or me are at our table with us — I don’t want to attract attention to the process.  By telling Day One to use the time of the picture for the entry, I can easily calculate how long it took me to eat the meal, so I can tell if I was unconsciously rushing or not.  I don’t know how long I’ll do this.  I suspect I’ll do it for a few months and then periodically to check that I’m on track, but I’m finding more benefits from the photo journaling than I’ve ever gotten from food logging.

Your mileage may vary — I offer these suggestions if you’re looking for other alternatives than what you’re using now.  Perhaps these tools could be adapted for other purposes?  There are a wide variety of plans on Lift ranging from fitness to sleeping to not using technology to even doing math problems in your head or how to be a more effective leader.

What are some ways you use technology to make life better for you?