No Wonder I'm So FAT!...

I don't often plug websites here on CHEESE (just other MS blogs :) ) unless they have some connection to Multiple Sclerosis...this IS an MS blog, after all, and I like to stick with the topic at hand...unless, of course, my political/religious/philosophical/spiritual/financial/health care opinion is in NEED of being broadcast to the entire world. And it is unfortunately ME who decides that need (versus a straw poll amongst all 3 of you that read this blog!).

But, in the same vein of "feeling good", I wanted to share with all y'all a website I have been using for the past 3 weeks as a means of tracking my daily intake...otherwise known as my "intake plan" (what some might shamelessly refer to as the dirty "D" word...diet). I have found it to be most enlightening and useful in my purpose of becoming more AWARE of what I am shoving down my throat in the name of nutrition.

The website is called, "The Daily Plate", and is found at http://www.thedailyplate.com/ . The most impressive aspect of this website is the fact it is FREE...yes, I said FREE! All one needs to do is sign up (no, they don't ask for the name of your first born or a credit card "just in case"...it really is FREE), then begin using the program as you see fit. The site can track your weight, your daily intake, your weight and calorie goals, your weight loss goals, provides a daily entry for diary purposes, and gives clear, graphic representation of the basic components of one's dietary intake such as protein, carbs, fats, sodium, and cholesterol. It has a "food bank" list of well over 1,000 different foods found in restaurants and grocery stores, so inputting data onto your "daily plate" is fairly easy...it even allows for manual input of calories if you can't find a particular food and also allows you to put in any exercise accomplishments (the site will even subtract your "sweat burning calories" out of your daily allowances, giving a net caloric intake).

I have found the site to be most useful in really coming to terms around JUST HOW MUCH CRAP I HAVE BEEN EATING FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS! For instance, (and hypothetically speaking...LOL) did you know that ONE Hostess HOHO costs 125 calories?!? One measly, little HOHO...geez. And a pat of butter weighs in at a hefty 36 calories??? Well, you get the picture...my "treats" that I have been treating myself with for the past umpteen years have been depositing on my back side (OK...I admit it...my FRONT SIDE, too) at a hefty (pun intended) cost!

It is with great shame and guilt I DID take the half naked photos that most food gurus suggest one snaps as they begin making changes in their daily intake...I discovered my a$$ was so big (I can't see it regularly, so I just assumed the caboose was proportionate), I needed a panoramic lens with wide angle adjustment just to capture the scene in its entirety! I discovered every, little HOHO had not so nicely deposited to my back side...little yummy bastids...how DARE they?!?

Anywhooo...if you find yourself looking for a way to keep better track of your intake (I now suffer from food PTSD, so use with caution), The Daily Plate offers a useful resource in doing so. And, no...I was NOT paid in any way to advertise this. Besides, I would only want payment via a life time shipment of HOHO's at this point anyway...