Nine long years
Muse #478 - my tools and crutches
Last week I completed nine years with MyFitnessPal. A continuous chain that never broke. Not a single day. Right now my run is for 3,295 days. Even when I had heart surgery I pre-logged a few days of saline drips estimated intake and later adjusted it to the food I consumed. I am that passionate.
Tools are as good as only how one uses them. I have written about my use of these as an alternate brain here, here, and here. I am addicted to food among other things. And it is a constant battle between being healthy and going crazy with my eating habits. I crave food, and sometimes I could even eat the kitchen sink along with it.
The tools help me in a variety of ways. I refer to it all day long as I go to keep track of where I am. Both from a calorific intake point of view as well as my intake ratios and targets - macronutrients like carbs, protein, fat, trans fat, cholesterol, fiber, sugar, and micronutrients like omega-3, omega-6, vitamins, and minerals, etc.
I also weigh myself and log it generally weekly so that I use this as a data point against my cravings and intake. If I see my weight go up I adjust my food intake as a response to it. Or add exercise. Or often both. An active data-based feedback loop.
Sometimes these behaviors seem obsessive. But positive obsessive behaviors and habits are a balancing loop against addictions. This is not any different from AA participants keeping track of how many days they remained sober. Tools like these help counter the humanness in us and allow us to be cognizant that this is the way we are designed to be.