Runner Dad

After a couple of weeks of using the new tools I described in my previous entry, I am still very excited about them. Here's a few more details. The image above is the "Eat Meter" that is an option component of the free Calorie Counter Plus membership, and resides right up there in your Firefox toolbar. As you log the day's food, you can watch the meter move to the left (and turn orange and then red). Nice little reminder that helps you pace your day's intake.

CCP turns out to be pretty easy to use. I have some minor grumbles about the interface, but considering it is free, it's easy to overlook them. I tried looking around at alternatives, but I didn't see anything else that is free that offers all of the features.

Here's a picture of my new scale, a no frills $26 Health-O-Meter. This replaces the old spring model. I wish I had gotten this a while ago. This thing is so accurate-- I tried weighing myself 10 times, and it gave the same number each time. The old springer would usually give me 10 different answers, even if I re-zeroed it between each weighing. Fun fact: I have experimented and found that I sometimes weigh 3 or 4 lbs less in the morning than I do before going to bed. Some of that is pee but a substantial part is fluid loss from respiration and perspiration. This brings me to my next topic:

The daily variation in fluid is the major motivation for charting method of the Hacker's Diet. Since my last post I have created an account (free!) to use the online tracking tools on the authors web site. I really like how it plots your history, using a weighted averaging method to smooth out the bumps and help you understand how you are really doing. Below is a shot from a few days ago. The red line is the calculated trend (lookin' good so far!) and the blue diamonds are what my scale tells me. The web site also allows you to configure a widget that lets you display your live progress. If I did this correctly you should be able to see it there on the right of this page.