How to Gain Mindfulness and Weight Control by Using MyNetDiary Tracking App

In this post I share how I have gained health mindfulness, managed weight, and controlled my blood sugar in large part to a tracking app called MyNetDiary. This app has a web-based interface but I typically use the iOS app.

A lot of people have been asking me recently about what I’ve done the last few months to lose 20 pounds and gain control of my blood sugar. I wrote about being mindful of the gap between reality and ideal in an earlier post and my health was the subject. I do love data. So, I thought I would maximize the full potential of the MyNetDiary premium. That way I could see the reality of the food I ate and what was healthy or not, how much I was eating, etc.. Here’s what I did:

Upgrade to Premium Account

• Upgraded my subscription to premium which involves an annual fee of $60. This gave me the features I needed for tracking blood sugar, medications, picking my low carb diet for coaching advice, etc.
• Set up my weight and activity level goal as well as my diet preference (low carbohydrate). Then I could calculate macronutrient goals (carbs, proteins, fats). This adjusted my basic calorie budget so I knew what my daily target would be both with and without my daily exercise.
• Added the diabetic management elements in settings. Then I begin logging my blood sugar and medications on a daily basis.

Tracking Everything

Once I was set up I started logging for every meal. Here is what a typical day is like for me with this app:

• Wake up and test my blood sugar and log it into the app.
• The first time you log the food you have to search for it. Typically I just use the scanner feature to scan the package and input the amount.
• Once the meal is entered you can easily pull it from a menu or copy from the day before. Making healthy food habitual is great for losing weight.
• I do the same for my vitamins and supplements which get logged as part of my breakfast.
• I usually drink some water before my morning coffee so I hit the water icon and log that too.
• At lunchtime there is a little more variety for me. I’ve found there’s typically only 3-4 types of lunches I have and it can mix and match a little. As with breakfast the app stores my selections and I can select from a list.
• Dinners are trickier but follow a simple pattern. I can build a recipe based upon ingredients. I’ve found that’s better than importing something random that can be inaccurate. I do select new things from the database every now and then. For example we buy a lot from Costco and I find Kirkland brands are often in the database. The database is very extensive.
• Kristen and I have even tried new recipes. MyNetDiary allows you to import recipes that you find online and will bring the ingredients into your tracker. That’s a simple way to get everything when you are trying something new and it works with a lot of recipe sites.

Build Mindfulness from the Tracking

• Over time what has built up now for me is a database of three months worth of foods. Realistically, we are buying the same stuff from Costco and Fred Meyer anyway, so it didn’t take long.
• Every day I can look at the analysis of the day and see how I’m doing on my carbs, protein and fats, but it also gives me a list of a couple dozen nutrients.
• Finally, every week I get to see my analysis of how many calories I took in and how much I expended.
• Since I’m weighing myself I can see if I’m losing according to what the app suggests I should be losing.
• I’ve also enjoyed the game of getting my food score closer to an “A” by choosing higher quality foods and eliminating foods that are graded less.
• Tracking has become habitual now, and I don’t feel it takes much time at all, especially as I input while I’m preparing food. Sometimes I even plan ahead by pre-inputing and it reminds how I need to control my portions and shows me where I need to make trade-offs — eg. to get that piece of chocolate in as a treat (which I never want to miss).

I can definitely say this app has helped me a ton in learning about different foods, becoming aware of what I was eating and how that was affecting my blood sugar, and making progress toward my goals. I’d totally recommend something like this for someone getting serious about weight loss, or even better, just changing their lifestyle.

Question: Do you have a way of tracking healthy habits such as nutrition that works for you?

Leave a note in the comments or send me a message if you found this helpful or want to add to the conversation! As always, let me know if I can help you on the path to your best self.

Enjoy your path this week,

Jeff