Appy New Year!

I’m not one for resolutions. For two reasons, one, I don’t like rules, I don’t like living within a strict code and secondly I’m old enough to know any ideas I have of not eating cake, or vowing to exercise more will be short lived. So I’ve not set any New Years’ Resolutions for many years. I like it that way; it’s a no fail plan. There is no guilt and I can eat cake whenever I want, only less now. Too much sugar gives me a hangover and makes me feel depressed.

A friend told me about an app that counts your kilojoules. It tells you how much you have eaten for the day and breaks it down into fat and carbs and then you add your exercise, if any. I looked at the free version, put in my weight and height and start entering my food. Pretty much straight away, I encountered some problems. The extensive food log does not list pavlova, or huevos rancheros, or a few bits of chicken, with left over potato salad and lasagne. It is too precise.  Also I don’t really know how many kilojoules are in anything. The app tells you if you go over your recommended food intake after you enter the last meal in. I can’t un-eat. On the first day, I went over my quota by lunch, so went to bed without dinner after the app told me I had exceeded my daily requirement.

The next day at the gym I set the rowing machine to 100 calories, whatever that means. I’m visual. I need the settings to show me two pieces of cake or one Big Mac. I need to know if I burned off that cupcake I didn’t need to eat this afternoon, or if I can have another. I work out for a 45 minute session but try to enter this into the app it has 30 mins or an hour work out, heavy weights, light weights, cardio or a class. I did a mix, I ran on the treadmill, I did some rowing, some leg curl things and some arm pulling down ones. They felt heavy. Was that a heavy work out?

I don’t think I need the app. I exercise when I can fit it in and when I feel energetic, I eat when I am hungry and sleep when I am tired. After two days of the app, I realise I can’t do rules, I don’t know kilojoules and my food is not measured in a neat 100g serving. I would like another kind of app. A better kind of wellness app, more rounded, not just about food, but about many aspects of my life I neglect or let slide.

I would like an app to send messages like “ You haven’t eaten any fruit for three days” “ You are getting anxious again, you need to meditate” “ Have you had any time out for you, off the grid, no devices, just thinking time this week ?” “How long has it been since you listened to some jazz and cooked ratatouille?” “Time for a walk in the bush” “ Ring your girlfriends, tee up a movie” “ Go on a date night” “ Why don’t you leave the washing, sit the hell down and put your feet up with a book and a cuppa?” “Perfect weather for the beach”. “ It’s time to turn off Netflix now and say hello to your family” I would purchase that app.

I don’t need a fit bit to tell me I have exercised enough. If I’ve had a serious session I usually can’t get off the lounge. I struggle to make a cup of tea after doing too many weights. I don’t need an app to tell me I’ve eaten too many carbs or fat. I can usually work that out based on how my body feels, if my mood is slumping or if I feel irritable. I know when I need to meditate, which is always more often than I do, and I know when I need me time, or time out, because that’s usually when I shout at the inanimate objects.

I’m getting out the diary now to schedule some things in for the year. I’ve got a lot to do, I won’t be making any rules, but a few deadlines should do the trick. Make sure you schedule in some time for you and do things that please you this year. Happy New Year!