Comments on: Ask the Readers: Best Tools for Tracking Resolutions?

By: lisa

lisa — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:36:57 +0000

I like about.com’s calorie counter plus. I paid for weightwatchers.com for a while, but this is better (and it’s free!). You also get the really cool analyzer to tell you how your nutrition is doing each day, (A , A-,etc.,) so you focus on the right things like vitamins, potassium count, etc. — not just weight

By: glacier

glacier — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:54:07 +0000

Another site which could be added to the fitness category is http://www.nutrlog.com

I like the fact that they allow you to enter your own calories burned. Plus they also have a bigger food database including an increasing list of brand foods.

By: Dusitn

Dusitn — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 02:48:22 +0000

I use my head; it just works for me.

By: The Saint

The Saint — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:54:50 +0000

I use BIM (Bones in Motion) from my Verizon Phone..it works great and I don’t need to log anything..the phone does it for me.

http://bimactive.com/ba/ui/land_main.php

PS. it’s 9.99 a month

By: Joe’s Blog » Blog Archive : Joe’s Goals in the news (a lot) » Joe’s Goals in the news (a lot)

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:14:40 +0000

[...] Get Rich Slowly: “Ask the Readers: Best Tools for Tracking Resolutions? Joe?s Goals is an easy-to-use goal-tracking app. It lets you track positive and negative goals, and keeps a daily record of your progress. It?s free!” [...]

By: Dusty

Dusty — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:56:37 +0000

Ditto on the SparkPeople.com recommendation. It’s a great site for keeping track of a lot of different things, and can provide recommendations based on your goals (lose X amount of weight in Y amount of time, for example).

By: Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:32:27 +0000

Nice post J.D., I was working on one just like this. Thanks too for the NetworthIQ link.

For the Fitness category, I was looking at Traineo, it’s got a cool look to it. Here’s some others too:

PEERtrainer
FunBeat
FitLink.com

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:00:20 +0000

Sparkpeople.com is really good.

By: tylerwillis

tylerwillis — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:38:45 +0000

I used http://www.thedailyplate.com/ when I was actively losing weight. I no longer use it, for the simple fact that I got tired of entering food data in all the time - something that would be detrimental to any site, I think. However, I used it long enough to A: lose the weight I wanted and B: get a good grasp on how many calories a lot of the foods I eat regularly have, thus enabling me to continue even without the site.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:17:39 +0000

I second the recommendation for sparkpeople.com. It’s like a more updated, fully-featured version of fitday with lots of good articles, tracking and goal-setting features, and tons of support options…

By: j0lt

j0lt — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:13:49 +0000

A better nutrition/fitness tracker than fitday is sparkpeople.com. It’s free, it has message boards and tips (if you want) and you can use it to track calories fitness & other goals.

By: William Mize

William Mize — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:01:42 +0000

As of two days ago, I have fallen in love with Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com); it’s like Google’s customizable home page, only BETTER.
I have a tab set up for each area of my life, and have sticky notes and To Do Lists, etc. on each tab.
I’m trying to drink the David Allen-GTD Kool Aid, and I’m using it as my main collecting area.
We loves it, yes we do.

By: J.D.

J.D. — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:46:23 +0000

What’s a negative goal?

Goals should be framed in terms of what you want, not in terms of what you don’t want. In other words, you should write goals that lead you toward your objective rather than looking back at the problem. Here’s a wikipedia article on the NLP side of this concept.

By: Susan Carley Oliver

Susan Carley Oliver — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:35:07 +0000

What’s a negative goal?

I use the calendar function in Outlook. It’s easy to set up recurring appointments, so I just have an appointment asking me how I’m doing with x, y, and zed.

By: Maitresse

Maitresse — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:27:22 +0000

I’ve used Fitday for a while now, and I just want to warn that it’s inaccurate regarding calories burned. It’s a great tool for tracking diet, including calories, macronutrients, micronutrients, etc. But don’t believe how many calories it says you’re burning.

The only way to really know whether you have a calorie deficit or surplus is to step on the scale occasionally and see what your weight is doing. If you’re gaining, you have a surplus, regardless of what anything else says.

By: TMT

TMT — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:35:39 +0000

Great post, and thanks for all the great links & resources.

However, I would have to submit, based on personal experience, that you can’t discount the power of a simple solution — especially an easy paper-based solution.

You could get a moleskine notebook or a simple notepad. Write down your goals (preferably several copies) and put them where you’ll be sure to see them often — a copy taped to your bathroom mirror, a copy on dashboard of your car, copy taped to your computer monitor.

Then, every 2 weeks (or whatever timeframe works best for you), review the list, make adjustments, note your progress (or lack thereof) and refocus your efforts.

Often, with some of the software & web-based tools, I get so involved and enamored with the tracking tool, that I lose focus on what I’m actually supposed to be tracking.

Plus, pen & paper are highly mobile, easy to edit, and you can always reinforce with an online to-do list or one of the tools listed above.

Just my .02