Monday, June 23, 2008

Fred Harteis News Articles- Ten Ways Technology Can Help You Lose Weight (and Keep It Off)

Fred Harteis News Articles - In a recent study covered, researchers concluded that people who lose weight are more likely to keep it off if they have personal support rather than finding it on the Internet. While we're not going to disagree with a bunch of doctors, we thought we'd stick up for technology and provide you some Web sites and gadgets that are excellent for shedding some pounds -- permanently. Beach season is here, whether you're ready or not, so check out our list to see if technology can help you.

Send a text message with your cell phone, then get instant calorie, carb, and nutritional information...
Eating at a restaurant generally means you're ordering something without knowing the actual nutritional value. Now, thanks to the people at Diet.com, you can simply send a text to Diet1 (34381) with the restaurant name and the menu item and you'll get back information on the item's calories, fat, carbs, and protein for free (except your carrier's texting fee). You can get info on thousands of food and drink items from over 1700 restaurants, which are mainly chains. If you'd rather save on the texting charges, go to healthydiningfinder.com before you dine out.

Join an online support group...
Reports generally say in-person support groups are more effective than online versions, but if there aren't any in-person support groups in your area, then cyberspace may be your only option. Shapeup.org has a maintenance center in its support area that provides helpful tips, among a variety of resources. But for a more personal touch, try MyDietBuddy.com or WeightLossBuddy.com, which are membership services that pair you with other members for support. Both are free, but the latter has an extra premium plan for $39.95 a year that includes a variety of features such as recipes, meal plans, exercises, and more. There are some free options, as well: Overeaters Anonymous offers online meetings and e-mail support and costs nothing, so you're not left alone if you're away or unavailable. There are plenty of people out there who need help, just like you, so join and reap the benefits.

Let your iPod (and some smart running shoes) coach you...
Whether you're into rap, metal, or classical, good tunes are a big help when you're running. The Nike + iPod Sport Kit connects a sensor in your sneaker wirelessly to an iPod nano. Along your run, your iPod will show your time, distance, pace, and calories burned, and comes with a voice option that tells you when you've reached certain achievements along your route. If you don't have an iPod, the new Nike+ SportBand performs similar functions without a music player. To track your progress, there's an internal USB link that lets you download all the information to your computer to track your progress at nikeplus.com.

Take a picture of your food, then send it to myFoodPhone for instant nutritional and diet feedback...
Whether you're dieting, trying to maintain weight, or just looking for advice on eating better, you can get it all using your camera phone with the myFoodPhone service. Rather than keep a log of all your meals like you do with other diet services, you take pictures of what you eat and send them to the service so others can evaluate the portions and ingredients of your meals. For the standard $9.95 a month plan, you'll get personal counseling from the staff dietician on your nutrition. MycaNutrition is the same service, only it's licensed to an independent dietician and you can arrange for different options ranging from the standard price up to hundreds of dollars. You can also find buddies on the site's community area, which allows you to give and receive advice to others out there. Either way, it keeps you more honest and gets you better insight than a standard diet log.
Subscribe and listen to some inspirational, useful, and humorous podcasts...
Sometimes it's better to listen to weight loss advice, whether it's from a pro or someone who's been through it, and luckily there are a variety of weight-loss-related podcasts, which you can download for free to your iPod or computer. Diet.com offers a number of entries, including "Drink To Your Health: 5 Good Beers" and "Gut Busting Laughter." Then there's Jimmy Moore, who lost over 180 pounds, and his weekly show, "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb," which provides information and inspiration. Or, if you want a little more humor, go for "Dr. Fitness and The Fat Guy" for advice and laughs.

Take Weight-Watchers with you in your pocket....
Making the right dieting choices when you're at a restaurant, party, or supermarket can be difficult. To help this, Weight Watchers offers their "On-the-Go" system, which you download to your PDA to keep track of your meals and get advice. Then, you can sync it to your online account to log your points. There are different subscription options, so check the Weight Watchers Web site for whatever suits you.

Play video games? (Yes, play video games).
'Grand Theft Auto' might not make you a better person in any way, but don't write off video games entirely. You can, in fact, actually exercise with some video games. Have you ever broken a sweat playing 'Dance Dance Revolution'? Well, there you go. Now, if you can get your hands on one, the Nintendo Wii Fit comes with 40 different exercise activities for its pressure sensitive gaming system. Then, there's always the old Wii, which a man named Mickey DeLorenzo used to lose nine pounds by playing the included sports game. Now, he's at it again with Fit. Believe it or not, it actually works.

Get more out of your regular jogs.....
If you want to know exactly where you are and how well you're doing when you're out jogging, then the Garmin Forerunner 405 is for you. This watch is GPS-enabled so you'll never get lost and you can record your paths, speed, and distance to compete against yourself or a virtual partner later. For an extra $50, you get a heart rate monitor, and all the data can be wirelessly synced to your computer via Garmin's ANT+Sport technology. It comes in two colors and, of course, tells you the time.

Accusplit AE170XLG Pedometers
If you'd rather save some coin to monitor your exercise, this pedometer from Accusplit is the way to go. For $30, it tracks your steps, distance, elapsed time, and calories burned as you walk or jog. You can adjust your weight and stride length for greater accuracy, as well as set goals for yourself to keep motivated. Sure, it's not as flashy as the Nike+iPod system, but it sure is less expensive and gets the job done while keeping you healthy.

Get yourself an online coach....
There are plenty of fitness and nutrition sites out there, but few have as many experts as the one from AOL Coaches. You can find articles and podcasts on a variety of topics, get professional analysis of a variety of other diets out there, and have your questions answered by the experts and fellow readers. Where else can you get advice from both John O'Hurley (of 'Seinfeld' and 'Dancing With The Stars' fame) and Richard Simmons?

About Fred Harteis: Fred Harteis leads Harteis International. Fred Harteis has a background in agriculture and has created many successful business ventures.

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