My Fitness Pal

Like many of you (especially this time of the year), my husband and I are buckling down and making a real fitness effort. A week at a resort pool left us both feeling like a couple of dough balls and we knew changes were needed.

Also like many of you, we have sampled many tactics and programs to achieve fitness. We have tried all the popular diet plans from Weight Watchers to Atkins to South Beach. We've worked out together and separately in gyms, at home and sometimes, in group classes. Still, we resemble dough balls.

At a recent lunch, my friend shared a website she really found effective called My Fitness Pal. Available online or as an app, she found it user-friendly and easy. That very evening, my daughter shared the exact same site with my husband. I didn't know she had been using it, but she has been making great progress in her own quest for fitness. Now, my husband is hooked. He is constantly checking in, scanning products to gather nutritional information, determining how many calories he has burned and checking his projected outcome. And it is working! He has broken through a wall and is losing weight steadily.

Here's the problem: I thought I was his Fitness Pal. Instead of talking calories to me, he's ogling his app. Instead of simply accepting the healthful meal I have so lovingly prepared, he logs every morsel into his program. He peeks at it when he thinks I am not looking to seek out some calorie burning activity. A recent cell phone catastrophe sent him into a tailspin. Oh no! Lost your contacts? Nope, he thought he had lost his Fitness Pal. No worries, it was still there when he logged onto the site from the internet.

Still, I have to admit, it is working. It is not that he loves or trusts me less, it is that I am more forgiving than his other Fitness Pal. Need a cookie? Of course you do! A tiny bit more dinner? It's because you love my cooking. Skip the gym? Yes, lets stay home and cuddle. His Fitness Pal holds him accountable for all choices throughout the day. I love him as is.

So, in the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" spirit, I am following his lead. I don't have an account but make better choices when he does. If it's working for him, it will likely work for me. I am putting bruised feelings aside and going with the program. If, however, his Fitness Pal suddenly has a name like, say, Jacqueline, there will be trouble.