Cronometer, Part 2

[calzephyr]

Since I started using Cronometer a week ago, a lot of good things happened!

• I lost a pound


• I discovered that I was low in vitamin B, D, E, K, magnesium and potassium. I bought supplements and tried to find good food sources for these. Right away I noticed that my hair was less dry and my skin less itchy


• I met daily water goals. Man, it's hard, but it felt good. Surprisingly, I wasn't peeing more like I thought :-)


• I discovered that I could be eating more protein - my diet is pretty carb heavy.


I found my FitBit and connected it to Cronometer so now I don't have to guess at my activity levels. If you use a fitness tracker, make sure to change your activity level in your profile settings otherwise Cronometer will over guess the amount of calories you burn in a day. It turns out that I also move a lot more than I would guess.

A huge part of Cronometer's appeal is to get a "high score" on your daily nutrition targets and, for me at least, it's a huge motivator. So far my personal best is 87%. The friend who recommended Cronometer to me gave me the cheat code - take a multivitamin :-D

Comments

[daryl_wor]

Oh goodie! I'm glad there are improvements you're seeing. Some of the vitamin lows remind me of my old ones. (Of course if we share common interests it's not unusual to share common physical structures. I see this pattern often.)

I'm crazy about my B-vitamins, I have a favourite that can be difficult to get. (Okay, I'm giving advice/ideas, I hope you don't mind.)

Magnesium is a major ally. I make sure to check how I feel and have some if I feel muscle sore or achy. I've had luck with magnesium supplements relieving all sorts of muscle cramping.

With potassium I've found that supplements didn't work for me but that stuff is very important so I looked for food sources like bananas, etc. Coconut water worked best. I know sciatica can be painful but there is that more-than-numb version where you just can't feel a leg or a foot. I found potassium rich foods helped a lot when that happened to me.

I also had been a big carbohydrate eater until I noticed having brown-rice for breakfast made me tired and that confused me. "Brown rice is healthy! What's wrong?" Then a pal told me it's probably the carbohydrates. Oh! So that's another reason, as an adult, a doughnut can cause a major wipe out. Got it!

[calzephyr]

LOL I am short and shaped like a potato, I don't know if that helps :-D

The fun thing about Cronometer is that when you do get a high score for vitamins, you can tap on the vitamin and see where the source is. Apparently one leaf of Swiss chard will give you a day's worth of vitamin K!

Potassium would be easy if I wasn't allergic to bananas. The last time I had a banana wasn't fun, I turned beet red and my mouth itched.

Yeah, carbs are such a killer when you get over 40. They're sneaky, like sugar and sodium!