There is no such thing as downtime anymore… even at the local pizza shop. (I really don’t make it a habit of hanging out there, it’s a special occasion place, ok?!) But on my most recent visit there, while waiting for my thin-crust salad pizza (or sicilian, whatever), two other women were waiting and both were diligently tap-tap-tapping away at their phones with their manicured nails (so it really was making that tapping noise in stereo), fully engrossed in whatever it was they were doing (most likely informing inquiring minds on Facebook as to what they were doing at that exact moment ‘At pizza shop, waiting in line for a slice’. Thanks for sharing). Clearly it wasn’t anything more important than that because as soon as their order came, both women, who were not together, quickly deposited their phones into their massive bags of which it would take a 20 minute effort of shifting through all their possessions to find again.
My point here is why walk around with your head down, staring into your phone when you can stand in line and people watch… so much more interesting. That’s not my real point actually but it’s true, it’s way more interesting.
Anyway, my real point is why not devote some of that tap-tap-tapping time to something other than Facebook? How about tapping your way to weight loss and fitness? These days the Apple app store is one of the most frequented stores and why not, they have all these nifty little apps that are meant to make your life even easier than it already is (technology allows us to no longer have to walk down the hall to our bosses office because we can just IM him/her for instant feedback—and I realize you can do just that with the old technology—punching in numbers into a phone to actually speak with someone—but lets be real here, we’re all about the computer screen and big large keypads that can do the talking for us.)
Back to the apps, an awesome weight loss and accountability app is Lose it! This app allows you to keep track of your calories by keeping a food and exercise journal. Plus, it can calculate how many calories you should be consuming a day based on your weight, goal weight, height and current activity level. It’s a wonderful tool and it allows you to make it social by adding friends so you can all keep watch over each other and keep ’em honest! I have it on my phone with a few other apps like the Six Pack App—genius. This app lists exercises with photos, tips on how to perform the exercise properly, and which body parts you’ll be working out. There is a Weight Watchers app, an Eat This, Not That app, a Runkeeper app… you name it and there’s an app for that. And the ones I listed are free.
FREE.
What’s better than that? It’s a nutritionist in your pocket. An accountability system always within reach.
So why not go digital in your efforts towards becoming more physically active so this way when you’re in line waiting for your slice, you can be tap-tap-tapping that into your digital food journal! (And then Facebook if you just can’t resist.)
