joyceanndavis.com

I recently reached my goal weight after four months of eating healthier and exercising. I lost an average of 1.5 pounds per week, exactly what my trusty Lose It! iPhone app said I would! Several people have asked me how I lost 30 pounds in 4 months, so I’ve jotted down some of the key things that I found worked for me. I figured I’d share it here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.

Nutrition

• Joyce’s Spicy Cabbage Soup – I make a huge batch every couple of weeks and keep it in big containers in the fridge. I usually eat it for one meal a day. It’s low-cal and I have yet to get tired of it.
• Convenience – I know a lot of people avoid pre-packaged foods, but honestly, they’ve been a great way for me to stay on track with eating healthy. Here are some of my faves:
  • Quaker Oats Weight Control Oatmeal – added protein means you don’t get hungry as fast
  • South Beach High Protein Cereal Bars – 10g of protein and only 140 calories; morning snack
  • 100-calorie microwave popcorn packs – volume baby! This is my afternoon snack. I can’t STAND those little 100-calorie Nabisco packs that have about 5 crackers each!
  • Sugar free pudding and popsicles – I use these as evening snacks.
  • Healthy Choice Complete meals – the only frozen dinners that actually feel like a full meal. I have one for lunch every weekday.
  • Crustless sugar-free pumpkin pie – this isn’t pre-packaged, but after I bake it, I divide it into single serving containers.
  • Chicken/turkey packs – I brown ground turkey and put 3.5 oz. in snack bags and freeze. I do the same with diced, marinated chicken. This makes it easy for me to grab a single serving of protein to add to my cabbage soup.
• Calorie cycling (zig-zag) – to break plateaus, I would eat a little more for a day or two, then scale back for a day or two. I’d still eat the same weekly allotment of calories, but varying the daily amounts seemed to help my body from going into “starvation mode.”

Exercise

• Stair climbing – 2-3 times a week, I walk the stairs at the office before work, then take a shower at the on-site facilities. On the weekends I walk the parking garage stairs at Hill Country Galleria.
• Walking hills – as an alternative to stair climbing, I walk around my neighborhood which happens to be hilly and beautiful. Lucky me! Two laps is a little less than 3 miles and takes me about 50 minutes.
• Sit ups, push ups, free weights – I’ve got exercise routines I do at home most evenings.

Electronics – because a list from Joyce would not be complete without reference to gadgets

• iPhone – podcasts are essential during exercise, as is the stopwatch app
• Lose It! – I credit this iPhone app for helping me consistently log my food intake and exercise time. It’s really an amazing app, and it’s FREE!
• Digital scale – kitchen (for food) and bathroom (for body). My food scale is awesome and easily switches between grams and ounces. My bathroom scale is a cheap digital one, and only has the .5 lb. increments, which I prefer so that I don’t obsess over a 10th of a pound here and there.

Support systems during weight loss are also very important, and although I don’t go to Weight Watchers meetings or visit with a Jenny Craig consultant, I do have friends with whom I share my weight struggles and victories. These friends (and you know who you are) have been a huge gift to me. I’ve also made some new friends in the Lose It! online community, which has been terrific. I hope you’ll connect with me if you’re interested in supporting each other to achieve a healthy lifestyle!

Although I get most of my news from an aggregated set of sources (via Fluent News), one news app I still use occasionally is USA Today. I like their creative snapshot polls, and the ability to see the results overall, for your state, and for your city.

Wordpress for iPhone enables you to draft, schedule and post blog entries, including photos. You can also manage comments and create/edit new pages. Not super feature-filled at this point, but I hope they improve it over time. Personally, I’d like to be able to float a photo within text, but I’m weird like that. Oh, and if you tell me to just use HTML, I will indeed have to slap you upside the head.

Well, in a moment of weakness, I broke down and purchased the TomTom application for my iPhone. It’s on sale for $69.99 until December 28th. So far it seems even more wonderful than my previous TomTom device, that I used with my (now ancient) Palm Treo — and I LOVED it! The one thing that makes or breaks a GPS system for me is the quality of the voice (not surprising to those of you who know my audial sensitivity). TomTom is the only system that even comes CLOSE to having a human-sounding voice. “Mandy” is currently my navigator, but as soon as they make “Homer” available, I’ll be downloading him. Doh!

Recently, a few people have asked me if it’s worth it to get an iPhone. It’s a personal decision for sure, but here’s an idea of how I use my iPhone in any given day. See if you can tell what the answer is for ME! I’ve listed in parentheses the iPhone applications I use.

5:30am - I awake to the sound of soft harps. (Clock)

5:35am – I do a quick check of my personal email (Mail), work email (iNotes), news (USA Today), and check the weather to see what I should wear and if I should bring an umbrella ella ella (WeatherBug).

6:15am - I listen to podcasts on the way to work. If it’s a Monday, you can be sure I’m listening to This American Life with Ira Glass (iPod).

7:00am - Once I get to work, I listen to a personalized music selection online while I get set up and plan my workday. (Pandora)

10:00am – During a meeting I might hear about a new technology so I check out the latest tech news. (CNET)

11:00am – While in the break room, someone asks a question I don’t know the answer to. While others sit and speculate, I pop out my iPhone and find the answer lickity-split. (Google)

11:30am – I might get a new client on my Meals on Wheels route, so I plug in their address and have my iPhone give me turn by turn directions to their house. (Maps)

12:30pm – Upon return to the office, I notice something weird that I must take a picture of. (Camera)

12:32pm – I upload said picture to twitpic via my iPhone Twitter client. (TwitterFon)

1:00pm – I receive a message via the Facebook iPhone app that my colleague/friend finally gets to bring her baby home from the hospital after being in ICU for several weeks! (Facebook)

2:00pm - I connect with several former colleagues who are looking for jobs. (LinkedIn)

5:00pm - As I leave the office parking lot, I hear a song on the stereo, and I can’t for the life of me remember the artist. I let my iPhone listen to the song and after 10 seconds of listening, it tells me who the artist is, what album, etc. (Shazam)

5:30pm – I call my husband to see if he needs me to pick up anything on the way home from work. (Phone) Yes, it’s true. The iPhone can actually be used as a telephone.

5:45pm - I get home and pull out the fixins’ for dinner. I follow the recipe using my iPhone. (BigOven)

7:00pm – I decide to practice my flute for a few minutes, and I make sure I’m in tune. (StayInTune)

7:30pm – I get totally grossed out by my flute cleaning rag which is dirty, so I pull out my iPhone and purchase a new one online. (Amazon)

7:45pm – I help my kids with their homework, and rather than look stupid by admitting I don’t know the answer to their questions, I discreetly look up answers on my iPhone. (Wikipanion)

8:00pm – I go on a walk around the neighborhood, and since it’s dark (and we can’t seem to keep a working flashlight in the house), I use my iPhone. (myLite)

8:45pm - I check to see if tonight’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” is a repeat. (i.TV)

10:30pm - I read a chapter of the latest book I’ve downloaded from Amazon.com. (Kindle)

11:00pm – I listen to “Rain with Thunder” as I drift off to sleep and dream about how I will use my iPhone tomorrow. (Ambiance)

I’ve run across some pretty interesting iPhone web apps over the last several months, so I thought I’d recommend some on my blog in case any of my fellow iPhone addicts want to try them out. Here are a few to get started…

hiHome – This is a cool way to see how much your neighbor’s house is worth! Oh, I suppose there are other more honorable ways to use this tool, but I’ve had fun being nosy. The site is an iPhone optimized version of Zillow, a real estate site that gives valuations for properties all over the US.

Stitcher – Ever get in the car in the morning only to realize you forgot to sync your iPhone. No need to miss the latest news podcasts. Stitcher lets you listen to streaming news and entertainment from your iPhone. I listen to the Silicon Valley Professional station which reads me the headlines to blogs like TechCrunch, WSJ Tech news, and CNET daily tech news. It’s a real person reading too…not an electronic voice.

iSkyGaze – Although I haven’t used this much yet, it’s an awesome idea. This application provides information on where and when constellations, planets, galaxies and other objects will be viewable from your location, as well as offering other cool facts about what you’re seeing.

iRuler – Super useful! I don’t need a ruler often, but when I do, I never have one handy. Now I do! iRuler turns my iPhone into a ruler, albeit a pretty short one — 2.5 in (or 6.5 cm) to be exact!

Many more to come!!

I’ve been exploring ways to blog when I’m not at my computer. I was going to configure the setting that allows me to e-mail my blog entry to Wordpress, but now that I’m trying a post from Safari on my iPhone, I realize using the regular web interface to Wordpress is just as easy, if not easier. Next I’ll try a blog entry via Jott, but I’ll have to make sure and not use the word “like” throughout my message.

• Computer…….$1000
• iPhone……..$600
• ProShow Gold 3.0…….$90
• ProShow Gold 3.2 Upgrade…….$40
• The ability to carry my parent’s 50th anniversary slide show in my hand……PRICELESS.

During my ProShow Gold 3.2 evaluation period (yesterday), not only was I able to upload a slide show to YouTube with no problem, but also saving a show to my iPhone was a snap. I’m sold.

While trying to resist the urge to upgrade, I did run across a cool Web 2.0 app that allows free video mixing via the web. It seemed to work pretty well actually, so for those who don’t want to shell out the cash, or who are just embarking on the multimedia creation experience, I recommend http://eyespot.com/.

(Photo from www.photodex.com)

Despite my efforts to wait until the second generation of iPhone, I just couldn’t stand it….I bought one. It’s an illness, I know. Hey, at least I wasn’t a one of the people who camped out! I have to say that it has exceeded my expectations in many ways. Yes, it has some room for improvement, but overall, it is an exceptional 1.0 device. Here’s a list of my favorite features:

Favorite Features

1. Sleek interface – You really can’t beat the look and feel of the iPhone interface. It’s nothing less than a work of art.
2. Synchronized Yahoo Contacts – I have used Yahoo Contacts as my primary address book for many, many years. I had tried several times to sync my contacts with my Treo 650, but never had very good results. The iPhone has been terrific so far.
3. Yahoo Mail - It’s awesome to have access to my personal mail at all times…and to be able to send e-mail from wherever I am. Although I was able to do this from my Treo fairly easily too. But now I don’t have to worry about the cost since now I have unlimited data on my plan. The mail is a much richer experience with the iPhone….nice graphics, etc.
4. Google Maps - this is what everyone (including myself) just GAWKS at. To be able to see satellite images from space on a PHONE is just incredible. It would be wonderful to have GPS, but hey, at least my Treo still has a reason for living (so I can use Tom Tom on it).
5. Rich web browsing – this was what sold me in the first place. It’s incredible to get the same net surfing experience on a phone as you get on the computer, complete with graphics and video (with the exception of some javascript).
6. You Tube - really fun. Nice to have “OK, GO!” whenever I want it.
7. iPod - I’ve never owned an iPod, so this is my first experience. I really like it and it’s especially nice to have videos. I even purchased a “This American Life” show yesterday for $1.99 and watched it last night. Really amazing.
8. WiFi – with more and more free wifi hotspots popping up all over the place, I see this being a huge convenience, especially since the EDGE network is rather slow.

And here’s what I want in iPhone 2.0.

Wish List

1. Synchronized Yahoo calendar
2. Fix the Safari browser so that it stops crashing on me
3. Allow for searching in contacts (On my Treo, I liked how I could filter contacts by typing the first few letters of their name.)
4. More native apps! Sure I can play the free Solitaire web app, but it’s SLOW.
5. More ring tones! (although THANK YOU for having Old Phone! It’s my fave.)
6. Improved keyboard. Everyone’s been talking about how the predictive text keyboard is so great, but it doesn’t seem to be predicting very accurately for me. Plus, I have relatively small fingers, and I find typing on the touch screen really hard. I can’t imagine what fat-fingered people do! I’m not a text message sender though, so this isn’t a huge issue for me.
7. Allow iTunes syncing from different computers without full replacement of content.

OK, I admit it. I’m addicted to gadgets. There’s no way around it. I spent an hour and a half watching Steve Jobs’ key note address from Macworld where he announced iPhone. And I must have one…..I’m counting the days until its release (June).

Yes, I’ve been happy with my Palm Treo 650, but I’m sorry….a gorgeous widescreen display with a touch screen and unparalleled graphics capabilities, Google Maps with satellite imaging, Internet browsing with a REAL browser, WiFi, widgets….oh, and an iPod! HELLO?! I knew iPhone was going to be cool, and frankly, I had avoided watching the keynote, because I was going to try very hard to wait until the 2-yr mark of having my Treo (Oct 2007). Plus I thought it would be a good idea to wait for the 2nd generation iPhone so that others can work out the kinks for me. But alas, I got sucked in.

I was innocently checking out my Cingular bill online, when I decided to very lightly click on that iPhone picture to read just a smidgen about the silly thing. (You see, Cingular is the exclusive US provider for iPhone….a sign to me, that I was MEANT to have an iPhone, since I have Cingular service now). The clencher was when I heard that Yahoo! Mail works with iPhone. I’ve had my personal e-mail through Yahoo! forEVER and I love it. Sure, I can send and receive mail from my Treo 650, but it’s not very elegant. You should see mail on iPhone. BEEEEAUTIFUL!

So, just to confirm my theory that am destined to have an iPhone, I went to see when I was eligible for a phone upgrade with Cingular. May 26th….a mere 5 days before Apple’s release of iPhone. See?! It was meant to be!