Shell Louise – Activ8rlives Food Diary

joined Slimming World in August 2012 weighing in at 31 stones 1 pound. On my one year anniversary of joining, I got my 7 stone award.

I went on to get my 8 and a half stone award but it took a lot longer to get there than the previous 7 stones had done. Since then, I’ve struggled. I put a stone back on and I’ve spent the last 4 years going up and down the same stone. Recently it’s been even worse because I’ve gained another stone back and I’m finding it really difficult to get it off again.

Food Diaries

When you first join Slimming World you’re given some food diaries to fill in for the first 4 weeks. I carried on filling in food diaries for the next couple of years. I actually started another blog to document my food diaries. Taking photos of all my meals became a habit. I wrote a blog post every day using the photos to help me remember what I’d eaten.

Things got busier and the busier I got, the harder it was for me to find time to keep up the blog. I stopped updating it.

Looking back, it really wasn’t the best move for me to make. I think I started struggling with the weight loss because I stopped holding myself accountable by taking the photos and blogging. I’ve tried a few times to start blogging again but I’m even busier now than I was back then so it hasn’t happened.

Activ8rlives

When I was asked to review the Activ8rlives4 Health+Wellness app, I was delighted. Here’s an app where I can take photos of all meals and not have to worry about transferring them to my laptop. They’re stored on the Activ8rlives cloud account.

You start off by entering your personal details like height and weight and your target weight. The app suggests a healthy weight so you get a healthy BMI. You don’t have to use the suggestion, you can set your own target weight.

Food Intake

When you’ve taken your photo you can then add a description of your meal. Everything can be listed, including healthy extras and syns if you’re doing Slimming World. The option to choose whether you’re having a good choice or a bad choice makes you think before you eat.

It’s great for anyone who is calorie counting. You can see how the calories are adding up throughout the day.

I was expecting the app to have lists of different foods to choose from with all the nutrition info like other apps I’ve used but you put the info in yourself if you want to.
This is a great feature because while I’m on Slimming World, I don’t have to worry about calorie counting and frankly, I don’t want to know how many calories I’m having each day. The eating plan doesn’t work on calories and if I keep seeing them adding up each day, it could mess with my head!

When you’ve logged your meals, snacks and drinks for the day, you can go to your food diary and see your daily intake in pictures as well as text.

Measurements

On your dashboard, you can quickly see your numbers for the day. You can buy a Buddy Band2 that syncs with the app to measure your steps. I really need to get more exercise so this would be great for me. There’s also a set of Smart Scales and Pulse Oximeter available to buy.

I’ve lost 12lb since I downloaded the app :o) I’m really pleased with my result. This is the best weight loss I’ve had for quite a while and I know the app has helped get this result.

Customisable

If there are things the app measures that you’re not interested in having measured, you can delete the widgets. It’s totally customisable to your needs.

This app is going to be a huge help in my Slimming World journey. I lost 6lb from the first weigh in I did for the app, to my second. I still have another stone and a half to go to get back to my ‘regular’ weight, which is 23 and a half stone but I know this app will make it easier for me to get there.

http://www.shelllouise.co.uk/2017/05/activ8rlives-app-review.html