During lunch yesterday, my coworkers and I were talking about our goals with respect to weight loss, endurance and general over all health. After talking we realized that we all had similar products that we use and learned about some new products. It got me thinking of all of the tools I use daily. My favorite tools are:
Apps
I have an iphone and I use My Fitness Pal to track my calories and to a small extent how many calories I burn. My username is runnersdelight. I’m a runner and I generally don’t track my running in any apps. I have tried to use Map My Run to track my mileage but I honestly couldn’t get into it. What I do instead is use my Filofax since I write in my workout plans in there daily and weekly.
Gear
I am not a runner than can run without my ipod. I know there are some runners out there that can do that but I am not one of those people. I usually listen to trance/dance/house music because the beat is fast and furious.
I think if you are working out it’s important to know what your target heart rate is and if you are within that range. I have 2 heart rate monitors. I wear the Polar FT4 when I work out at the gym. This HRM will calculate (simply) how many calories I’m burning based upon the information I program into it. It is simple and it is easy to use.I don’t wear this when I run outside because I prefer the Garmin 405 when I can get outside and run. I don’t use this in the gym because it doesn’t calculate the movement I make when I’m running at a steady pace on the treadmill. When I run outside, this does calculate calories burned and gives me my pace, which is very important to me when I train for half marathons. I bought both of these when they were on sale. One small tip, Amazon will price match if you find the product at a lower price elsewhere.
I drink a protein shake after every work out to help my body repair its muscles and I prefer a smaller bottle, such as this Blender Bottle. It’s small and tucks right into my gym bag. I just put a scoop of protein in there when I pack my gym bag. After I work out, I simply add water and drink it on the drive home. Easy peasy.
I’m not picky on workout clothes. I can wear stuff from Target, Walmart whatever. The only thing is I have to have black bottoms. I use to love lululemon workout clothes but lately their pants wear so fast, especially pilling. Because of that I tend to buy pants from Target and whatever Nike running pants Sports Authority has on sale. Also, I only buy sports bras from Target because they are cute, cheap and work.
I wear Asics when I run. Specifically, I wear the Gel Kayanos. I have a high arch and tend to over pronate and this shoe seems to correct it. The only complaint I have is that I always tend to wear out the toe box around 150 miles into the shoes. They change slightly every year but I seem to do okay with this shoe.
Kitchen Gadgets
I recently bought a food scale from Costco. I can’t seem to find a link to it anymore but it looks like this and cost me only $15.99:
This thing is amazing. I now know what a portion looks like. Before I would eyeball everything and I was eating way too much, almost 2-3 times more than I should be. If you don’t have one of these, I highly recommend it. You can get some from Amazon as well.
Since I pack my breakfast, lunch, snacks and some times dinner to work, I have to have good tuppeware. I’ve used them all and my favorite so far are these two:
{image courtesy of amazon.com}
Although I generally don’t like using plastic, I do like these containers:
I really, really like Gold Standard Whey Protein Powder as it tastes yummy and is easy for me to digest. The best price I have found for it is within the link above. Amazon has it for slightly higher and the supplement store in my area has it for almost double the price.
Those are my Holy Grails. I try a ton of stuff all the time so I’ll try to update this list as I find new favorites. One last thing, since I’m not a doctor, please don’t hold me responsible if you try something and don’t like it or don’t get the results you want. Everything is pretty much ” your mileage may vary”.
I Heart Running 