App Reccos!

Just before anyone imagines I’ve given up and gone off after writing, be assured, I haven’t. Been battling a few demons and a round of drugs. But that’s a story for another day. Because these demons will be slayed as well — as all demons are slayed.

Talking about demons, I cannot begin to describe in words the significance of Mental Health Check-Ins. And an outstanding app that helps do it is How we Feel. This came recommended by Kuldeep Datay, a psychologist whose advice I have come to trust over time. Do give it a dekko.

And earlier today, the kind folks at Thyl.io introduced a new feature into the app that I positively love.

Type the food you’ve just eaten and it generates the various components in it that include the calories, carbs, proteins, etc. That’s heck of a lot of hard work which has gone in that includes creating a database to pull the data out of and and coding to do. Can’t wait to see what Ammar Jagirdar and team pull off next in beta!

Eat, Drink ..... Gasp!!!!

Since the time I hooked up with the good folks at Thylio, I’ve meticulously followed instructions. One of these includes taking picture of everything I eat or drink and share it with them. My initial hypothesis was that this is to keep track of the calories I consume versus what I burn. But a few weeks down the line, I see this was a trick as well.

What I now have over the last few weeks is a pictorial representation of all that has gone into my system. Truth be told, I’m beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed. There’s a history to this.

I always imagined myself as a frugal eater. Not just that, I imagined myself as the kinds who takes small portions because he doesn’t waste food. But the mental models we build of ourselves often conflicts with reality. And with the benefit of hindsight, I now see the power of the exercise Thylio was pushing me into.

While the portions I eat my be small, I see they are calorifically rich. While that’s okay, what is not okay, is that these are not the right kinds of foods. The visual history built of what I have consumed over the last shows a clear tilt to protein and simple carbohydrates with very little greens, fibre, or complex carbs. It doesn't need a rocket scientist to decode why this is bad for the system in the longer term.

It's time to do a rethink about what I eat and how I eat along with the workout routine.