.KEYWORD balancelog
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Lose those winter pounds with BalanceLog
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Most diet experts will tell you that logging everything you eat is a great way to gain control over your eating and eventually lose weight. In this article, Heather Wardell reviews an application designed to help you do just that. With BalanceLog from HealtheTech, you’ll go from a portly Ben Quadinaros to a slim Ody Mandrell in no time.
.AUTHOR Heather Wardell
Like many people, I have a few extra pounds that I would dearly love to get rid of (assuming that 20 is "a few"). Most diet experts will tell you that logging everything you eat is a great way to gain control over your eating and eventually lose weight. Sure, this is a great idea. In the real world, though, it can be incredibly difficult to do. You need to have a quick and easy way to record your food’s information and how much of it you had. You also need to have your log always available, or else foods will be missed. "I think I only had one or two doughnuts at this morning’s meeting; hardly worth counting!"
BalanceLog, which can be found at http://www.healthetech.com/h/products/products_balancelog.html, fits the bill. It contains a vast array of foods, adding new foods is easy, and its summaries and reports really make you feel in control. BalanceLog comes from the company that made DietLog, ExerLog, and WeightLog, and it combines all three applications into one, with both a desktop and handheld version.
.H1 Installation and setup
Most programs that have both a handheld and desktop version install the handheld version when the desktop is installed. I performed a HotSync operation right after running the installer, and BalanceLog was not automatically installed to my Palm handheld. The Palm OS version was readily available in BalanceLog’s folders on my computer, and I installed it from there. An additional component, the "InterBase Guardian,"’ is also installed, and BalanceLog cannot access its databases if it’s disabled. I was told that this is a database manager, which does make sense, considering how the program behaved when I turned the Guardian off. However, my computer’s firewall software reports that the Guardian tries to access the Internet each time it’s run. Those who are concerned about security might want to prevent it from doing this, as I have.
Once the software was on my Palm handheld, I decided to enter all my settings using the handheld. Eleven screens later, it determined that I should have a budget of 1950 calories per day. My sister, a personal trainer, agreed with the application’s assessment of my needs. While eleven screens may seem like a lot, it actually went very quickly, and all of them were very self-explanatory. Figure A shows one of the screens, where I entered how much sleep I get a night.
.FIG A This settings screen allows you to enter how much you sleep.
The concept of the "calorie budget" really does give you choices. It means that you should end up having taken in 1950 more calories than you burned off. So, you could eat 1950 calories a day without exercising. If you burned off 300 calories a day exercising, you could then eat 2250 calories. This allows you to test out things like, "How many hours would I have to walk to burn off this piece of cake?"
When I first started up the desktop version, BalanceLog asked whether I had a handheld configured. When I told it that I did, it proceeded to re-install the application on my handheld! It did keep all of my settings, which was great, but the install time is quite long, and it seemed unnecessary to re-install the application. As I installed BalanceLog on both my work and home computers, I actually ended up installing the application on my handheld three times. Rechargeable batteries are my friends.
.H1 See where you stand: the Balance page
Once the application is installed and configured, it’s very easy to use. The heart of the application is the Balance page, which shows you how much you’ve eaten, how many calories you’ve burned, and how many more you should eat or burn to meet your daily budget. Figure B shows the desktop version of this page.
.FIGPAIR B The desktop Balance screen shows your past and present information.
The Palm OS version (on my Palm IIIxe) is shown in Figure C.
.FIG C The Palm OS Balance screen shows your current information.
The Palm OS screen in particular is very well designed, with all of the essential information in a clear and easy to read format.
.H1 Adding foods
Entering food information is very simple. Clicking on the apple (which always reminds me that I really should eat more fruit) allows you to search for one of the many foods in the list (raw calamari, anyone?) and add it to your daily log. Foods can be deleted from the log, and the listed amount can be changed by simply clicking on the food.
The food search on the handheld allows you to enter up to five letters of the food’s name or brand name. This restriction does not exist on the desktop. A search for ‘macar’ ends up returning a list of food types including the words "macaroni" and "macaroon," but the list is generally not too long.
One very nice feature of the desktop (not, unfortunately, available on the handheld) is the ability to set a food to be a favorite, so it appears at the top of the list when you do a search. I eat certain things over and over, and it’s nice to see them right at the top of the list. There’s also an option in the Preferences to allow you to set how many times a food should be accessed before it automatically becomes a favorite, which somewhat makes up for the lack of this feature on the handheld.
Once the list of foods appears, you click on the item that you want, and its list expands to let you choose the actual food. Figure D shows the results of the "macar" search, with "macaroni and cheese" selected.
.FIG D I searched for "macar" and selected "macaroni & cheese."
On this screen, you can see one of the downsides of the BalanceLog food lists: numerous entries for "regular." When you enter your own foods, you should be careful that you don’t make lots of entries with a type of "regular," and you can change the current ones to remove or rename them. Fortunately, before adding a food to the log, you can look at its information to see whether it’s what you want to add, as shown in Figure E.
.FIG E The Nutrition Facts screen lets you make sure that you’re choosing the right food.
I did find that some pre-packaged foods did not seem to be listed correctly. My favorite cereal, for example, had completely different information on its package. I’m in Canada, and BalanceLog comes from the United States, so this may be the cause. It has left me checking each food when I first use it, though, which is somewhat bothersome. I also found that the order of the nutritional information entries (fat, calories, and so on) is completely different from the order of those things on my food packages. Again, this is not a huge difficulty, but it does slow me down while adding new foods.
On the handheld, once you select and add a food, you’re returned to the food search screen again, apparently under the assumption that you want to add another food. If not, you can simply tap Cancel. The desktop, however, always returns you to your food log screen instead, which is disorienting. I’ve found that I use the desktop less and less now for entering foods and exercise, relying on it only for reports.
.H1 Recording your exercise
The exercise tracker (shown in Figure F) works exactly the same as the food tracker.
.FIGPAIR F The exercise tracker works the same as the food tracker.
I have noticed some problems with the search. For example, I’m learning to belly dance (don’t laugh, I’m getting better). I was thrilled to actually find it in the exercise list. However, when I search for "belly" using the "name contains" search, I don’t find it on the desktop. However, I do find it doing the same search on my handheld. It’s a minor glitch, but it can be annoying sometimes.
I really like that the exercise screens show how many calories you would’ve burned at rest. This can be very comforting when you didn’t feel like exercising. If you enter the exercise before doing it, you’ll be motivated to get it done.
.H1 Reports and profile information
The reports screen has some very valuable information. You can print out lists of everything you’ve eaten, all of the exercises that you’ve done, or a summary of how well you met your various nutritional goals, as shown in Figure G.
.FIGPAIR G There are many reports available through BalanceLog’s desktop.
You also have access to the profile that you created during the initial setup. Playing with the profile, however, is risky, because BalanceLog won’t let you make any changes to anything that you logged before your last profile change. It’s best to leave it alone once you’ve set it, unless you know that something major has changed. If you’ve changed careers and gone from computer programmer to lumberjack, for example.
.H1 Advice
There’s one very important piece of advice that I can give you: log everything. If you went out for dinner and had lasagna, find it in the food list, estimate the amount that you had, and track it. Don’t worry about whether or not you’re entering exactly the right foods; just be sure to enter everything that you eat. Somehow, neglecting to enter one food seems to lead to leaving out lots of foods. I have many days where BalanceLog thinks I’ve eaten only 1,000 calories for just this reason. Keep tracking!
Overall, BalanceLog is an excellent tracking program. It does have some glitches, but it does the job cleanly and effectively, if you use it regularly. Now, if only it could somehow stop me getting into the ice cream.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on BalanceLog, visit http://www.healthetech.com/h/products/products_balancelog.html.
For the article, "Monitor your meals with DietLog," by Jen Edwards in the November 2000 issue of PalmPower, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200011/dietlog001.html.
For the article, "Health and fitness applications for your Palm device," by Denise Watkins in the September 2000 issue of PalmPower, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200009/health001.html.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
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.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Heather Wardell received her first Palm handheld in 1997 (from a boss who couldn’t get the hang of Graffiti) and has never looked back. She worked in banking as a systems analyst for four years and now teaches computers at a private elementary school where she is forever showing off her Palm handheld to students and staff alike.
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