Does Lance Have a Clue? MyPlate Follow Up.

The difference a few months makes when using the Livestrong.com MyPlate tool.

There is a lot of press lately about Lance Armstrong: "Did he or didn't he?" Well, on that I have no clue and the debate rages on but one thing I think Lance does have right is one of the best features of the Livestrong.com website. MyPlate.

Back in February I set a goal to lose 22 pounds using nothing but the MyPlate features and workout advice given to me from classes at Body Concepts. Three months later I figure I owe everyone an update on my progress.

At first, I was using MyPlate’s free version and I was pretty happy with it. Basically it is a quick and easy way to track what you eat, especially calories and nutrients, along with options to track your fitness efforts and water intake. Then I was gifted with a Gold Membership level ($40 per year) which was to open up a whole new world of features for me. Eh… not so much.

I am still very happy with the free version of Livestrong’s MyPlate. As far as the Golden Membership goes, at this point save your money. If you are the average person then the free version is more than useful and the price is right. They claim that people using the membership level lose 25% more weight but I am not sure how they qualify that.  My weight loss is still steady but it decelerated. I cannot say that the deceleration is due to the different membership level or some other factor. For instance, it becomes harder to lose the pounds as you become leaner and leaner. The bottom line is; I was not impressed with what I got for the higher (paid) membership level. On the whole I LOVE MyPlate (did you know they have a nifty iPhone App?) and I continue to use it.

To be honest, I have had a couple of “THUD!!” periods where I stopped tracking for a few days and I know I took in more calories than I was allowed. The great thing is that I have become so accustomed to a certain calorie level that my “binge” days still stayed well under 2,000 calories. I think I approached 2,000 calories once in the past several months and 1,800 a few times. My cheats were also pretty tame: an extra cup of milk or orange juice or a larger portion at dinner. I never ate a candy bar, drank a soda or went for something “bad”.  (Those kinds of foods are no longer in my vocabulary.) At most I gained back two pounds during this time and the next week they came right back off.

Weight loss so far? When I wrote the initial MyPlate article I set a goal to lose 22 pounds. So far I have lost 13 pounds which is right along my weight loss goals I set on the MyPlate calculator (one pound per week). It may seem like slow weight loss but with CFS I have to be careful not to do anything too radical with my health. A slow, steady loss has been great! I am also very pleased that I have been able to lose that much weight in cold weather (I always seem a lot more hungry when it is cold or rainy!) and not being able to exercise very much (weather, kids, life, you know).

My total weight loss since beginning my journey -when I was diagnosed with CFS a year ago this week- is 43 pounds. My strategies were simple: watching the calories, sensible work-out advice from Body Concepts to accommodate for my specific health issues and changing how I view food -making sure the food I eat is FUEL and not used for comfort, rewards, etc. MyPlate has become a vital part of watching my diet and has taught me how to live differently. The thing is, you have to do it and be honest about what, when and how much you eat. Not just honest, be down-right meticulous!  

So right now we all seem to be asking ourselves if Lance is being honest? We may never know for sure. At this point it seems like every cyclist of his generation was on something so it seems to me that if he did, then the playing field was pretty level.

What matters to me now is what impact he is using his fame for: he has been fighting for so many good causes (AIDS and cancer research, help for impoverished youth, health awareness campaigns and so on) and -selfishly- what impact his contributions have had for me.  For my part, I figure I will get off my fat butt and make good use of one of the contributions. Off to go log what I had for dinner on MyPlate and to put my toddler -and the Lance doping controversy- to bed.

- Dawn Grove

If any of you decide to start using MyPlate please feel free to share your experiences in our comments section.