I’ve been playing around with my Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone (click on over to see what your own phone would look like and to find out what other Windows phone users are up to!) and maybe just mayyyybe (okay, prolly totally), I’ve been having a blast. For one thing, the darned thing is just so pretty. For another, it helped me lose 5 pounds.
No, really! This isn’t some hairbrained PR technique to get you to fall in love with the phone (although you will. Because, everything about it is more simple, slick, and waaaay less static than any phone you’ve ever held in your hand before). It’s actually a real, live story about my life the last two weeks.
Wanting to drop a few pounds, I hit the google and discovered that a massive huge majority of people recommend keeping a food journal in order to see what you’re eating all day, and where your calorie intake is going wrong (or right, or somewhere in between). But the idea of carrying around a little notebook, pulling up an app to tediously enter every little tidbit that passed my lips sounded as tiresome as doing the laundry and folding socks. So, I conjured the idea based on several other suggestions to simply let my cell phone camera BE my food journal.
The idea is simple. Anytime you’re about to eat anything, grab your Windows Phone and snap a pic. At the end of the day, tally up your calories. Look at your food options. Then make a plan for the next day. A plan that rocks today into the dust. Having it all laid out visually is a great reminder of all the places you’ve been. Seeing the food you’ve put into your belly in photo after photo is a great way to teach yourself about your habits, and start to learn newer, better ones.
So, you ready? To show you how fun this little cell phone experiement was, I’ve uploaded all the eats I put past my lips on Tuesday of this week. Let’s have a peeksie, then count up the calories, shall we?
Up above, it all started with a breakfast of Banana, Almond Butter & Chocolate Chip Muffins. I made mine vegan by swapping a garbanzo bean puree in for the eggs (check out the recipe below!). These muffins, paltry and simple though they may appear, were an absolute knock-out with the kids. They came running down the stairs, happier than I’ve ever seen them before 7 a.m. and just rejoiced over those muffins. Who knew such a simple recipe could cause such a cacophony?!
After the muffins, I ran to the ‘Bux to finish up a bit of work, and drank down a Soy Misto with a packet of Sweet & Low. I always have issues with artificial sweeteners. But, as it turns out, I have more issues with unsweetened coffee. So there’s that.
The eleven o’ clock hour hit hard with a craving for snackage, so I nabbed a handful of raw almonds and chomped away. The protein kept me just satiated enough to make it to lunch.
Since I’d promised the kids a trip to the library, lunch was a simple brown bag with a snack bar, peanut butter, and an apple. Easy peasy and perfect.
Once we returned home, I felt like something sweet, so slurped down a glass of soy milk from my pretty colored glass cups. Because colored glass just makes the whole dang day happy.
Dinner? Veggie sushi, bayyyybe. I’ve got to learn how to make homemade sushi. Ever since I read about tempura-battered sweet potato sushi in Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet” I’ve been determined to have that in my mouth. Until I muster enough motivation to rock that dream, I shall purchase sushi by the pound from Whole Foods and lick the wasabi clean.
Ready for the calorie tally? Meeee toooooo!
As I look back on this day of eating, I can definitively say I’d have snuck more than a few handfuls of other foods past my lips had I not been aware that a photo of all my foodstuffs would be going down in the annals of history. Which is exactly the point of a food journal, says the google weight loss advice-givers I discovered in my nonprofessional attempts to be professional. Actually tracking what you eat creates an awareness that would otherwise go by the wayside. When you write it down, or better yet, nab your Windows phone and snap a picture, you realize that everything going into your mouth will also be going into your body, and onto the memory card of one fabulous cell phone. Thus you receive a not-so-subtle reminder to watch what you eat. To pay attention. And, at least for me, once I started paying attention, I discovered I had a lot more will power, a heckuva lot more control, and even a greater desire to “beat” myself at my own game.
So, two weeks after I started snapping pictures, I was down 6 pounds, tucked into a breezy summer dress, and toting my phone everywhere. Not just to take pictures of my food, but to take pictures of myself. Because I feel sooo much better nowadays in my own skin. Who’d have thought a cell phone could inspire something so magnificent?
Banana, Almond Butter & Chocolate Chip Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
This isn't a showy breakfast recipe. It's just a perfect one. Perfectly simple. Perfectly sweet. Perfectly easy to whip together in the morning for your clan of favorite people.
Ingredients:
1 very ripe banana
2 eggs (or 1/2 cup garbanzo beans blended with 1/4 cup of soy milk)
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate chipsDirections:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, beat together the banana, eggs, melted coconut oil, and brown sugar until smooth. Add remaining ingredients, then spoon into muffin tins lined with cupcake wrappers. Each wrapper should be about 2/3 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or just until the top of the muffins spring back when touched lightly. Remove and serve for breakfast with fresh fruit, your favorite juice or soy milk, and a napkin for wiping all those melted chocolate chips from your lips!
For the next week, I’ll be using a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone and sharing a few of the details of this experience with you. This is post 2 of 3, and so far, I’m digging the ease and simplicity of my experience with the phone. Stay tuned for more fun recipes sponsored by Windows.
Click here to print.