{"id":296,"date":"2009-06-23T14:50:46","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T21:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.knuetter.com\/christian\/?p=296"},"modified":"2009-06-23T14:50:46","modified_gmt":"2009-06-23T21:50:46","slug":"a-more-serious-approach-to-getting-in-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knuetter.com\/christian\/2009\/06\/23\/a-more-serious-approach-to-getting-in-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"A more serious approach to getting in shape"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past couple of years I’ve been struggling to get back into shape.\u00a0 Not that I was ever the picture of Adonis<\/a>, I have over the years taken to mountain biking, backcountry skiing, rock climbing and even running.\u00a0 But not recently.\u00a0 A series of injuries, nagging colds and rich foods and drink have taken their tolls.<\/p>\n

A few months ago, the last of my symptoms finally gone, I decided to get a little more serious about getting in shape.\u00a0 For the first time in a LONG time, I went to a gym.\u00a0 I joined a gym.\u00a0 I chose 24 hour fitness because of their proximity to work (and home) and their cheap price.<\/p>\n

I was only slightly familiar with the equipment in the gym, and it took me a few sessions to feel comfortable, each time branching out to try out a larger variety of the items provided.\u00a0 But I kept to the basics (lower weight, multiple reps) and split the workouts between cardio and weights.<\/p>\n

This went along just fine, but I quickly saw the need for a little record keeping.\u00a0 I’ve found that tracking progress in itself can be a good motivator – and in particular, when dealing in unfamiliar terrain.\u00a0 Seeing how new I was to the world of weights and heartrates and calories, I felt that keeping track would help me understand the benefits of what I was doing.<\/p>\n

I did a little searching around and eventually came upon the site Daily Burn<\/a>.\u00a0 This site allows you to track your workouts, caloric intake, and weight.\u00a0 The interface is pretty straigt forward and allows one to easily enter data and view reports, which I like.\u00a0 The database of activities and foods is pretty comprehensive, though this (as in many of the sites that I checked out) is definitely one of the weaknesses.\u00a0 Specifically, I find myself constantly having to *fudge* the food that I’m eating as their database is better aligned to pre-packaged foods rather than freshly-cooked.\u00a0 I do find the numbers to be good enough for my purposes though.\u00a0 It gives me a rough idea of the calories (and other nutritional factors) of the food I’m eating and allows me to check out different kinds of foods to better understand some of the choices I could be making.<\/p>\n

So just today in the Wired news feed I see this article<\/a> (with the included sidebars) talking about how Nike’s ipod-integrated tracking system has been a big success.\u00a0 To me it’s no surprise.<\/p>\n

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