Nutrition Software first thoughts

[cheval]

- It was easy to sign up. The first thing I did was log out of the forums. Then I went to my cookies in FireFox and deleted all cathe-related cookies. I returned to the forum and logged in. Then clicked Workout Manager. I was able to successfully complete the nutrition sign-up for a month by clicking the purple box on the lower left side.

- I was able to get in immediately and set up my basic information (activity level, age, weight, goal weight, etc). I like the explanation of how my calorie requirements were determined.

- Next on the nutrition home page, I found my weight graph. I clicked "Track Your Goals" then the "Create New Graph" link. Oh, my!! So many, many things I can track and even create my own custom "thing" to track!! Love it! (see ScreenHunter_1.jpg)

- The first thing I did was enter my breakfast. 80 grams of Raisin Nut Bran and 8 oz (1 cup) of Silk Light Vanilla Soymilk. Raisin Nut Bran was already in the system, so I quickly added that to my breakfast. Then I added the Silk to my custom foods. So easy!! (see ScreenHunter_2.jpg) I put in 1 cup and 240 mL for the serving size. When I went to add the Silk to my breakfast, I was able to choose ounces instead of cups or mL. I absolutely adore that as I use grams or oz for almost everything I eat.

- I was surprised my favorites already was prepopulated. I had to go delete meat items as I'm a vegetarian.

- After I put in my breakfast, I clicked on Find a Mealplan. How awesome is this??? I love it!! There are lots of great options. It was prepopulated with my calorie requirements (which I can change if I want). I put in that I didn't eat any meat and was even able to remove Yogurt from the list (many yogurts are not vegetarian). Removing an unacceptable food item was as easy as clicking the [-] next to the food name. By the time I had put in all my restrictions, I was left with 18 meal plans to choose from. (see ScreenHunter_3.jpg)

- The nutrient summary is very nice, too. (ScreenHunter_4.jpg shows my summary that only includes my breakfast at this point)

- You can create (or choose) mealplans for a week and then print out a shopping list

- You can create recipes by choosing ingredients and amounts and then the software calculates the nutritional content. But when adding a recipe to a mealplan, the individual ingredients are added instead of the recipe name. Also, I couldn't add a custom food to my recipe.


Major suggestion for improvement
- Add custom foods to recipes (no longer valid; see next post)

Minor Suggestion for improvements

• During initial set-up, ask the user if she is vegetarian or vegan. If so, remove all meat and/or dairy products from the prepopulated favorites list.
• When putting a recipe in a mealplan, just put the recipe name and the total nutrients, don't break it into individual ingredients.
• Allow a user to see the nutritional content of an item (ex. 1 cup skim milk) or recipe prior to adding it to a mealplan or even after adding it. I couldn't find a way to view the nutritional breakdown of a single item unless it was the only thing on the mealplan for the day.
• Allow a user to delete entire meals from a mealplan
• Add custom foods to the Food Search and show them at the top.

I love this so far!!

April

[cheval]

Ok, replying to myself here. I figured out how to get custom foods into a recipe.

I click on the Custom Foods. Then choose the food I want to add to my recipe. Then I choose the recipe to add the food to (or choose to create a new recipe).

So changing my major suggestion to a minor one that custom foods show up in the food search at the top of the list.

April

[cheval]

Replying to myself again. I'm having quite a conversation.

I found a way to view the nutritional content of a single food item. It's a bit of a work-around, but it works.

Search for the food you want to add. Choose it from the list. Then click the Custom Food tab. Set the serving size (ex. 2 oz) and click "Create Custom Food." This will show the nutritional values for the food item and the serving size. Don't press the submit button and it won't be added to your custom foods.

April

[JannR]

Originally Posted by cheval

I found a way to view the nutritional content of a single food item. It's a bit of a work-around, but it works.

Search for the food you want to add. Choose it from the list. Then click the Custom Food tab. Set the serving size (ex. 2 oz) and click "Create Custom Food." This will show the nutritional values for the food item and the serving size. Don't press the submit button and it won't be added to your custom foods.

April

thanks will check this out...

[fitfamily2009]

Thanks for sharing this info It is very helpful.

[LeanneM]

Thanks for posting this, April! It was really helpful to see how easy the software is to use!

[celestialtimes]

Wow April! You've been busy! Your post is helping me decide if I want it or not.

I've been using Sparkpeople for a year...do you know about SP...or how they compare...I love the thought of it helping me learn to eat better...

I'm so on the fence...ugh...decisions...sometimes they're so hard to make...

My hubby asked me if I wanted this...and I was like I don't know...I can't wait to read everyone elses posts...

I'm half tempted to try it for a month and see how I like it...The one thing that drives me nuts on SP is the advertizements...I live in the middle of no where...and I have to have Satalite internet...which is slow...and I have to wait for pages to load...I hate waiting...and the nutrition tracker on Cathe's site...seems not loaded with crap...which really turns me on..smile.

Still decisions...I told my hubby we'd talk about it when I got home...while wasing horses....real quality time...

[cheval]

Hey, Celeste,

SparkPeople was my main site before.

The NS has the following things that I really like that SP doesn't have:

• Complete breakdown of the day's nutritional values. SP doesn't have reports on each nutrient like NS does.
• Suggests foods that I like and eat that will raise my grades (will get better with time as I organize my favorites)
• Can track almost any measurement I can think of
• Others' complete/balanced MealPlans are easy to find and then customize

It also works pretty fast. No ads.

I say, try it for a month. If you don't like it, you can just not re-up. Enabler? Who, me??

The biggest thing I have to remember is to log out and erase cookies if I am having issues getting into the site, but that's ok and I know it'll get fixed eventually.

April

[cheval]

I love choosing mealplans, but I tend to be a creature of habit. I would like to have an additional option on the Find a Mealplan that shows my mealplans. That way I can easily choose previous mealplans I've created.

Thanks.

April

[crm549]

April, thanks so much for all the information on the Nutrition Software. I too have been thinking about getting it.
When I actually track my food, I use Weight Watchers tools. But this software seems like it has a lot of good points.


Saundra