[impaul99]

What do you guys think about tracking systems for food / exercise? I'm implementing some major changes in the health/fitness category of my life and I'm trying to think of a way to track my progres.

For example, with my cardio workouts I bought the Nike + iPod tracking combo which puts a sensor in your shoe and tracks your progress. It records your workout, speed, time ran, distance, calories burned etc. all automatically. You can then upload your info to Nike's website and view your data online. This is super cool and just visually seeing your results gives you more motivation to keep going.

On the other side though I'm wondering about things like tracking my food intake. Like for example the types of foods I eat and the calories they have, protein, carbs, fats etc. I know there are some websites that do this but I'm wondering if anyone's been using any of them.

Is it a good idea to track this info? Or is it just a major pain in the butt? I know it becomes useful once you have the data in there for a few months because you can monitor and be aware what you're eating, what kinds of patterns you go through etc., but the hard part is getting the data in there in a simple way. Any ideas guys?

Also, on the same note, what about tracking your workout routines? When I did my 30 day trial earlier this year I used the pre-packaged software which came with my bowflex which was pretty cool, but I'm wondering if anyone has any other ideas of what would work.

The hardest part is typing in the data I think.