I just want some ice cream.
Okay, I usually do all of myself tracking on pen and paper so that I am able to go back and really analyze things better for myself. I am on the wrestling team here, so losing a lot of weight every week is very common for me. I tend to lose somewhere between twelve and fifteen pounds every week. I write down everything I eat and how my weight is, and then relate that to how I feel in my workouts. This allows me to see what types of things my body needs whenever I am at a certain weight.
For this assignment, I decided to download “Food Blogging Free” on my Kindle. This is pretty much the exact same thing as my pen and paper method, but in digital form. This app gives you a blank space to type whatever you would like. After you submit a blog entry to your own personal page, you are given the option to then share to social media outlets if you choose to do so. I have noticed that it does have a few features that help you count calories taken in and burned, however I am not using these because I would not do so in my normal day to day logging. As for the future of this app, you could actually say it would be limitless. With self-tracking, there are countless ways to track yourself, especially in a category such as food and health. This app could evolve into something revolutionary for the medical world, you never really know.
I choose to never post my information to social media. I do not use self tracking for others but for my own gain. Because of that, I do not see why it is appropriate for me to publish it to social media accounts. I do see how it could be a positive for other people though, allowing them to keep themselves accountable for their own actions is always a great motivator.
I do believe that self tracking makes me happier. I believe this because my body tells me so. If I am, for example, nine pounds overweight, I can look into my log and see what I have eaten in the past when I was nine pounds over that allowed me to have a great workout. Because I am keeping a log of this, I am able to feel and perform better than ever before. As for other people posting their information to social media, I do not really have an opinion. I tend to keep scrolling without glancing twice, knowing that whoever it is that posted it probably did so with good intentions.
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I think that you have a really firm grasp on what you want your self-tracking to do. It’s impressive that you did pencil and paper self tracking for soo long, but I guess that just shows your determination. Like we said in class, whether tracking apps and the notion of the quantified self helps someone is really only based on what they are getting out of it and what they use that information for. When people set goal and use apps to help achieve those goals, I think they are alot happier than when they let the apps set the goals for them.
I agree with you. This kind of self-tracking really could be endless. The great things about apps like this is that you can limit yourself to just that one, rather than having to have an app for everything. I also like that you have more control of what you put into it.
I totally understand the tedious and never ending act of tracking diet on paper, or digitally for that matter. Coming from a wrestling background I’m sure you understand the power and effect that manipulating that dietary data can have on your body, and how that translates onto the mat. I agree with what the others are commenting as well. Tracking apps are great, but it is the habit of tracking itself that is important. Otherwise many people forget. If an individual is just as capable consistently performing the operation manually then that is just as effective. Quantifying apps though do help many stay on track though by algorithmatizing functions that they might not perform themselves. Great post!
I really like how you explained your personal process of tracking your weight gain/loss and food intake. One of my best friends growing up (who wrestles at Carolina now) actually had the same kind of self-tracking process in a notebook of his own. I also think it is key that you mentioned how this self-tracking process is entirely for yourself, and it does make you happy. This comment reminds me of class discussion when multiple people brought up different perspectives on what it means to quantify yourself–and viewing it in one’s own way is very necessary.
Another thing, I think having a notebook is a great kind of throwback way of self-tracking. In the article by Michelle Swan, she mentions a researcher, Amy Robinson, who emails herself ideas and inspirations and later puts them together in a graph. Obviously you don’t need to do this for your own purposes, but it would be a possibility for you to create some larger visualization if you felt the desire to do so because your data seems so organized!
Thanks for the post!