I have written about a ton of health and fitness apps, food and exercise trackers and even the quantified self movement. In my opinion, most food tracking apps can be time consuming and hard to keep up with. I read (with great interest) about Thryve a while back. They just launched a new food tracking app that aims to make eating stress-free and tracking meals easier. Thryve isn’t about counting calories; it’s about tracking your meals and how they make you feel. The app helps people identify food intolerances and just identify foods that make you feel “blah” (or really good!)
Thryve prides itself on requiring much less time to enter data than other food trackers. It’s not about dieting — instead, it’s focused on recognizing how the food we put in our bodies (including how much and when) affect our physical and mental happiness and health. What do you have to do? take a photo of a meal, enter the ingredients and use a bar chart to indicate the amount of each item. An hour later, the app sends a prompt asking: “It’s been a few hours since you’ve eaten. How are you feeling?” Users can then choose from an array of smiley and not-so-smiley faces to log their mood. They can also check the day’s nutritional breakdown and swipe to look at yesterday’s trends or the days prior. Over time, users can get a sense of what works best and can see a view of overall nutrition of their diets without entering every calorie.
Thryve is available for free in the iTunes App store. Thryve offers a second (free) app, Foster, a medication tracker with just as simple interface.
Thryve Doesn’t Count Calories, But Here Are Some “Links I Like” About Calories To Chew On:
– Lauren from Nutrition Energy posted this link on Facebook to a very interesting (and somewhat vexing) blog post on Scientific American called The Hidden Truth About Calories. It basically talks about how all foods are not created equally in terms of calories and the amount of calories processed by the body and how individual metabolic differences even come in to play. I do believe their conclusion that eating less processed foods is really the ticket to a healthy weight. Worth a read for sure! (and check out Nutrition Energy’s latest newsletter for great tips for managing stomach issues for runners and awesome pumpkin recipes, too!)
– The Greatist also had a useful post on calories recently, as well – read Are All Calories Created Equal? They assert that all calories are equal but how the body processes them based on what type of macronutrients they are makes them different. Also very interesting!
– Trying to manage all of this? Check out Runner’s World’s 50 Weight Loss Tricks! (Not surprisingly, not all of them match with the previous 2 articles thinking – which are a bit of a departure from the usual weight management ideas.)
Is All of This Talk of Calories Getting You Down? How About Some Great Deals & Sweepstakes to Cheer You Up?
– I love Pure Wow and I love Canyon Ranch — so OF COURSE I entered the sweepstakes to win a trip to Canyon Ranch sponsored by Starbucks Refreshers. And you can, too, by clicking HERE. You can also enter to win $500 from Daily Worth to “Get Ahead of the Holidays” by pledging to save $500 by November 15th – no strings attached!
– Here’s a no brainer! $25 for $50 at piperlime.com from Bloomspot! (Hurry $50 for $100 sold out already!) They also still have $19 for $40 at Uber (in Chicago only)!
– Have you signed up for the Clean plates newsletter? They offer perks for members in NYC and some other national deals (as well as interesting articles, etc.) This week’s perk: Enjoy 30% off any vegan, gluten-free frozen confection at Stogo starting today, 10/4, through next Wednesday, 10/10! Sign up and they will send you an email to redeem!
– Hey runners – Check out Gearbuzz’s 50% off deal on Hex Sports watch band for ipod nano – looks cool and is very practical, too! Only $15!
– Do you use Rue la la for flash sales on clothes and accessories for men, women, children, household stuff, trips and local deals? They have great stuff and it is free. If you are not a member, click here. If you are check out :
– $50 for $10 at Jane Marvel on awesome bags and accessories, or
– In Chicago 50% off on a hot stone massage at Salon Duo – $37 for 45 min and $75 for 90 minutes.
– Also, love this name – “OCD Experience” Four-Hour In-Home Organizational Service – regularly $499.00 only $175.00 with voucher. Available in Los Angeles or New York City
Need a massage? Don’t forget Spa Week is back!!! – check out $50 options at spas all over the country for appointments the week of October 15 – 21. It is a great chance to try out high end spas at a low(er) cost! Book now as appointments fill up FAST! (and speaking of awesome spa deals in NYC – check out this travelzoo deal for a “Lux Champagne spa day” at the Waldorf Astoris for $199 or great deals on Swedish Massage or Facial (50% off) at the Tiffani Kim Institute in Chicago from Daily Candy Deals!)
Looking for other fun stuff this weekend? Well, if you are in Chicago – don’t forget to cheer for runners in the Chicago Marathon on Sunday (good luck runners!) and if you are in NYC – don’t forget Open House NYC – it is free and AWESOME!
Last Thing for Today! Congratulations to Stacy and Kelli on winning the Running Divas marathoner Ts and to Colette for winning the $25 Nike card! Thanks to all who comments and supported Run10Feed10 and Perfect Fuel! And if you didn’t win, don’t despair, I have 2 long sleeve shirts from Running Divas and more fun stuff to give away soon!
Have a great weekend and good luck marathoners!