How To Use MyFitness Pal and Other Tech To Lose Weight {Youtube Interview Family Tech and Health Beet}

The following is a Youtube Interview I did with Sarah Kimmel of Family Tech. We chat about the apps and tech I use to lose weight and keep it off.

YouTube Live Interview Transcript with Amy Roskelley and Sarah Kimmel

Sarah Kimmel[00:03]: Hello, and welcome back to Family Tech Talk Live. This is Sarah Kimmel with family tech, and we’ve got Amy with Health Beet and we’re super excited. And I just wanted to announce that we will be doing a giveaway of $25 gift card two Amazon. So if you leave a comment in the chat that just says giveaway, you’ll be entered, and we’ll pick one winner at the end of the stream to win the $25 gift card. So, if you want to enter, just go ahead and type in giveaway and you’ll be entered. So there you go.Let’s introduce Amy with Health Beet, super excited to have you here. You’re the best person to talk about health and fitness.

Amy Roskelley[00:54]: Well, I do enjoy health and fitness.

Sarah Kimmel [00:59]: So tell us about yourself. What’s your company? What do you… 

Amy Roskelley[01:01]: I thought you were going to introduce me.

Sarah Kimmel [01:03]: This is Amy Roskelley. She just happens to be my sister. So if you see any resemblance that would be why, except for I got all the fairness and she got the Indian blood, apparently 

Amy Roskelley[01:20]: Her skin. Yes.

Sarah Kimme l[01:23]: Our grandma used to say that she has the native American blood in her.

Amy Roskelley[01:29]: Which we found out is not true when I did my DNA.

Sarah Kimmel[01:34]: Exactly. But, you know she started a health company over almost how long ago said 15 years 

Amy Roskelley[01:45]: It was 2007. So 15 years, yes.

Sarah Kimmel[01:49]: 15 years ago. A health company she since sold that part of the company and broke off and started her own which is Health Beet. She has Instagram and a YouTube channel. So if you want to subscribe to her on YouTube, definitely I’ll leave a link in the description after the stream. So you can subscribe to her YouTube channel. I assume there’s going to be lots more YouTube content coming out.

Amy Roskelley[02:17]: Lot, getting right on that. Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[02:19]: Yes. But the best resource is her website, healthbeet.org. And it’s beet spelled just like you can see it on there. B E-E-T 

Amy Roskelley[02:28]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[02:29]: Beet. I always feel like I’m going to say too many E like, I feel like I’m saying, yes.

Amy Roskelley[02:34]: It’s a double 

Sarah Kimmel[02:36]: So Health Beet. And so you can get all, she shares so much great health and fitness information meal plans, all of the above. That’s huge, yes. Recipes, yes; tons and tons of recipes That are all going to have healthy alternatives to your favorites. So, it’s my awesome sister. She’s got, a following of her own, so we just have very different interests.

Amy Roskelley[03:10]: Yes, we do.

Sarah Kimmel[03:12]: I’m all about technology. She is all about health, but at some points, those interests collide, and here is where they collide is in the technology. So let’s talk about your favorite health and fitness apps. So give me whatever is your favorites.

Amy Roskelley[03:32]: Okay. So these are ones I just looked in my phone and these are probably the ones I use every day. There’s a couple I use for exercise. I like the Garmin app and that’s the primary place where all my workouts get synced Garmin. But then I also let it sink to Strava because I love the community on Strava, and I love the analytics on Strava. I like the layout. I like that. You can add pictures. A lot of time will run in the mountains or on trails. And so I love to add pictures to my workouts and it’s easier in Strava to see your history. So last time when I ran a marathon, I wanted to see how many miles I was running right before it. So it’s pretty quick to jump back and then a new one I started using this year when I got a running coach was VDOT and I had no idea and that you can actually do this in Garmin. You don’t have to have VDOT, but, he will add workouts to VDOT and then it’ll sync to my watch. And then during a run, I’m prompted to how many minutes to do what pace. And I don’t have to do anything like it. She just puts them in ,it sinks, and then right before the run, I look at it and I’m like, Ooh, I go to hold that pace for five minutes what! But then she sees the data after my run, after I save it. And so then she can comment on it, and I really liked that. That has definitely helped me increase my workouts this year. So I like VDOT.

Sarah Kimmel[05:27]: Yeah. In fact with the coach Amy qualified for the Boston marathon this year.

Amy Roskelley[05:33]: So yes I did. It was a huge goal that I’ve had for several years. I have been running my whole adult life, but always it’s very slow and it wasn’t until just the last couple years, I’m like, you know what? I want to get faster. And I dont know if you remember.

Sarah Kimmel[05:53]: She used to go during races, slow and steady wins the race.

Amy Roskelley[05:57]: I was just going to say that; slow and steady wins the race. Why I told myself that, but I did. And after a while, I’m like, it doesn’t win any races, I need to go faster. Plus after a long time, this is actually important after a long time of running, especially at a slow pace your body adapts so well, I could go out for a run and probably burn very few calories just because I’m so efficient at it, which is a good thing, that’s what our bodies are supposed to do, but it comes to a certain point where you should challenge your fitness just so you can improve. And so that’s where I got to for that. The other apps I use daily, Pandora, I have a playlist for running on Pandora. And so I listen to that. I also have a podcast app, which to be honest, I actually just deleted a couple days ago and I’m having major withdrawals, which tells me I was super addicted. So I would listen to podcasts while I do strength training, and it was just getting to the point where, I never had my own thoughts anymore.

Sarah Kimmel[07:20]: Oh.

Amy Roskelley[07:21]: So I was just like, you know what? This is too much. They say over consumption; are you too consuming too much information? I was. So anyway, I deleted it and I’ve been so creative the last few days that I’m like, I should have done that a long time ago, but then I tried to cheat, and I started opening audible when I got to the gym. I still have audible, but.

Sarah Kimmel[07:46]: It’s not a podcast, but it’s a book.

Amy Roskelley[07:50]: It feels different, but I’m trying to lean off of that too. A couple other apps really quick. I use my scale has an app that I weigh in on every day, I get on the scale, and it syncs to an app. And I actually really enjoy having that just so I can see my history of my weight. And even I try to weigh myself on days, I know I’ll be high just because I like to have the data. It honestly takes the drama out of getting on the scale for me. Now to me, it’s just all information, I don’t judge it, I don’t make it make myself weird in the head, I’m just like, oh, that’s interesting., here’s the graph. And you can also in a good sense, you can see on your graphs, your trending, so that over six months, if you’re trying to lose weight. You can actually see, oh, I guess being consistent does pay off because six months ago I was here. And people are different, and a lot of people might want to argue about this. But I think for me, weighing myself every day is less mental than once in a while and being like what happened.

Sarah Kimmel[09:19]: Sure.

Amy Roskelley[09:20]: So that one, and then the last one I don’t know if you read my article. But I wrote it, I quit diet Coke article, and…

Sarah Kimmel[09:32]: Did you though?

Amy Roskelley[09:34]: I have no, I really did. Did you not know this?

Sarah Kimmel[09:38]: I didn’t know this.

Amy Roskelley[09:39]: Okay. It’s because of this app it’s called QuitZilla. I’ve been 148 days without diet Coke.

Sarah Kimmel[09:48]: Wow! That’s cool.

Amy Roskelley[09:51]: I actually look at this every time. I think I want one and I’m like, why would I want to reset that timer? I do not want to reset that timer.

Sarah Kimmel[10:00]: I’m a huge streaks person too. If I have something like that where I’m checking in every day, that totally is motivating to me because I’m just like, oh, I can’t not do that. So ,this is a funny story in 2020, I got COVID in November, but I was on an almost 230-day streak of hitting 10,000 steps.

Amy Roskelley[10:32]: Oh.

Sarah Kimmel[10:33]: And I was literally walking on the treadmill holding on.

Amy Roskelley[10:38]: I did not know that about you.

Sarah Kimmel[10:43]: Because I couldn’t let the streak die. I’m like I have to, and…

Amy Roskelley[10:48]: Of course you didn’t.

Sarah Kimmel[10:50]: But I was so sick and I’m just holding onto the handles of the treadmill, just walking. I just got to get 10,000.

Amy Roskelley[10:59]: That is so funny.

Sarah Kimmel[11:01]: So that would really be super motivating for me. So it’s called Quit Zillow.

Amy Roskelley[11:05]: Yes. Quit Zilla it’s because, and I talk about it in that post about quitting.

Sarah Kimmel[11:10]: Because my big problem is sweets, as you know, I am a huge sweets person. I love cookies and candy. So that might be a good one for me to check out.

Amy Roskelley[11:22]: Yes. If you want to go cold Turkey, it is. I don’t know that you want to go cold Turkey, but you can.

Sarah Kimmel[11:29]: No, we’ll see, awesome. So any other apps that we didn’t cover?

Amy Roskelley[11:36]: Those are the main ones about health, yes.

Sarah Kimmel[11:39]: Okay. Awesome. So speaking, I know you just touched on this a little bit, but devices. So what are your essential devices that help you with your health and fitness?

Amy Roskelley[11:50]: Okay. So my watch, I like the Garmin for me. I have a watch face that gives me miles per week. The one I picked just because I have these miles per week goals, so I like that about it. That’s something I don’t look at in an app, and then total daily steps I like. So yes, the Garmin, I seriously don’t know what I would do without it. If I lost it, I’d buy another one right away.

Sarah Kimmel[12:23]: Do you know? I have three, 

Amy Roskelley[12:25]: No I did not, but I am not surprised. So yes that, and then headphones just for my workouts, I just have a cheap, I buy $30. Just no name brand. I don’t have, I’m not a pod person, whatever they call those, the Ear Pods.

Sarah Kimmel[12:51]: You’re not an audio file. So, the quality of the music isn’t super important to you?

Amy Roskelley[12:56]:No.

Sarah Kimmel[12:57]: I mean, same.

Amy Roskelley[12:58]: Yes. So I have cheap ones, of course the phone itself is a device.

Sarah Kimmel[13:04]: Right.

Amy Roskelley[13:05]: So yes, I have that. Also my scale, I already talked about that it syncs with the app, but then also. 

Sarah Kimmel[13:12]: Is that name brand one or is it ? 

Amy Roskelley[13:16]: Is the one I have R-E-N-P-H-O.

Sarah Kimmel[13:19]: Okay.

Amy Roskelley[13:20]: Funny story about that. I really wanted a scale that did body fat and my husband bought it for me for Christmas one year. It was several years ago, and he’s like, you can’t tell anybody I bought you a scale for Christmas because he was so embarrassed.

Sarah Kimmel[13:35]: He’s like mortified husband.

Amy Roskelley[13:38]: That’s here, you need to weigh yourself.

Sarah Kimmel[13:42]: It’s in the past when the husband bought a blender for the way.

Amy Roskelley[13:45]: Yes. Wait, don’t you want to work out Is my kitchen scale. So…

Sarah Kimmel[13:56]: Oh yes.

Amy Roskelley[13:56]: I use it constantly. I bought one, I’m going to say a year ago we should probably do a giveaway for this. I bought one a year ago that you type in the code for whatever food is on it, and it spits out the weight and calories and macros and all that, but I’ve literally never taken it out of the box because just the simplicity of this and I want to decide how much calories are in something. I don’t want this much to the side because I just don’t trust it. So that’s just your typical standard kitchen scale I have.

Sarah Kimmel[14:36]: One that is super important. And actually, maybe we’ll get into this a little bit later, but to weight your food and if you’re really trying to lose weight or anything, that’s important because, I can just say I had a cup of cereal, but unless I actually measured that cup of cereal, did I really have a cup of cereal or did I have like three cups of cereal? Which is probably [cross-talking:15:02].

Amy Roskelley[15:02]: Yes. And even not just if you scoop it into a measuring cup, it might not weigh what the box says it’s supposed to, you might be over or under. So I just weigh everything.

Sarah Kimmel[15:16]: Yes. Super smart. So talk about, how does tracking help with weight loss?

Amy Roskelley[15:24]: I think it’s really important. It’s unfortunate that it’s important, but the reality is our environment is so different than it was a hundred years ago. It’s just our bodies can get tricked into eating a thousand calories that have zero nutrition and it’ll still think you’re hungry. It’s almost like if you’re going to eat processed food or if you’re going to eat any food in today’s environment, then weighing and measuring it is important just so you are aware and you don’t go overboard because we don’t need that much food to thrive. We really don’t. In fact, I would say most of us thrive more like eating less than overeating.

Sarah Kimmel[16:18]: Sure.

Amy Roskelley[16:18]: Overeating is just you’re disease prone, you’re sluggish, you’re tired, you’re sick, you’re all the things anyway. So it’s just hard to know how much you’re eating when you’re relying on modern food and the hyper palatability of food is so deceiving because you can.

Sarah Kimmel[16:43]: What does that even mean?

Amy Roskelley[16:45]: It just means it’s so dang tasty . 

Sarah Kimmel[16:48]: Oh, got you.

Amy Roskelley[16:49]: It’s so tasty. You just 

Sarah Kimmel[16:51]: You just said a word that does not compute for me.

Amy Roskelley[16:54]: Hyperpalatable. It’s yummy. If it’s hyper palatable, it’s like, has gone in the lab beyond yummy. It’s like, I cannot stop at seven wheat thins, I’m going to need seventy-five. Do you know what I’m saying? So it so weighing in like let’s just take wheat thins, for example, if I’m going to eat wheat thins, I’m going to count fourteen wheat thins and call it good. I can’t trust my hunger cues because I’ll never be full because it’s just so easy to overeat. So anyway, I just think it’s important to track because our environment of food has made itself. If you’re going to eat whole foods a hundred percent of the time, I don’t think you do need to track, but… 

Sarah Kimmel[17:49]: Interesting.

Amy Roskelley[17:50]: Yes. Because you’ll be able to sense how much if, when you’ve had enough at that point.

Sarah Kimmel[17:56]: Yes. You’ll be.

Amy Roskelley[17:58]: I like to eat a variety of food. I like to eat processed food too. I like sugar free artificial crap too. So I just have to control it.

Sarah Kimmel[18:09]: Sugar-Free artificial crap isn’t the best stuff. If you’re going to indulge, just go with the sugar 

Amy Roskelley[18:16]: I love me some artificial sweeteners. Sugar Free pistachio pudding. enough said.

Sarah Kimmel[18:27]: Oh, that sounds terrible. We are very different people. That is yes different . 

Amy Roskelley[18:34]:Yes. Especially in what we eat.

Sarah Kimmel[18:38]: Yes, for sure. So let’s so speaking of tracking, let’s talk specifically about MyFitnessPal and I’ve actually pulled up MyFitnessPal for us to like talk about.

Amy Roskelley[18:51]: Okay.

Sarah Kimmel[18:51]: Although I am not a subscriber, which we’ll get into it in a minute, but so what is kind of important? What should you keep in mind while you’re tracking what’s important to track? What do you look at when you’re looking at MyFitnessPal?

Amy Roskelley[19:08]: Okay. So I mostly will look at total calories for the day and total protein for the day, I don’t subtract exercise calories, I don’t let the app sink my weight because it changes their recommendations for you. I don’t have any of that synced to MyFitnessPal. I just look at total calories for the day and that I’m over a hundred grams of protein a day, those are my two main goals. I do look at everything though, and this is why I have the premium subscription because I like to break it down and just like I was talking about with the scale, I just like the data because it takes the emotion and the drama out of it for me. The other day, I was shocked when I saw with the premium subscription I can tap on that protein, that carb, that fiber and I can see which foods see analyze my foods. So I have the foods in where that blue button is that made up my protein for the day. But the other day I was at 70 grams of fat, which is very unlike me. I inherently just eat a low fat everything because I’m a girl of the eighties and I don’t like that you’d never see me on keto, but I had seventy grams of fat and I was like what? This is odd. So I could tap on it, and I’d say, oh yeah, that almond cashew. I had a trail mix bar or something plus trail mix, so and an avocado that day. Anyway, it was just higher in fat than normal, but I could tap on that and see, and I like that about it. I also like , if you go back to your diary for the day so I can change the names of the meals. So mine right now says meal one , meal two , meal three. Sometimes when I’m trying to eat by the clock, I’ll rename it eight o’clock, ten o’clock, two o’clock miscellaneous. So I’ll do that. Also it’ll give me the macronutrient breakdown per meal, like right under the word snack, mine says, can you see this here?

Sarah Kimmel[21:57]: Let’s make you bigger. Nope.

Amy Roskelley[22:05]: So, oh yes. So under meal one, I have carbs, fat protein, see that and if I tap it, it switches to percentage 31%, 37%, 32%. Do you see that? And you’ll see my goal. I ignore that too, I’m not my goals, not 1170\. I ate 1600 calories that day. I ignore what’s remaining, I just look at the straight numbers, so I like that about it. You see also how I have meal one, meal two, meal three. So anyway I like that about the premium subscription. What else do I use with that? Sometimes I don’t even know what’s premium and what’s… 

Amy Roskelley[23:09]: Yeah.

Amy Roskelley[23:09]: Anymore. Because I’ve used it for so long. You can, oh they have meal plans on there. I actually have subscribed to a few of those, and they make it really easy and then I just use the build a recipe feature every time I share a recipe to my blog, I’ll calculate all the nutrition in MyFitnessPal. That’s not a paid feature, everyone can do that.

Sarah Kimmel[23:41]: Sure. Yes and so I have my standard breakfast. I literally eat the same breakfast every single morning.

Amy Roskelley[23:48]: Yes. I know you do.

Sarah Kimmel[23:50]: I’m paying her to coach me.

Amy Roskelley[23:52]: I’m watching Sarah’s meal tracker every day to keep her compliant.

Sarah Kimmel[23:59]: I’m paying her to coach me on this. So I just hit this standard breakfast and that’s something that I’ve created in here where I know these are the things that I eat every single morning for breakfast.

Amy Roskelley[24:12]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[24:12]: And so when I’m tracking, all I have to do is just hit standard breakfast and then it populates all of those things.

Amy Roskelley[24:19]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[24:19]: And then I have my lunch smoothie recipe, this is the thing I eat for lunch every single day. And so all of that stuff.

Amy Roskelley[24:28]: Well, and that’s the thing most of us, even though we’d like to think we eat a variety of food, most of us are pretty consistent with what we’re eating, especially breakfast and lunch; we tend to eat the same things every day. And so, having a tool like MyFitnessPal, just to copy it to the next day or to pull it up as a saved meal is really convenient.

Sarah Kimmel[24:52]: Yes, for sure. Any other things in here you kind of look at? I haven’t… 

Amy Roskelley[25:00 ]: So, I said, I’ve been watching Sarah’s food. She enters I guess one thing I just wanted to caution about because I’vewatched a few people and the food they’re entering, it’s just so important to also know inherently or like confirm your sources if something looks off because like Sarah put in the other day she had a hamburger and then she picked the listing that was like 110 calories. And I was like isn’t no way that a hamburger is 110 calories, unless it’s a slider, like a little baby thing. So I’m like, you need to look for a different entry. And the problem is anybody can make an entry, and everyone can find it. So if you find the entry with a little blue check mark, buy it, or you can confirm it against a package. If you got it out of a package or a restaurant’s online nutrition information, then you’ll be able to select more with a little bit more education or knowledge about it. The other thing I wanted to say about that is one thing to remember is, it’s not going to be accurate and that’s okay. I feel like not tracking at all is, don’t know what I’m trying to say here, but all I’m saying is don’t let it give you hang up that it’s not accurate because you probably are going to be consistently inaccurate. And what I mean by that is if you’ve never entered your cucumbers, then you’re still having like a baseline of information, or if you always weigh your chicken raw, but you select the cooked one, it’s not that big a deal. If you’re always doing it that way, when you’re ready to be in a deficit, don’t change anything, just keep doing what you’re doing and then put yourself in that deficit anyway. So it’s going to be consistently inconsistent is what I’m trying to say, but don’t let that stop you from tracking.

Sarah Kimmel[27:26]: Nice. And then I think just the fact of just entering it and . Being conscious of what you’re putting in 

Amy Roskelley[27:33]: Yes, a thousand percent, I think that’s for me, the main thing. Sometimes I don’t even look at the end of the day what the calories are, but just being in the habit of knowing that I’m not eating mindlessly, I think is a win for me.

Sarah Kimmel[27:50]: Yes, for sure. So obviously you pay for the premium subscription. Do you think it’s worth it? And I know we went over a couple of the features that you particularly like, but so does that make it worth it for you or ? 

Amy Roskelley[28:06]: It’s worth it to me, but I don’t think it’s necessary; I don’t think it would. I think I would still be able to maintain my weight loss and not have it. Because I’m writing a lot of articles about weight loss and doing recipes and making meal plans, I just need all the data. So for me and for trying to run Health Beet, I need it, but you can a hundred percent be successful with the free plan.

Sarah Kimmel[28:41]:  Yes. Which I have, I just make my sister check my stuff.

Amy Roskelley[28:46]: Yes. And say, eat more fiber.

Sarah Kimmel[28:51]: Eat more protein. Solet’s dig into online work as this is kind of where I Excel and shine. I love online workouts, but is there anything, any online workouts that you’ve been excited about? Or… 

Amy Roskelley[29:10]: So, to be honest, I hate online workouts, but this past year withIFit enabled treadmill and my sister’s I fit invitation I did do runs with I fit this winter, it gets really cold in Utah. Otherwise I would never run outside, but it gets really cold. And so the days that it gets cold, I did a few treadmill workouts, which I really enjoyed because I was able to run the Boston marathon. And so for me, that was really helpful because now I can visualize the course and if I’m going to run it next spring, I feel like I’ve already been there. So I love that about it. I love specifically Ashley Paulson and Heather Jensen. Yes, I love running with them. And they go all over the world. It’s so amazing, so I have really liked that. I don’t do videos, I don’t do YouTube, but I don’t do group work exercise. None of that.

Sarah Kimmel[30:35]: I do. I love all of the things. I’ve been a fitness video watcher since like tape days. I mean I bought Ty, 

Amy Roskelley[30:47]: I know, I know typo, that’s a blast from the past.

Sarah Kimmel[30:53]: I know right. I totally bought the typo tapes. So I love all of the streaming fitness services, one of my favorite stories… 

Amy Roskelley[31:01]: We even had Celine Johnson before she was known by the rest of the world.

Sarah Kimmel[31:09]: Yes. I love all of those do and I have my favorite trainers too. I love exactly those I fit trainers that she was talking about. There’s a couple more IFit trainers that I love, like Tommy Rivs and John Peel, those are awesome ones as well. Right now because Amy and I are doing a half marathon in about a week.

Amy Roskelley[31:31]: Saturday next.

Sarah Kimmel[31:33]: Saturday. So I’ve been doing the half marathon training on the IFI treadmill, and I love it. It’s just with Tommy Rivs. I’ve been running all over Bolivia, so it syncs with my Strava account. And so Amy convinced me to join Strava and she said, I love that community in Strava. I can track my runs in my Garmin, but I like sinking it to Strava because then there’s that community of oh, I liked your run and all that. So I have an older lady in my neighborhood that, just signed up for Strava and she’s riding her bike and she texts me. She goes, why is there like a guy in your Strava?

Amy Roskelley[32:18]:Well because it was an IFIT screen grab?

Sarah Kimmel[32:21]: Yes. That’s funny. She didn’t understand. It was like, oh, I’m training for half marathon on my treadmill, these are treadmill workouts. I get to run like all over the world. And that’s what I really like about, especially with IFit is I can run in Hawaii or in Costa Rica or Bolivia and it’s like you’re running through that area, and it makes it so much more entertaining and a lot easier to handle.But yeah, so less mills. I actually have a whole YouTube video if you want to check out in my channel about different streaming fitness services. So check that one out, but less mills is probably one of my favorite ones. And then, daily burn is probably one of my second favorite one, but.

Amy Roskelley[33:13]: Good to know.

Sarah Kimmel[33:14]: Good to know. I know those are important. So what about meal planning? How can technology help with meal planning aside from just purchasing the meal plan you offer on your website?

Amy Roskelley[33:26]: Right. That’s the first thing.

Sarah Kimmel[33:29]: First day just buy her meal plan. It’s great.

Amy Roskelley[33:32]:Good question. MyFitnessPal does have meal planning. There’s a lot of great meal planning apps out there. If you want somebody to do it for you, I know there’s real plans. I know if you follow Elise Bower she has a macro friendly meal plan that has an app related to it. There’s for families, there’s an app called Prepare, which was an app that was developed by the last company I owned. I don’t use a meal planning app right now, but I do save recipes in all recipes, and I like their app. So I’ll go back to those sometimes. I don’t use a lot of recipes though, either just because I just put food together.

Sarah Kimmel[34:35]: Which drives me crazy.

Amy Roskelley[34:37]: Well, my meals are simple too. Here’s the other thing. For a meal, I’ll just get out some protein and I’ll get out some veggies and I’ll find out what seasonings I have for it. So I don’t do a lot of planning. I have a really simple grocery list. In fact, they just let me show you.

Sarah Kimmel[34:58]: Yeah, let’s see your grocery list.

Amy Roskelley[35:00]: Well, it’s not digital, but.

Sarah Kimmel[35:04]: But you obviously made it on a computer.

Amy Roskelley[35:06]: That’s true.

Sarah Kimmel[35:06]: So that’s did Google technology 

Amy Roskelley[35:09]: Use Google sheets. I’m going to post this in a couple days, but I just decided to write down all the food I buy. Every time I go grocery shopping, and this is the whole thing, this is the whole, this is all we buy granted. We don’t have kids at home. And so, my husband will eat whatever I make. And so it’s just really basic. It’s protein, it’s a few carbs, it’s veggies and some miscellaneous stuff. So I can put these very few things together in a hundred thousand different ways. And so I don’t do a lot of official meal planning.

Sarah Kimmel[35:53]: I on the other hand, like I said, we’re sisters, but we are very different people. And I just want to put another plug in if you want to enter the giveaway, just comment giveaway and you can get $25 gift card.

Amy Roskelley[36:10]: I said, is anybody commenting out? Think I can see it.

Sarah Kimmel[36:13]: No, there’s no entries at all.

Amy Roskelley[36:16]: So you might win if you’re on this live.

Sarah Kimmel[36:21]: $75 gift card to Amazon at the end of the live. But , 

Amy Roskelley[36:26]: Yay Barbara!` 

Sarah Kimmel[36:26]: Thanks Barbara. Good job. You’ve got a good chance to win. Anyway we’re very different people. Oh yay, Tia. We’re very different people and I cannot just put food together. I don’t understand how it works. My sister makes really delicious lasagna.

Amy Roskelley[36:59]: Thank you.

Sarah Kimmel[36:59]: And I have begged her for the recipe for years and she’s like, well, I just throw it all. I use some of this and some of that and I’m like, that doesn’t help me. I need a recipe. So she finally put it together in a recipe for me, but.

Amy Roskelley[37:16]: So what do you use for meal planning then?

Sarah Kimmel[37:19]: So I am like, I’m not a cook. I don’t cook well, so I have a list of eight weeks of meals that I make every day. And I just rotate through the eight weeks, every eight weeks. So yes.

Amy Roskelley[37:40]: That’s awesome.

Sarah Kimmel[37:41]: My kids get the same things but although recently I started doing one of those online meal plan. So they deliver the food to your house.

Amy Roskelley[37:51]: Oh you have?! 

Sarah Kimmel[37:53]: Yes. So I tried a couple out and , the one I landed on that I’ve been using pretty consistently for the last like couple of months is called home chef.

Amy Roskelley[38:05]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[38:06]: I tried one called every plate and I tried a couple other ones, but I started using home chef and I really like it because the protein it comes in a box. Right now it’s got a zillion ice packs in it.

Amy Roskelley[38:22]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[38:23]: Because of the weather.

Amy Roskelley[38:26]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[38:26]: Yes. So it comes with the protein and then the meal comes in this bag, and it has everything you need for the whole meal and this bag. And then it has the recipe and they’re really easy to put together and it has a recipe which I need. And so, it’s been really good, and it’s been helping me stay consistent on making dinner because, otherwise I will not because I hate cooking.

Amy Roskelley[38:54]: Just, I can’t justify the cost of that.

Sarah Kimmel[38:57]: Yes. Well, I mean, 

Amy Roskelley[38:59]: Try that ingredients for so much cheaper.

Sarah Kimmel[39:04]: It’s true. But for someone like me, it’s really helpful because, and it didn’t change my grocery budget too much.

Amy Roskelley[39:12]: Oh. That’s interesting.

Sarah Kimmel[39:14]: But again I was wasting a lot of food anyway because I’d buy all the groceries and then I wouldn’t make the meals.

Amy Roskelley[39:22]: Right.

Sarah Kimmel[39:23]: So it’s helped me a lot for sure. Yes 

Amy Roskelley[39:28]: Good.

Sarah Kimmel[39:29]: Yes. So those are a couple different ways technology can help with meal planning. Like I said, I should sign up for an affiliate tracker for my fitness or for a home chef, but I don’t have an affiliate link, but I home chef a lot. So aside from weight loss, is there any tech that can just help regarding general health? What, yes.

Amy Roskelley[39:54]: I don’t use them often, but I do have the apps from my physician’s office on my phone that you can see lab results. You can communicate with your doctor; you can look at your history. I like having that on there. Just to see, like I know I’ve gotten lab work done a couple different times over the last 10 years and I like to see, if there was any changes, maybe things that the doctor doesn’t talk about with you, plus it’s so quick. The last time I got labs done, it was by the end of the day I had most of the information in there, so I like that. There’s specific lab tests I’ve gotten three different times over the last decade, which is the IGE panel that tests you for food? If you have a reaction to specific foods, like yes, it’s like an allergy, but you just produce the antibodies that want to attack that food. And.. 

Sarah Kimmel[40:56]: Interesting.

Amy Roskelley[40:57]: It’s been consistent over 10 years that I have the antibodies for which means I shouldn’t eat much of it specifically eggs and glutenin probably everyone has it though, but I have never cut them out. That’s why I want to see over time if it gets worse, or it’s the same as it was the first time I tested it. So to me, that just means I don’t have to cut that food out, even though. I might have a problem with it, but because it hasn’t gotten worse over 10 years, I don’t think it’s that big a deal. But I wouldn’t know that because before, when they kept the labs be in a folder behind the desk, you would never know those things.

Sarah Kimmel[41:47]: Right.

Amy Roskelley[41:47]: So I like those apps.

Sarah Kimmel[41:50]: Yes. Well, I wouldn’t get an MRI on my shoulder and literally by the time I was home, I had the results of the MRI.

Amy Roskelley[41:58]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[41:58]: In my doctor’s app.

Amy Roskelley[42:02]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[42:03]: And didn’t have to wait for the doctor to call me up with the results or anything like that.

Amy Roskelley[42:08]:No.

Sarah Kimmel[42:08]: So yeah, that’s good.

Amy Roskelley[42:10]: Yes.

Sarah Kimmel[42:11]: So modern technology is fantastic.

Amy Roskelley[42:13]: It’s amazing.

Sarah Kimmel[42:15]: So amazing. So is there anything else we didn’t touch on that you wanted to talk about with?

Amy Roskelley[42:22]: No. I just wanted to say for ideas on meals and recipes and strategies that you could follow me at Instagram or read my blog, I update my blog several times a week and it’s healthbeet.org. My Instagram is Healthbeet. I’m going to start doing YouTube video. So I hope you tag my channel.

Sarah Kimmel[42:48]:Yep. I will put her channel in the description of this video on YouTube and on Facebook.

Amy Roskelley[43:03]: And look, we got a comment, Jay. He says, I used MyFitnessPal; fifty pounds! That is amazing. I really don’t think we can trust our intuition with our current food environment unless we whole foods a hundred percent on the time. So tracking wakes you up, tracking helps you be aware, helps you get control. I love tracking. People are like, I just don’t want to track the rest of my life. I don’t care. I’d rather track the rest of my life than to go back where I was before I lost weight. I’d just rather.

Sarah Kimmel[43:47]: Yes. I’m so data driven just because I’m a very analytical person. I mean technology is my jam. I’m very analytical. So all the data that it provides when you do track properly. I just find.

Amy Roskelley[44:02]: Interesting.

Sarah Kimmel[44:03]: It fun. Yes.

Amy Roskelley[44:04]: So interesting.

Sarah Kimmel[44:05]:Yes. Oh for sure 

Amy Roskelley[44:07]: Here there’s no, yes., Exactly. There’s no way to keep running and you don’t realize how much mindless eating you do when you’re not tracking. I’ll walk by this thing of strawberries and take one every time, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I could eat a whole two pints of strawberries and not track it because I forgot that all day long, I was eating that. Yes. Tina Started tracking portion sizes and was shocked how far off she was from what she estimated case in point grains, rice, especially. People will always say to me, oh, you eat carbs, are you afraid to eat carbs? I’m like, no, I’m not afraid to eat carbs. I just now know that a third, a cup of rice is a good amount for me that I don’t need a full cup of rice. There’s a big difference in calories between a third, a cup and a cup of rice. And I do eat carbs every day, but I’m not eating five hundred grams of carbs a day. You know what I’m saying? 

Sarah Kimmel[45:14]: For sure.

Amy Roskelley[45:15]: That’s scary. You can watch this. Sarah’s going to pin it to your channel or well pin.

Sarah Kimmel[45:21]: It’s just, it will be live on YouTube, you’re on YouTube. So soon as this [cross-talking 45:28].

Amy Roskelley[45:28]: I’ll send a link to it when it’s over. In my email too.

Sarah Kimmel[45:32]: Oh yes. And so Amy will send out the link in the email. If you just go to my YouTube channel family tech, it will beunder the lives or just my recent videos. So it will definitely be here forever and ever. You can also check it out on Facebook I stream.

Amy Roskelley[45:50]: Oh, I didn’t realize we were on Facebook until Tia started commenting.

Sarah Kimmel[45:54]: Yes for sure. Thank you. You’re welcome. So if you missed the giveaway, we are doing a giveaway. So if you have not typed in giveaway in the chat yet definitely type that in to get your entry. We’re going to do the entry in just a second. So it looks like we’ve got so far,, 2, 3, 4 entries. So we are going to my random number generator. Sweet. Oh, just kidding. Jay Johnson got in just under the wire. So we’re going to change this to five and we will calculate generate, oh wait, did it go? Yes.

Amy Roskelley[46:52]: Yep. Entry number four.

Sarah Kimmel[46:54]: So four. So, oh Terry, I don’t know how to pronounce your last name, but 

Amy Roskelley[47:01]:[Inaudible 47:01]

Sarah Kimmel[47:06]: So that is the entry. Congratulations. So go ahead and send me an email. Sarah, S-A-R-A-H and actually I can just do this in a banner really quick sarah@familytech.biz. And I will get you your $25 gift card. So let’s just show that really fast. So you know exactly how to reach me. So go ahead and shoot me an email and I will get your, Amazon gift card out to you. So thank you so much for attending live. So there is a benefit to attending live. I’m so excited, we’ve got one more comment from Johnson. I always tell people that whatever you do to lose weight is what you have to do to keep it off. So creating a habit of portion control is important. . 

Amy Roskelley[48:01]: Yes, could not agree. More a hundred percent.

Sarah Kimmel[48:05]: Yes. because if you don’t know Amy’s story, she actually has her whole weight loss story on her website at health beet.org. Again, that’s B-E- E-T, healthbeet.org. Check out her weight loss story. Although we’re sisters, like I said, we are very different in so many aspects. Of course there’s a lot of things that we do that are the same, but very different in aspects. She has struggled with weight her whole life, and she used to get mad at me.

Amy Roskelley[48:37]: [Inaudible 48:37]

Sarah Kimmel[48:37]: Very different and she’d get mad at me because I never really struggled, when I was a kid, and I would eat terrible. And I remember my sister saying to me, just because you’re skinny doesn’t mean you’re healthy and I remember that!

Amy Roskelley[49:05]: Because I’m always eating healthy and so it was really unfair. But I just like, I just love food more than you to be honest.

Sarah Kimmel [49:08]: That’s true. I don’t, I’m not… 

Amy Roskelley[49:10]: I love food. I love to cook. I love to be in the kitchen and Sarah is totally happy, like eating a bag of chips every day for the rest of her life.

Sarah Kimmel[49:21]: That’s true. Yes. It’s definitely true, and I don’t care, I’m not.

Amy Roskelley [49:29]: She said, she’s like get in a bikini on a stage.

Sarah Kimmel [49:33]: No, I’m not. But Amy did, which was so impressive. Like I said, you definitely want to check out her whole weight loss story. It’s fascinating check out her meal plan. It’s a twelve give hundred dollars [cross-talking 49:50].

Amy Roskelley [49:50]: 1200 calories. I’m working on a 1500 calorie one now because that’s actually what I’m eating now.

Sarah Kimmel[49:59]: Oh, okay. See. And because she has so much more muscle, her calorie intake had to increase. So look at that yes. Yes not me.

Amy Roskelley [50:15]: Let, it be known that I don’t look like a bodybuilder. I’m like I don’t walk around flexing well, sometimes 

Sarah Kimmel[50:25]: She’s always asking like, where’s the beach?

Amy Roskelley [50:27]: Where is it this way?

Amy Roskelley [50:29]: Okay. We’ll let these good people go.

Sarah Kimmel [50:33]: Yes. So definitely send me that email so I can get you your Amazon gift card. Thank you again so much Amy, for being my guest this week, super fascinating. I love your passion for health and fitness and it’s something to be admired for sure.

Amy Roskelley[50:53]: Thanks!

Sarah Kimmel[50:53]: Thank you all for attending and yes, we’ll see you next Friday.