REVIEW: Meditate - Meditation Timer by SimpleTouch

After my morning Tai Chi, and using LoseIt! to enter my exercise on my iPhone, the next step of my morning routine is to use another iPhone app called Meditate - Meditation Timer by SimpleTouch Software.  As this app is about as close to perfection as I can imagine an app being, this review will be much shorter than some others might.


I settle down for a brief meditation.  Actually, a word on that…If you think that meditation is something you don't have time for, please find a way to fit it in.  It doesn't matter if it's an hour, 30 minutes, 15, 10 or even 1 or 2 minutes!  Even just a few breaths can be a meditation.  If you seriously think that's not possible, then use your Tai Chi or other exercise as moving meditation.  Use your walking as walking meditation.  Just find a way to fit it in, because the benefits are great.  Some might say that meditation has no place in a weight loss program.  I would argue strongly that it does.  It helps you calm yourself, think clearly and especially the quick, three breath re-focusing type, will help you live in the moment and focus when you are about to make a food or exercise decision.  If you do this before you order your lunch, you might find yourself eating much healthier.

Anyhow, I settle down, and relax, then hit the Meditate app icon.  Each time you enter the app, you will find a different lush and vibrant background image of a calming scene.  In the foreground you are shown a VERY slick control panel for the app.  What you see, with this app, is ALL you get.  It's designed to do one thing, VERY simply, and VERY well.  At the top is the time you have allowed for meditation.  Beneath that are six buttons:

Preparation (time)
Mediation (time)
Interval (time)
Cool Down (time)
Minus (-)
Plus (+)

The bottom has the "Meditate" button, which starts your timer.  When you tap that, the control panel flips horizontally, and states the item (preparation, meditation, etc) at the top, has a large countdown timer in the middle and a restart and pause button at the bottom.

That's all, folks!  There's no additional screens for setup, about us, website, nothing!  Meditate - Meditation Timer is perfectly stunning visually, perfectly simple in it's layout and operation, requires virtually NO setup and operates flawlessly.  One job, perfectly performed in a beautiful way.  What more could you possibly want in an app!

I've tried countless other options such as the popular Zazen Suite, and the Equanimity app.  All have their pros and cons.  What makes the Meditate app so special, at least to me, is there ARE NO CONS!  It's all PROS!  Just like the designers.  Speaking of whom, I have communicated with SimpleTouch a few times and have found them to be extremely responsive, professional and friendly.  Their professionalism as a developer seems to match their design aesthetic.  Can't say anything nicer than that about them, if you ask me!

So, bottom line - If meditation is a part of your life, and you're an iPhone user, this app is non-optional.  If there's a better mediation timer app out there, I have not seen it!

Til next time,
MondoSamu

Gratitude

Hello, welcome and thank you!  I have received a ton of new traffic since Dr. Lilian Cheung mentioned MondoSamu on the Savor Facebook page.  I thought I should take a moment to show some gratitude to her for the lovely mention and then to each of you who has taken time out of your life to spend reading my words.  I'm especially grateful to those who have commented that this blog has had some positive impact for them.  You can't know what that means to me, and I'm so happy for you all as well.

So WELCOME!  Come back to see me from time to time.  I will try to post daily, or as often as my work schedule will permit.  I look forward to sharing ideas, stories and information and learning from each of you.

MondoSamu

Staying mindful on the road

I travel for work a good bit, and today I found myself in Cincinnati. I had been planning on eating at Skyline Chili (famous local chili joint) even until I landed. But when I looked for nearby eateries, a good vegan place caught my eye. I mustered my mindfulness and chose Melt Eclectic Cafe.

I had a BBQ chicken sandwich and cup of chili. All vegan and DELICIOUS!!!




I worked the rest of the day, then headed up to Devou Park for a great mindful walk.













Lastly, I finished the day with dinner by the water with another veggie choice. Edamame hummus with wheat pita, and veggies. And then a spring mix salad with walnuts, sun dried cranberries, English cukes, Bleu cheese and a basil orange balsamic vinaigrette.








I'm always so glad when I manage to eat great food, mindfully, and get great exercise in, when I'm on the road and it's so easy to eat poorly and sit around.

What a great day!

Mondo Samu

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Simply LoseIt! with Tai Chi

So, now that we've established that Savor! is the foundation of my work to lose weight, let's move on to the details of what I am doing.

My normal wake up time was 5:30 a.m., and I am a morning person.  My wife and kid are awesome, so to keep from losing time with them, I started getting up at 4:45 a.m., and the first thing I do (after caring for the family pets) is Tai Chi.

I pop in the Simply Tai Chi DVD, and do the warm up and then the 12 forms for 30 minutes.  Some days, I switch it out for a different style like the Yang style and do something a little different to keep it fresh.

I'm not qualified, by any stretch of the imagination, to write knowledgeably on Tai Chi, so I won't spend a lot of time on that.  Just know that, for me, it has proven to be a fantastic way to do some moving meditation, and burn some calories, doing something I truly enjoy and is low impact.  Beyond that you can check out the Wikipedia page which has some great links and information for further research.

More importantly, when I am done with that morning exercise, I immediately use the first of several iPhone apps I rely on:

LoseIt! by FitNow;

I tap on LoseIt, and enter my exercise (30 minutes of Tai Chi), then it posts that automatically (because I set it up to do so) on FaceBook so that all my friends who are using their time to play FarmVille can see that I have just used mine to get in shape and lose weight!

When I weigh in on Sunday or Monday, LoseIt! posts any losses (again, because I allowed it to do so) on my FaceBook as well.

Let me explain what (in my opinion) is the magic of LoseIt! - Nothing!  There is no magic!  LoseIt! makes it easy for busy folks to lose weight by doing what doctors the world over have been telling overweight people to do FOR-E-VER!  WATCH WHAT YOU EAT!

It sounds simple, but in a SEA of diets that each take their own path to help you lose weight, and usually fail, LoseIt! relies on the age old idea that if you pay attention to what you are eating, keep a journal of it, track the calories, you will lose weight.  This app fits extremely well with the Savor book because, if used, it MAKES you mindful of what it is that you consume, and how many calories it is.  Let me give you a real life example:

Up until a few months ago, a typical morning breakfast for me was a bowl of cereal at home, either a Starbucks Venti Mocha Frap or 44 oz. Soda (sometimes both), and either a Chocolate Chunk Cookie from Starbucks or a King Sized Reese's Fast Break candy bar.  That was breakfast.  Then one day, I started using LoseIt! to track my intake.  I diligently entered all my breakfast items.  Being a 6'4" 349 pound guy (back then) I had a calorie allotment of around 2500 calories or so per day.  The breakfast above went something like this (rounded for simplicity):  Cereal (380) + Soda (500) + Candy (480) = 1440 calories for BREAKFAST!  Not to mention all the sugar!  For lunch I would typically have a 1000 - 1500 calorie meal from some fast food joint, then dinner might be another 1500-2000 calories from say, maybe, a half a pizza.  Grand total on a given day could range from 4000-5000 calories!!!  More than double my appropriate amount!!! Add to that the fact that I am a sedentary office IT guy who LOATHED heat and sweating…and you get the formula that created my 349 lb. self.

On that first time using LoseIt!, when I saw the fact that my breakfast meal was well over half my daily allowance, I realized two things immediately.

1. I had to change something immediately
2. SODA was my ENEMY!  

For me, I could EEEEEASSILY consume 3-6 of those 44 oz sodas per day.  I drank big gulps at the 7/11 when I was a kid, I got a job at a Soda manufacturer that plied it's people with all the free soda they could drink and worked there for FIVE YEARS, I worked in a job that allowed me access to free soda for EIGHT years following that, and just have always generally drank soda as thought it were the nectar of the gods and I had found the magic fountain!

So, I cut soda out.  I used LoseIt! and lost 28 lbs. within a couple of months and was excited.  Then several factors caused me to fall off of it for a while and one day all that and more had come back to haunt me!  (Once again, let me stress that I was missing the mindfulness I have now found in Savor)

I've now been using LoseIt! for the last 3 months DAILY.  Setting up the "Motivators" (such as allowing it to post to FaceBook) has helped keep me at it this time, but really it's the Savor book that has helped me apply mindfulness so well that has kept me at it the most.  But, the bottom line is, I use it daily, I track my calories and my exercise, and I have now lost 45 pounds!

Now, to be fair, I can not tell you that LoseIt! is the perfect app (that honor goes to Happy Tapper and SimpleTouch for their apps I will talk about later).  There have been some bumps for me using it.  The first was the total loss of all my data during an update to the IOS.  Not actually their fault, but it happened none the less and there was nothing in place to prevent it.  They have since implemented online backups!  I also had, and continue to have, trouble finding a lot of the foods I eat in their database.  It's always been strange to me that they seem to have all the worst foods of a place, rather than the good items.  Like, they'll have SOME items that Burger Queen sells, but not ALL of them.  Or whatever.  It can be frustrating and, in the beginning, I think it could cause you to stop using it because what you eat may not be in the database.  They have since done regular updates, but this continues to be an issue.  Luckily, after a few months of using it, most of your stuff will be entered so it's no problem.

Now the great stuff!  The food entry methods are great!  They give you a bunch of great ways to find foods quickly which is extremely important.  You can search the overall database, your own foods, or you can quickly select from previous meals.  This last one is a GREAT thing if you eat the same breakfast every day or similar.  Also, you can create your own recipes, which can be a little time consuming, but is GREAT!  And other ways as well.  This app, just in general, works extremely well, and it's navigation is it's strongest feature in my opinion.  I think it's the simplicity and ease of navigation that keeps me coming back.  Also, a recent update introduced the ability to use the "app" online without having a smartphone.  So if you are not an iPhone user and still want to take advantage, you can!  They also greatly improved their overal structure online and introduced social networking with other users of the app.  It's pretty darned slick.  And in a less important nod to them, I have to give them serious props for their VERY nice security setup, AND testing....some social networking sites out there who rhyme with Schmacebook could take a page out of FitNow's book and be a lot better off!

There are countless other options out there that I have tried (because I keep hoping for a more comprehensive database and BAR CODE SCANNING!), but I keep coming back.  Calorie Counter is a good one, but ultimately (like most of the available apps for calorie counting) is a little overly complex for what it does.  All-In Fitness is a really slick app, but for some reason didn't appeal to me (though I am a fan of their apps).  And the best competitor to LoseIt! in my opinion is the LiveStrong.com app.  It is also more complex than I want, and not terribly slick, but it has the very best calorie database I have found anywhere.  There are numerous options for almost anything I have tried to find, even obscure items.  I believe - though I have no factual info on this - that it uses customer sourced info to build it's database, which can be both good and bad.  I like it so much, in fact, that I use it to find calorie info I can't find in LoseIt! and then enter them in.

So, to wrap up, LoseIt! is not perfection, but it's a fantastic app with a very strong community of support.  In recent months they have been a lot more responsive with new updates and I believe they even have a book coming out about the app as well.  


If I could only choose one app to recommend for calorie tracking it would be LoseIt!

Have you got a similar app that you prefer?  Please tell me what and why?  Let's get the Mondo part of MondoSamu happening! A little two-way discussion and sharing of info!

Go get LoseIt!

Til next time (when we discuss Meditate - Meditation Timer by SimpleTouch).

MondoSamu

"Savor" - The foundation of my process

"HOW?!"

That's the number one question people ask me when they see or hear that I have lost 45 pounds.

"Mindfulness" comes my one word answer.

Even when I tell them the more full length version as detailed in my previous post "The Plan!" it still sounds too easy.  Everyone either expects more, or thinks I'm oversimplifying it. Eat mindfully, exercise mindfully.  That's it.

Mindfulness, when you get right down to it, is all I am doing.  Sure I am initiating several other efforts using a variety of tools, but each of them is being used and performed mindfully.  The reason I stress this, is that I have done all of these things and COUNTLESS others in the past and none of those were successful individually.  I truly believe that what has happened for me with "Savor" and it's mindfulness message, is that I have found the glue that holds all those other efforts together.  The glue I was lacking in all my previous attempts.

I had a go at mindfulness once before.  It was a fad diet book, that actually had a great message (Eat what you want, when you want, when your full - stop.  And pay attention only to what you are eating.), and I still utilize it's core idea as part of my visualization process today.  But, ultimately, that other book focused on only one area of a persons life.  And that's where "Savor" excels.  It focuses on THE area of your life!

From the first days of my mindfulness efforts, I found things like the "Apple Meditation" to be amazingly effective!  Later in the book, I found the walking meditation to be a great practice as well.  But in the end, it's a very common sense, logical approach to help you focus on what matters, listen to your body and be happy all the while.  The end result?  Whatever you want it to be!

Co-Authored by Nutritionist, Dr. Lilian Cheung, and Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, the book gives a very good balance between the Buddhist point of view on mindfulness and the medical science of nutrition.

Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay as he is referred to by his students, is a Buddhist Monk whom most agree is second only to the Dalai Lama himself in terms of influence.  His life is a mind-boggling journey spanning decades of helping people who couldn't help themselves, yet those achievements - when reviewed on paper - seem so expansive as to have seemingly occupied three times his life span!  It's simply astonishing how involved in bringing peace to the world he has been.  From becoming a monastic at age 16, to helping to pioneer the idea of "Engaged Buddhism", to war relief, to youth services, hospitals, homeless, agricultural and many other areas Thich Nhat Hanh has tirelessly and ceaselessly helped spread love and mindfulness throughout the world, while helping people directly, and still has found time to author several dozen works as broad ranging in topic as his relief work is in scope.  Oh, and he founded the Plum Village meditation community in France.  Look up any of his talks on YouTube, and his sweet affable nature will endear you to him immediately.

Dr. Lilian W. Y. Cheung, D. Sc., R.D. is a nutritionist on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health's Dept. of Nutrition.  She's been a student of Thich Nhat Hanh for years and knows more than a thing or two about the obesity crisis facing our country.  She's been involved in numerous books, lectures, websites and mass media programs to help confront this problem, and hopefully - one day - put an end to it.  She's an amazing thought leader, with her finger on the pulse of one of the nations most serious concerns.  As a student (and teacher) of both nutrition AND Buddhism, she is uniquely qualified to bring this message of mindfulness to us from a perspective both spiritual and scientific.

I believe that the message of this book, and it's authors, has everything you need to help you make a change in your life that will be entirely positive and beneficial.  Ultimately, you have to be ready and willing to make that change, or it's just so much good information.  If you are, as I was, then this book could be the right message at the right time, for you to begin your own journey to a healthier, happier and more mindful life!

What I can not stress to you often enough, or clearly enough, is how utterly SIMPLE this weight loss effort has been for me.  It's taken very little of my time, I have not craved things I have cut out, I have become a virtual vegetarian (Megitarian as my friend Alicia put it), have not been hungry - NONE of the usual things that come with diets and workouts.  Utterly, amazingly, simple.  It's as though, by simply making the decision to be this person, I am.  And that's exactly what it is.

Best of luck to you, I literally wish this for you in my moving meditations!

M.S.

THE PLAN!

Weight Loss & Life Improvement Plan - Simple Version

1) Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

That's it!  The short "one-size-fits-all" version of my plan is: read the Savor book, and apply it to your life in whatever ways work for your personal situation.

Too easy?  Not enough info?  Ok...

If you want to know specifics about MY personal plan, here's a little more detail:

Weight Loss & Life Improvement Plan - The Whole Deal (my personal plan)

1) Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

2) MY MORNING ROUTINE:

• Tai Chi - I started with "Simply Tai Chi" which has proven to be a great simple workout!  I've since used others, and other styles, but keep coming back to this one.
• Meditation - I use the Meditate App by SimpleTouch.  It's pretty much app perfection, and I love it!
• Visualization - Vision Board Deluxe by Happy Tapper (One of the very best app developers ever!  They excel at sleek, simple and positive apps!)
• Gratitude - Gratitude! Journal by Happy Tapper (GREAT app!)

3) MY EVENING ROUTINE:

• Walking

Throughout my day, I utilize a lot of the Savor's Mindfulness techniques to eat right and stay in the present moment.

At night, I usually go for a walk before dinner.  I either walk in the park, or our neighborhood.  If it's in our neighborhood, I walk half the distance I intend to walk in one direction away from our house.  That way, I'm not tempted to stop when I pass by, or close to, our house.  I usually walk 2 miles, and I use my iPhone as a pedometer.  When I'm done I log my exercise in the iPhone and call it a day.

Those are the only things I am doing, and I have lost 45 pounds in less than 3 months!

That is literally all there is to it (so far)!

If it sounds simple, it's because it is!

In following posts, I will review each of the apps mentioned, as well as several others, and provide links to them, as well as a little description of how I use them or why.  But the first step - for me - begins with the book.  My next post will focus on my thoughts on the book, and why it's so great.

Savor!
MondoSamu

Turning Lemons in to Lemonade

I was really taken by something I saw today. It was a really strong visual example, to me, of someone finding a great way to turn a negative in to a positive. There's a Starbucks I visit, (Yes, it's the one I used to purchase my daily Venti Mocha Fraps from, but now it's just a tall black coffee) and outside the main entrance on the sidewalk, there are these two giant potted plant arrangements that the store tends to. They're very nice, but you don't really pay much attention to them.

The other day, when I pulled up, I noticed that someone had obviously pulled up too far and had hit and smashed the pot for one of them. The poor plant was still standing in with it's soil molded in the shape of the pot, but the pot was cracked in a few giant pieces. A few days later, when I returned, I found that someone had come up with a great way to save the plant AND the pot!

Now most folks would only have saved the plant, if even that. Someone not only found a way to save the plant, but made use of the broken pot as well, and turned the whole thing in to a bit of garden art! I was blown away! I knew immediately that it had to be the manager, Alper. He's a really wonderful guy, who's so incredibly and genuinely nice that everyone loves him. I asked who's idea it had been and, of course, it was his.

Please take a look at this, and think about how truly surprising, impressive and wonderful an example this is of how to live our lives.

MondoSamu

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After^