Scan Your Way To Healthy Eating

After walking through the grocery store playing with the weight loss app I downloaded for my phone I discovered I wasted twice as much time shopping as I normally do.  Who knew a barcode scanner could be so much fun?

My friend signed up for Weight Watchers recently, and since she knows Ben is trying to lose weight she has been trying to convince me to convince him to sign up for Weight Watchers.  Honestly I think it would do him some good, but I’ve had a hard time convincing him it’s not just something women do, and it really can help him lose weight by teaching him how to choose healthy foods.  I finally got him past the ‘it’s for women” thing, and after my friend showed him how the program works he’s actually interested now.  His only excuse now is that he thinks it would be too hard and too time consuming to figure up the points.

When I spotted the WW ScanCalc Android app I decided to give it a try.  I thought it might help him when he’s shopping alone to make better choices, and it might help me buy healthier choices not just for him but for the whole family.  The truth is it does help to figure up the point values faster.  We can’t actually figure up his daily points until he signs up, but it’s proven to him that it won’t always be a pain to figure everything up.  The only downsides I see are it doesn’t calculate most store brands, and that it doesn’t keep a list of items you’ve scanned, so unless you write it down you’ll have to scan items again as you eat them.  Also, I wish it gave a list of meats, etc, that aren’t labeled with UPC codes.

For a free app it’s a great start, though.  When Ben signs up for Weight Watchers we’ll probably move on to one of the paid apps or use this one in conjunction with one of the others. For now it’s a great time waster.  I had way too much fun running around my kitchen scanning everything and walking up and down the isles at the grocery store randomly scanning items! 

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