I am going to make a very conscious effort to lose 20 lbs. I find that making my goals is much easier for me if I can chart my progress, make notes, keep track of what I am doing, etc… Since I spend so much time on this damn thing, it would be great if I could find a nice program to help me along. Does anyone know of one that is really good, and won’t cost me too awful much? Any help would be appreciated.
Maybe this is too obvious, but I’d say one of the best ways to start losing weight is probably to turn off the computer once in awhile. I keep a chart on the wall to track my exercise progress, keep a weekly total of mileage, etc. It also helps me to have a race coming up in a few months to train for. Good luck.
fitday.com is free and very easy to use. You can plug in your daily food intake (it even has a custom food feature for those things that aren’t standard), set weight/nutrition/exercise goals, track your weight and it has a journal section. It also has a series of reports that show you whether you’re meeting RDA nutritional requirements, how your weight loss has progressed, etc.
HTH 
Jill, I get it, I get it. But I do work at home, and on the computer, so I am pretty much stuck here for 10 or so hours each day. I have a pool, and excercise in it very regularly for about an hour or so a day as well as nice long walks in the morning. I could do a chart, I suppose, but I admit to preferring the electronic type of chart.
I guess you can always use MS Excel to do a simple scatter plot graph.
There’s a program called Dietwatch that’s very good. It’s free and you can find it at dietwatch.com. As I recall, you can either use it online or download it and use it offline. Like most software, it take a while to get used to its quirks, but is worth it.
I liked being able to add a recipe so that I could always type in just the name of that recipe, instead of all of the ingredients. There are lots of charts and graphs.
If you have a Palm Pilot, you can try Eat Watch, which is a component of The Hacker’s Diet. Pretty nifty freeware utility that does graphing, averages, the whole shebang… I think there is also an Excel spreadsheet if you don’t have a Palm… Best of luck in your diet!