Like many people, I've struggled for years with my weight and body image. This summer, I decided to do something about it and begin counting my calories, just to see what would happen. I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app from the App Store and got to work.

The app allows you to track everything you eat throughout the day, often down to the specific brand and serving size. It also allows you to track your exercise throughout the day. It counts your steps like a Fit Bit and you can even enter exercise into the app and it will deduct your calories burned during a workout from your daily calorie allotment.

When I first started entering my meals, I did it every day. It became addicting for me because the app lets you know how many days in a row you've been active, and just like a Snapchat streak, if you miss one day the streak is over. But most of all, I kept entering my food because I liked the feeling of finishing the day with calories still remaining from my daily allotment of 1,430 calories (based on my body weight and desired weight. It's different for everybody).

As a result, I became more aware of what I was putting in my body. Since the app lets you track frequent foods, I became more aware of the calorie intake of my most favorite meals, some of which were unpleasantly surprising. The app also tracks your daily intake of protein, fat, sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates, and will give you a warning when you're approaching the limit for each of those groups.

It will also notify you when a certain food is high or low in any of these areas. I have a general idea of what food is healthy and what food is not, but wouldn't consider myself a nutrition expert by any means. Having these extra facts about the foods I ate each day have already helped to change my habits in terms of eating healthier by just giving me a general idea of how healthy/unhealthy foods are.

I also noticed that it was much easier to stay within your calorie goal if you exercise at some point during the day, even if that means for 20 minutes. Those extra calories lost gives you a little more wiggle room throughout your day, and that often motivated me to do something active.

Finally, I was shocked to find that my eating habits aren't all that bad. I rarely drink sugary sodas, I limit myself to desserts once or twice per week, and I have a natural taste for fruits and vegetables. I also noticed that foods that are low in calories may not necessarily be healthy. For example, frozen meals that are low in calories and fat are often pushed my close to my daily sodium intake by themselves.

Counting calories often has the connotation of being a desperate measure taken to lose weight, but in reality, it has only helped reassure me of my eating habits, help me to eat healthier, and encourage me to be more active. Since I first started using My Fitness Pal, I have become a lot more lax about tracking my food everyday, and I think it's better that way. Some days I will open the app if I'm curious about a meal I've eating or if I feel I've been really healthy or really unhealthy. But after counting calories regularly for just a few weeks, I gained more confidence in making healthier choices on my own.