positiveEats vs Mindful Eating

A study shows 97% users abandon food journal apps within a week. If you are one of the 3%, stop reading now. Why are they so hard to use? First, they throw up too many roadblocks to the straightforward task of logging food. Second, they have a reductionist view of food. They turn food into a tally of nutrients, ignoring its broader context. Ironically, it actually takes more work. PositiveEats is based on the Positive Eating Plan, which employs science to eliminate worries, not to introduce them. When you open PositiveEats, you start logging food with the first tap. There is no need to create an account, complete a questionnaire about your weight loss goals (or emotions), or decline trial offers. Logging a cup of black coffee requires just three taps, while recording a more complex dish like a baked egg recipe with onion, tomato, spinach, eggs, and pesto takes only nine. Other apps, by contrast, would demand that you create a custom recipe for the dish, and a sub-recipe for the pesto. Simplicity is the greatest feature of PositiveEats. Mark Twain once said that he didn't have time to write a short letter, so he wrote a long one. The Positive Eating Plan is the short list of rules that result from taking the time to think through the science. Key features of the plan include: 1. It's positive. Telling people not to do the wrong thing doesn't get them to do the right thing. The Positive Eating Plan emphasizes filling up on the right foods, thus reducing the temptation to eat the wrong ones. The goal for each category is the minimum you need to eat, not the maximum you can eat. 2. It tracks food in broad categories. While a balanced diet with variety is essential, food tracking need not be overly granular. Whether you ate a peach or an apple matters little in the broader scheme of a varied diet. Similarly, whether your bread is whole wheat or white is of less consequence if bread plays a minor role in an otherwise balanced diet. Tracking six broad categories of food offers a more nuanced view of your diet than a single calorie count. 3. It tracks real food, not nutrients. Real foods offer benefits beyond the sum of their nutrients. Scientific studies demonstrate that vitamin A supplements, for example, do not replicate the benefits of consuming carrots. Nutrients interact differently within whole foods, as evidenced by the higher absorption of fructose from orange juice compared to whole oranges. 4. It tracks weight, not calories. Calorie tracking often requires weighing food, identifying it precisely, and looking it up in a database—a process fraught with complexity. The USDA database, for instance, lists over 1,000 entries for French fries alone, with calorie counts varying by as much as 100 kcal for small servings. This complexity often leads to frustration and abandonment of the effort. 5. It leaves room for you to eat freely. You don't have to swear off ice cream. Balance, mental and nutritional, is key to sustainable eating habits. PositiveEats and its underlying Positive Eating Plan simplify the process of food logging, making it accessible, manageable, and ultimately, more effective.

A calmer way to be with food. How It Felt is a mindful eating diary that asks how a meal made you feel — not how many calories it had. No tracking. No scores. No judgement. Just a private space to pause, notice, and reflect. If diet apps and calorie counters have left you anxious about food, this is something different. How It Felt is built for mindful and intuitive eating — a quiet companion for those navigating emotional eating, binge cycles, hunger cues, or recovery from a disordered relationship with food: a gentle food diary, an in-the-moment eating timer, and quiet weekly reflections. — LOG MEALS THE WAY THEY ACTUALLY FEEL — A few seconds per meal is enough. - Log a meal, snack, drink, or dessert with as little or as much detail as you like. - Note your hunger before and fullness after on a gentle scale — no numbers to hit, no goals to chase. - Choose from 28 emotions and 5 senses to capture how the moment felt. - Add an optional photo or short reflection. Skip anything you don't need. — A MINDFUL EATING TIMER — A 20-minute companion to slow down with. - Optional gentle prompts every 3, 5, or 10 minutes — texture cues, breath reminders, fork-down moments, body check-ins. - Soundscapes: silence, soft rain, nature, or white noise. - Vibration toggle and an intention you can set before you start. - A short reflection at the end — only if you want it. — REFLECTION, NOT METRICS — Awareness without ranking. - Calendar view to revisit any day. - Today, this week, and this month overviews. - Patterns in emotional eating, meal types, and hunger — framed as awareness, not performance. - Photos and timer stats grouped by period. - Gentle prompts that surface alongside the data, never over it. — PRIVATE BY DESIGN — Your reflections never leave your device. - All entries stored locally, on your phone only. - No cloud sync. No account required to start. - Optional app lock with Face ID or Touch ID. - Export your last 7 days as CSV or PDF anytime, free. - Delete a single entry, or wipe everything, with one tap. — BACKED BY RESEARCH — Every prompt and timing choice is grounded in peer-reviewed mindful-eating studies, including: - Kokkinos et al., 2010 — pace and satiety signals. - Kristeller and Wolever, 2011 — emotional check-ins and mealtime stress. - Robinson et al., 2014 — distraction-free eating and meal satisfaction. Sources are shown in onboarding so you can read them yourself. — FREE TO USE — The diary is free, including unlimited meal logging, the full mindful timer with all soundscapes, calendar and insights, reminders, app lock, and a 7-day CSV or PDF export. — OPTIONAL PREMIUM — A subscription keeps the space calm and ad-free, tunes affirmations to how each meal felt, and extends export beyond 7 days — your whole history, kept. Weekly, monthly, and yearly plans available, with a free trial. Cancel anytime. — A NOTE ON TONE — Neutral language throughout. No streaks to keep. No scores to chase. No "good" or "bad" foods. No before-and-after framing. Skip any field. Take a day off. The app waits for you. Privacy Policy and Terms of Use are available in-app and on our website. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.howitfelt.app/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://www.howitfelt.app/privacy/