Get on track to a new healthier you...it's time to create your own personal nutrition and fitness plan using the new USDA SuperTracker. This new nutrition and fitness tracking tool combines the simplicity of the ChooseMyPlate visual diagram for recommended foods with the importance of getting a healthy dose of physical activity heralded in the Let's Move campaign.

Think of the SuperTracker as your very own personal trainer that helps you put together your personal health plan, setting personal health and fitness goals, and then tracks and coaches your progress. You can track what you eat, record minutes of exercise, watch your weight, and then best of all, track your progress through a series of easy to use graphical calculators and reports.

The SuperTracker is the complete package. When setting up your personal profile you can customize the activities you like to do and the duration you like to do them.

They key components of the ChooseMyPlate concept is to make sure that half of the plate is fill of fruits and vegetables, with a little less than a quarter being lean proteins, the balance being whole grains and your dairy choices should be low fat. It's that easy!

The new guidelines focus on 3 key areas...

Balancing Calories

• Enjoy your food, but eat less
• Avoid oversized portions

Foods to Increase

• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
• Make at least half your grains whole grains
• Switch to fat-free or low fat (1%) milk

Foods to Reduce

• Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals
  - and choose the foods with lower numbers
• Drink water instead of sugary drinks

The new ChooseMyPlate concept was released this past June 2, 2011 by First Lady Michelle Obama, and the USDA under the leadership of Tom Vislack, Secretary of Agriculture. The old Food Pyramid has been replaced with new simpler concept of ChooseMyPlate. This simple plate method of meal planning has long been used by dieticians and provides an easy familiar graphic of the dinner plate to help better understand the 2010 Dietary Guidelines of how we should be choosing a healthy diet. Click on www.ChooseMyPlate.gov to see more info.