DEAR Jasminda,

In an effort to lose some weight, I’ve downloaded a calorie tracking app, but now I seem to spend half my day updating information to be accountable and I’ve lost no weight at all.

Mrs Yvonne B.

Oh, Yvonne, what is this mad world we are in where every move we make is monitored?

You know, I think the problem is choice – too many choices in every aspect of our lives.

This choice has now exploded into the need for an app to monitor, quite literally, everything.

It’s like that Sting song – Every breath you take, Every move you make, Every step you take, Every smile you fake – the Smartphone is watching you and the smarter it’s getting, the more reliant and dumbed-down we are becoming.

Scanning barcodes of every morsel that enters our mouths takes time, and it’s also a sedentary task with your typing finger being the only body part that’s getting a workout.

Along with more monitoring choices, the last couple of decades have seen a huge increase in food choices.

Compare the humble school lunch box.

For my generation it wasn’t even a box, just a Vegemite sandwich and an apple in a brown paper bag.

Today, kids have a bento box with a three course meal, much of it made up of salty or sugary snacks, muffins, fruit juices, triple-decker sandwiches and so on.

It’s a wonder the kids can get on the school bus with the weight in their backpacks.

After a few years of this, they’ll then have to join the app brigade to try and undo the damage.

So, in a nutshell, I think sometimes to look forward, we have to look back.

Put down the phone, pick up a bottle of water, and go for a brisk walk in the sunshine.

No wellbeing or diet or exercise app will be able to match that.

Carpe diem, Jasminda.