I’ve written in the past about my health and related goals. I lost 40 pounds in 2008, and had been aiming to drop another 60 in 2009.

Unfortunately, around the first of the year I hit a brick wall. I started feeling bad. Really bad. Like crap, really. All the time. Long story short, I’ve got arthritis. It’s genetic, but my weight doesn’t help.

So, with an adequate treatment plan for that in place, I’ve been back to work on my weight loss goals.

That said, have any of you checked out LIVESTRONG.COM? Many people are familiar with the yellow LIVESTRONG brand, the non-profit anti-cancer foundation headed up by Lance Armstrong. However, they’ve set up a for-profit health website (hence the dot com) as well. One of the best features of the new site is the integration of a website that used to be called The Daily Plate.

This feature allows one to track their caloric intake, weight, body measurements, and more. I’ve been using it for the past week, and it’s been a great tool; I’ve lost 6.4 pounds. The food database is a hybrid of verified nutritional data and user-submitted information, so virtually everything I’ve cataloged as having eaten was already in the site. This means I haven’t had to keep labels from the foods I’ve eaten, and process them at the end of the day like in previous tools I’ve used.

It’s a free site (though there is a paid gold membership option), and is only made better by the free iPhone app that syncs with the website. NOTE: The iPhone app is no longer free, and now runs $2.99. They also have a BlackBerry version available.

If you’re trying to lose weight, and want to use technology to assist you, check out The Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG.