Local Software Entrepreneur Offers Novel Approach to Weight Management for Children and Families

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md., -- February 9, 2005 -- In the early 1980s, Robert “Bob” Jones was working 14-hour days, seven days a week and suddenly found himself out of breath, out of shape, and 55 pounds overweight. Committed to turning his health around, he decided to allow five full years to lose the weight and regain his strength and energy. Eighteen months later, he had transformed himself into a newly healthy person and has kept the weight off ever since.

“I knew then that the secret to weight loss was in careful monitoring of calories taken in versus the calories burned off through physical activity,” said Jones. “Being an engineer, I looked everywhere for a software program that would help me manage my total calories, exercise calories, net daily calories and the percentage of fat consumed, but I was unable to find anything available commercially. My own personal experience with weight management was the inspiration for “CookBookPlus” – necessity is the mother of invention,” he said.

Since then, Jones has perfected his Access-based software program operating through the boutique software company he founded, Bob Jones Software based in Lusby, Md. With both Internet-hosted and desktop versions of the program, online documentation and video instructions, CookBookPlus is user friendly and easy enough for children to use. “I would really like to see more children and families make use of this product because I think it can help them learn proper nutrition despite all the unhealthy messages they receive from many weight-loss media advertisers,” said Jones. “A little bit of awareness and exposure to the nutrition and calorie-monitoring method of weight loss can have a profound effect on people’s eating habits,” said Jones.

CookBookPlus features daily calorie and nutrition reports, shows progress over weeks or months and can even predict weight loss or gain based upon trend analyses. Users input the foods they eat daily, either by selecting pre-loaded food items and quantities, or by entering their own special recipes and ingredients. Next, they enter their physical activity and get an instant report on the number of calories burned. Jones, who professes to eat “normally,” uses his numbers to gauge how much exercise he needs to engage in to burn off calories from the foods he eats each day. “It’s really very simple,” he said. “If I want to have a piece of my mother’s delicious apple pie, I just know that I have to ride my bike for a bit longer that day in order to keep my caloric intake and output numbers in balance.”

When asked about current diet trends that encourage elimination of whole categories of food such as carbohydrates in certain diet programs, Jones scoffs. “The failure rate of straight-diet weight loss systems is enormous,” he said. “They teach you nothing about how to eat like a real person with healthy nutrition, appropriate caloric intake, food variety and a careful watch on fat and activity levels. They are certainly not healthy for children and, after a few weeks, most adults find them frustrating, boring and difficult to maintain.”

For more information on Bob Jones Software or CookBookPlus, please call Bob Jones at 410.626.7564, send an e-mail to bob@cookbookplus.com or visit their Web site at www.cookbookplus.com.

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