by Whitney Merrill

Photos: Whitney Merrill

June 2011 — About a year and a half ago, when his mother passed away, David Crane came to a clear realization: “Life is short. I want to try my own thing.”

After 20-plus years in an often stressful career as a software engineer — the last eight for a medical device company — Crane realized that he “needed a life reset.”

And after visiting his sister’s family in Idaho, and having some conversations with his brother-in-law, Crane knew what he wanted to do: He wanted to encourage himself and others to get out and engage in activities that promote well-being.

So, given his software engineering background, he decided to develop an iPhone application — “as simple an application as possible” — to encourage people to participate in activities that they enjoyed: “hiking, biking, skiing, wine tastings, planting roses, etc.” He also wanted to encourage people to “log the positive stuff.”

One of Crane’s friends has a daughter with anxiety issues, and he knows how important this focus on enjoyable activities can be for her and others in similar situations. He notes, “To help with stress, depression, anxiety, it seems that all the professionals say: ‘Do activities.’”

Crane knew that he loved programming and all that he needed was a Mac, an iPhone, an iPad, a $99 developer’s license and hard work to start his new initiative. He named his new venture Lone Moose Software and engaged a number of family members and others to assist him with content development, marketing and sales.

Feel Good Tracker is now available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Windows 7 phone, and Crane would like nothing more than for his app to catch on. He’s pleased to see how it has already helped people — including his wife Kathy, who uses the app to track her horseback riding at Windance Farm. The owner of Windance Farm, Gale Wong, lost 100 pounds with help from the Feel Good Tracker. Of course, Crane uses the app himself. He says, “I use it to motivate me to get out and do activities every day.”

Feel Good Tracker allows you to log your activities quickly and easily, to provide comments, to attach a picture and to send email to your friends and family. You can also assign a “Feel Good Factor” of 1 to 5 stars to rate your activities. Crane is currently working on adding new features that may include links, video and integration with Facebook — and he may expand to the Android platform. The app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store for 99 cents; the Windows Phone version costs the same.

From using the app myself, I’ve found that it helps me focus on positive, meaningful activities. We often get caught up in the obligations of our daily lives and the stresses of the modern world, forgetting to set time aside for the things we love to do; Feel Good Tracker can remind us to make the time for them.

As he prepares to jump on his mountain bike and take a ride in the La Honda hills, Crane sums it up: “The Feel Good Tracker is really helping me and I’m glad that it can help others.”