Hi Coach Jeri Here!
We all know the benefits of tracking our food. It helps you lose weight by making your aware of what you are eating, how much you are eating and how many BITES / calories you are consuming. No one is perfect but studies have shown that tracking even when we go over lessens the damage. It’s simple, when we are honest with ourselves there is less guilt.
Tracking gives us insight into what we are doing. It’s an accountability, a conscious effort to get to goal. The second part of tracking is knowing how much. Serving sizes can be deceiving. I once order a chicken caesar salad from a restaurant to bring home. The chicken on my food scale came up 16 ounces. I usually eat 4 ounces of chicken. This is why a food scale is so important and why measuring the food we eat is important. To track properly we need to know the amount we are eating. After all these years I still weigh and measure my food and put in my tracker the exact amounts.
It is also so important to read nutrition labels. The nutritional information is based solely on the serving size. Many of use get fooled by a package that promotes low calorie, high protein, low carb until we realize there are 3 servings in that package. The wording on many foods can be deceptive but by scanning the package it can be eye opening and a valuable tool to help us track properly.
Change is a slow process but it is with creating new habits that will help you get to goal. Most successes are a series of little daily victories and small success lead to big ones over time and getting to goal and staying there long term requires a few lifestyle changes Tracking food is not the only way to keep us on a positive journey. Have you ever thought of keeping a pleasure diary? So many times the bad days overwhelm us into a guilty spiral, but if you write down all your good living activities as they occur then you will feel positive about your journey and your accomplishment. For some reason negative thoughts creep into our head and stay there but by reminding yourself of all the things you do well and the fact that you have added new behaviors into your life you will discover that you are doing more positive things than you realize.
A positive diary will help you change from pessimistic to optimistic.
What are some things we can write in this positive diary? You went for a walk or bought a Fitbit. You bought a food scale and started weighing your food. You asked the waiter to substitute potatoes for a salad or vegetable. You used the Recipe Builder in the Healthi app. Write down a challenge for yourself for the coming week and write it down when you have been able to accomplish it. By looking and focusing on the positive things you do, you push the negative thoughts away. One day at a time, and your outlook will inspire a new way of looking at yourself, finding hidden strength in the positive things you do for yourself. By filing your positive diary with happy, positive, experiences and accomplishments your outlook will change from negative to positive and when we feel good, we make better choices. By reviewing your positive diary you will see your life getting brighter. Concentrate on the sunshine not on the rain.
Happy Tracking!!!
