Easy Way To Track Your Daily Habits
With summer right around the corner it's easy to start thinking of warm days, beaches, and of course BATHING SUITS. No doubt you want to look your best this summer season and an easy way to do that is to simply keep track of what you eat. Diets aside, it's very easy to yo-yo weight when you're on a program that cuts everything you love out of your food habits. Whether it's a popular diet like the South Beach or Weight Watchers or you are just cutting things because you want to - read up on it before you make any fast decisions about your health!
Every nutritionist recommends keeping track of the food and drinks you consume every day. Is it a pain in the butt to do? Sure, but it keeps your conscious clear when making meal decisions and if you fudge what you ate - you're only lying to yourself.
The food journal below is 8 1/2 x 11 size and easy to print. It has a few different sections to help you with your tracking needs.
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| Easy printable food journal |
Top section
Here is a close up of the top section with a few details.
Date - always make sure to keep track of the date so you can better watch your eating habits. Do you eat out on certain days or tend to get fast food for lunch on the weekends? This will help show you where to make some big changes.
Goals: I included this section as a personal goal or maybe a dietary or fitness goal. It's always satisfying being able to check something off - here you can set miles, steps, or weight limits for a workout or maybe set goals for how many vegetables or fruits you want to eat that day.
Inspirations: I always find quotes or sayings I like and rarely write them down. Here is a place to add a little motivation to your day or any reminders you need to give yourself. Below are a few quotes that always make me think about my eating and fitness goals.
Middle Section
Here is where you will track your food. It's so easy to over eat during the day when there's bad food every where you turn. Doughnuts in the break room (Dealt with that this morning!), you're tired and don't want to cook so you order pizza in, birthday party or work function with way too many tempting sweets! It's every where! The best way to combat this is to be aware of what you've already eaten that day and how many calories you've consumed.
Are calories important?
Yes - because they register the amount of energy a certain food or beverage has to offer. But what's more important are the ingredients. If you are aware of what types of ingredients are used in processed food then you're probably already eating organic. If not, I would recommend reading these articles about fast food and pre-packaged disasters or "convenience food" and what they do to your body. Most foods that come in a box are laced with chemicals, preservatives, and ingredients your body was never meant to digest. The long term affects of consuming this regularly usually ends... well I'll let you read it yourself.
9 Reasons to Never Eat Processed Food Again
Dirty Secrets of the Food Industry
4 Most Harmful Ingredients in Processed Foods
The Y/N Column
I use this column to determine if what I ate for that meal was "healthy." Give it a YES if it was unprocessed, organic, fresh food, or homemade. Give it a NO if it was from a box, restaurant food, fast-food, processed, pre-made (cake, cookies, not organic bread), or was frozen at a former state of life. Why is this important you might ask - the more food you eat in its natural raw state, the better it is for you. The less processing it has gone through is preferred and therefore it has less "fake" ingredients or chemicals added to keep it looking editable (psst it's usually not). Just like one bad meal won't make you fat - one good meal won't make you skinny. Keep your eating clean!
Totals
Total up your calories here! If you don't have time to track calories in every little thing you eat (who does) use this stellar site and it will calculate it for you. It's free to use and you would be shocked at what's in some things you maybe thought were healthy! It's called myfitnesspal.com and has some of the best tools around to help you and your eating habits. Use this calorie generating tool to calculate how many you should be consuming every day. It will also tell you how many to eat in order to lose weight!
Bottom Section
This is the bottom of your food journal and no less important than the other parts. It's so easy to let tracking your daily habits slide so make sure to keep your butt in gear and stay faithful to tracking until you hit your goals!
Workout
As important as it is to eat right it's equally important to exercise. Maybe you're not training for a marathon or swimming the English Channel but you still need to exercise regularly to see results. A good rule of thumb is to exercise no less than every 3 days. Most people searching for weight loss need to exercise at least 5 days a week to obtain results but if you're looking to maintain it's as easy as going for a walk outside, riding your bike to work, or walking up flights of stairs instead of using the elevator. It's all about making the most of your day and taking opportunities to change your habits.
Cups of Water/Other Drinks
Break out your colored pencils and fill in every time you drink 8 oz of water. The recommended intake for women is between 6 - 10 eight ounce glasses of water a day. The Mayo Clinic says women should be drinking 9 - 10. This is an easy way to track and then up your water intake. Maybe swap out a cup of coffee for water or put down that energy drink or can of soda for an ice cold lemon water. I've also included a section to fill in when you drink something that's not some sweet H2O. It will be a strong visual for you to understand what choices you're making. Every nutritionist will tell you that drinking more water will help with weight loss.
I am in no way a nutritionist but am simply relaying information and facts to you as a fellow mac & cheese loving, doughnut hording, now EX snack muncher who only wishes you the healthiest you!
Click here to download your FREE Food Journal
Happy healthy eating and Stay Crafty!
Rina
