Week 2: Track what you eat!

I know this may not seem like the best challenge to get us started, but bear with me. I first tried "tracking" when I joined weight watchers approximately 2 years ago. Now, all programs have their positives and negatives, but for me, weight watchers was great at the time. I lost 10 lbs and felt better than I had in a long time. It also helped me to look good in my sister's wedding (which, if I'm being honest, was one of my main objectives!) The problem I had with weight watchers was that whenever I stopped tracking, I gained weight. And tracking was hard. Really hard. Especially for me, because, well, I'm lazy. Also, I found that I could be successful at weight watchers without necessarily being healthy. For example, exercise would give you "activity points" that would allow you to eat more food, but you could also not exercise and get by just fine. Also, I could literally eat a cinnamon bun every single day as long as I could somehow fit that into my points. And personally, that just doesn't seem like a great idea. Not that cinnamon buns are bad. They're awesome. But probably not every single day. (Note: One of my weight watchers members literally did this, and still met her goal weight!) Now, I'm not bashing weight watchers. You can do weight watchers well, and be healthy and successful. But it's not for everyone.

Ok, enough about that, and back to tracking food for a week. When I was doing weight watchers, I initially found it to be very helpful to track what I ate. Often, we eat mindlessly and don't even realize what we are feeding our bodies. Now, in my opinion, there are no "bad" foods, however, we have to make sure that we eat certain fattier, higher calorie foods in moderation, and feed our bodies with foods high in nutrients to help our bodies be strong and healthy. So, your challenge for this week is to track every single food and drink you consume. Every. Single. One. Measured Out.  Easier said than done, right? Well try it. Then, at the end of these 7 days, I will post about how to evaluate your current eating habits and make goals for the future.

There are several tools you can use to track your eating:

1. Pen & Paper: Pro: easy to use, readily available. Con: it won't give you caloric or nutritional information about your foods.
2. Weightwatchers.com: Pro: easy to use, calculates everything for you. Con: None for the tracking log. It's wonderful :). I believe they are still doing free 7-day trials, but if not, there is a cost. Go to http://weightwatchers.com for more information. 
3. MyFitnessPal: This is a free online tool that will track your food & exercise in a diary for you. It also comes in an app version for those iphone users out there. Pro: easy to use, calculates everything for you. Con: Again, none for the tracking log. Plus it's free. Go to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ for more information. 

Good luck with your tracking! Try to be VERY consistent with it over the next 7 days and we will check-in and evaluate it on Sunday!