I have been faithfully tracking what I eat and drink every day now for over a month. Whether I make good food choices or whether I make bad food choices, I write it down. Here’s the thing, whether I track it or not it still counts. It still shows up either in weight loss or in weight gained. Not tracking the bad meals does not mean the bad meals don’t happen.
Like today! I totally went off track. My plan was to go home for lunch to grill a piece of salmon and have a tossed salad. Instead, I went straight to Popeye’s for some fried chicken. I’m shaking my head because I allowed myself to succumb to emotional eating…the very thing that I challenged those in my Facebook group NOT to do!
Now I could keep heading down the path of destruction or I can accept my choice for what it was…a choice, that’s it. There’s nothing horrible about it. There’s no reason to burden myself with guilt. There’s no need to wallow in self-pity and throw caution to wind and give up on myself and my journey. Nope, I’m not doing any of that!
But what I am going to do is pull out my paper tracker and jot down what I ate and how it made me feel. Because I need to remember that I felt sluggish, bloated and completely unsatisfied after eating my two chicken wings (or should I say chicken things, because they were these tiny little things that together may have made up on chicken wing) and fries. I also had a coke, which tasted like cold syrup…YUK! Most of it is still in the car.
I’m also going to log the meal into MyFitnessPal so I’ll be able to see for myself how much I spent in terms of my budgeted calories and how little I have to show for it.
Here’ the moral of my story, tracking has been and continues to be a form of measurement for me. I’m able to measure my:
- calories
- carbohydrates
- proteins
- fats
- sodium
- burned calories
- sleep
- eating patterns
- and feelings about my choices
And improvement is the name of the game for me
Your Turn To Share
What method do you use to track your eating? What do you like about the method(s) you are using?