My Weight Loss Toolbox: Food/Calorie Journal

My Weight Loss Toolbox:

Food/Calorie Journal
Scale
Walking App
Meal Calendar
Digital Food Scale that Weighs in Grams
Weekly, Detailed, Shopping List
Walking Buddy (My Daughter & My Dogs)
Yeti 36oz Rambler
Walking Shoes and Walking Socks

Let’s explore these one at a time.

My food journal is precious to me.  I save them and store them away in my box of writings and papers.  I look back on them – and you should too, that is what they are there for – to see what my habits were back whenever that book was being used.  If I fell into a rut or hit a plateau, I would review past food journals to see what my caloric intake was and what some of the foods I was eating while I was losing weight.  You will find that you may take in a same set amount of calories, but the calories will treat you differently, depending on where they come from.  For instance, if I eat a normal peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I will most likely gain weight for the day.  I could come in at calories or under, but I will gain weight.  If I drink, I will gain weight for three days afterwards.  I will also gain weight if I eat a “normal” breakfast instead of my liquids (and very small solids) breakfast.  The family enjoyed going to Subway for breakfast on the weekends.  I would share a sub with my daughter, eat egg and cheese with max amount of vegetables, and never put any dressing on it.  I would eat it dry.  We would not get chips or cookies – I would have a sub and a Diet Coke – I can’t go without my Diet Coke.  I would plan to make the calories fit in my day and…I would gain weight.  No matter what.  You are going to find that – you will find your quirks.  And using your food journal is going to help you see these patterns.

I track my “workouts” in my journal too.  I give quotes because I only walk or hike, I don’t actually workout at a gym or with a system at home.  I’ll explain more on that in a later post (the walking app post).  I write down how far I walked in the corner of my journal and I box it in.  This allows me to scan the pages quickly to see when the last time I walked was.  Tracking workouts is important.  Why did you go over your calorie goal?  Why were you craving certain foods?  You could have sworn you were going to gain weight but actually lost weight, why?  Writing down your workouts helps you identify what works, helps validates the effort you put into them, and when you look back on your calorie books of the past – it helps identify why your intake may have been odd.  Yes, you can remember that last Thursday you went for a momentous hike on your day off – how could you forget?  It was great!  But three months ago, when did you do that other hike?  Writing it down will help you out. 

On the subject of walks and hikes – I classify them in two main ways: Quality and Quantity.  Some walks fall in both categories, but most are one or the other.  If I am in Vermont hiking up one of their “easy” mountains with my daughter, like Stowe Pinnacle Trailhead, my Midwestern self is getting quite the workout.  I am only hiking a relatively short distance, but the work I am putting into that hike far surpasses a straight-line walk, even if the straight-line walk was longer than the mountain hike.  The mountain hike is a quality walk.  Now if the next day while I am in Vermont, I decided to walk the Stowe Rec Path down and back, so essentially twice, I would have walked on a nice flat surface with gorgeous views of mountains and horses and springs and bridges while pushing my daughter’s Chariot jogger so she can jump in and out.  I would have walked 10.6 miles.  That walk, though high in quality, would be considered a quantity walk because it was a long, flat, easy, path.  These categories are based on the effort I exert to make it through the hike/walk.  I will take notes on what trails I hiked, where I walked or if it was quality/quantity – especially when I am traveling or on vacation!

My food journal also has a cheat sheet, check it out!

I write this page in all my food journals.  When I started my weight loss journey, I knew I needed to eat more produce, but I did not know what the caloric values were.  There is no promise that the caloric values listed are exact, but several years ago I Googled how many calories were in 100g of…whatever produce I typed in.  I wrote it all down so I could use it as a cheat sheet for calculating my meals.  I have it partially memorized, but I look at it at least weekly so that I can calculate my salads and such.

I highly suggest purchasing and using a food journal.  I get mine from Dollar Tree (except for right now – my husband purchased me a different one for Yule this year).  The book must be big enough to write down all your foods throughout one day, that’s it!  I highly recommend this.  Your awareness of your intake is a necessity with this weight loss journey.

Take care everyone, I will be back shortly to talk about my second tool in my weight loss toolbox: my scale.