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Helping you on your journey to your best self!

Tracking

Not Tracking EVERYTHING is a Mistake

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Not Tracking Everything is a Mistake

So you’ve picked out a new eating plan, and have been following this new regimen for awhile, but the scale isn’t moving, and you aren’t seeing any progress. One common mistake is forgetting to track EVERYTHING.

Please, don’t be scared off thinking that all this tracking is hard or will take a lot of time. It really doesn’t. Nutrition tracking apps have huge databases that make inputting your meal easy. Many even have barcode scanner so you can just scan something to log it. And once you have logged a food, it can be stored for future reference, making it even easier to track as you go along. The SparkPeople app even lets you copy entire meals from a previous day to another. Build this into a habit. Make it into a game to see how long of a streak you can keep up. I once managed to go over 100 days straight of logging my meals; see if you can beat that!

If you are on a diet that tracks intake, such as counting calories, macros, Weight Watchers Points or 21-Day Fix containers, you have to track everything*. The key is, that when you track everything, you will have an accurate picture of your heating habits. This can help if you’ve hit a plateau. Tracking can also reveal patterns in your habits, or “weaknesses” you have for certain foods. At one point, I found myself snacking on peanut butter far too much, so I stopped buying it.

The trickiest part about tracking is to not cheat yourself. Don’t fail to track something on purpose just because you think you “shouldn’t” have eaten it. Also, don’t fail to track small bites here or there that you’ve taken of something. A small spoon of peanut butter is 100 calories or more. (And I was having heaping spoons when I would snack.) Small handfuls of nuts are also high in calories and should be tracked. Those little bites can add up quickly!

You also want to get into the habit of tracking even on days you don’t care, such as special occasions or cheat days. It is so important to have all the information. For awhile, I didn’t track on my cheat days, although I was religious about doing so on other days. Then I started tracking my off days and realized that my deficit during the week wasn’t enough to make up for all that I was eating that one day during the weekend. I adjusted my intake, and the pounds came off steadily after that.

Remember, a food log is just data. Data doesn’t judge. And your body will keep an accurate record of what you’ve eaten, whether you write it down or not. So get into the habit of tracking your food; having that data can help you make informed decisions to help you reach your goals!

*If you’d rather be on a diet that doesn’t require tracking, check out my free Ultimate 13-Diet Comparison Guide to find one that might suit you better!

How to Use a Kitchen Scale

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How to Use a Kitchen Scale

I’ve talked about different technologies I’ve used to help me reach my goal weight. But the number one device that was the most instrumental to my success is definitely my kitchen scale. More than any app, workout, or even my FitBit, my kitchen scale is truly the star of the show. Weighing out what I eat let me be as precise as possible when logging my intake. Here are some tips for getting the most out of this appliance.

Get one.

The first step is to actually get a kitchen scale. They are pretty inexpensive, and a decent digital scale can go for around $15. You can pick one up at stores like Target or Bed Bath and Beyond, or check Amazon for a wider selection.

Leave it out.

The next step is to actually use your kitchen scale. Leave it out on the counter so you remember to use it. You are also more likely to use your scale if it is right there rather than having to dig it out of a cabinet.

Tare it.

The tare (rhymes with hair) button on your scale will zero the scale out. This is an awesome feature that is not to be overlooked! It means that you don’t have to do math when logging your food. Turn on the scale. Place your empty plate on the scale. Now hit that tare button. The scale goes to zero. Load up your plate with your first ingredient, say some veggies. Log your veggies. Now hit the tare button again so the scale again goes to zero. Add the next food. Perhaps some rice. Log the amount of rice. Hit tare again. Add more food to the plate. Log it. Hit tare…. This way you don’t have to do math, and you also don’t need to dirty any extra dishes or containers while measuring out your food.

Use it.

It’s important to use your scale regularly. After awhile, you’ll get much better at estimating your portion sizes, but even so, continue to measure. It’s far too easy to start just guessing at a serving size, and soon, those servings start creeping up in size. Even after hitting my goal, I still use my scale to make sure that my intake isn’t creeping up. You don’t want to undo all that hard work!

Don’t guess.

A scale lets you be as accurate as possible when tracking your nutrition. A serving of grapes might be 10 grapes, but is that 10 small grapes? Green grapes? What about those big globe grapes? It’s more precise to just weigh it out and log 100 grams of grapes. It’s also useful when things like chips will list a serving size as so many grams or ounces and then say that it’s “about” 14 chips. Instead of counting it out, you can just measure the more accurate serving size.

I lied.

Ok, so using the tare button does prevent you from having to do math. IF your tracking allows you to log things in ounces or grams. But what happens when your only option for measurement is in cups or spoons? I see this a lot when I bake. One cup of sugar. Well, how many grams is that? Baking is chemistry, and getting the amounts juuuuuuuust right yields the best results, both taste and texture-wise. So I use my kitchen scale when measuring out my ingredients for the most accuracy. And my brownies and cookies are phenomenal. But this baking prowess does require some conversion wizardry. To make it easier on you, I’ve created a list of common ingredients and their measurement-to-weight equivalents so you can easily reference it whenever you need. Just fill out the form below to download your free conversion chart and get your kitchen scale working for you!

Nutrition Tracking Apps

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Nutrition Tracking Apps

Tracking what you are doing is the only way to know if what you are doing is actually getting you closer to your goals or not. Logging gives you an accurate picture of what you are consuming. While you can track your food manually using a journal, I have found that using an app is often faster and more convenient.

Apps do the manual work for you

The great thing about using an app is that much of the work is done for you. The apps generally come with a very large database of foods. Look up a food, and all the calories, macros and nutrients are listed for you. No need to do a separate search to find that information. Many apps come with pre-built in graphs as well so that you can get a visual representation of your habits without needing to built a chart on your own. Apps can also give you a big picture view. Many apps that let you track nutrition also let you track your exercise, weight, body fat and even measurements.

Apps making logging food fast and convenient

Aside from coming with a huge food database to make logging quick and easy, apps also come with other features to make getting an accurate picture of your intake as painless as possible. Many allow you to store your own recipes under your profile, so you can easily log foods you make at home. Just input the recipe once, and you can then log that food with one click in the future. Most also include a bar code scanner so that you simply scan the bar code of whatever you are eating and it will find the food and  log it.

Apps can come pre-configured

Many apps have websites associated with them. They can have meal plans on there for you to follow. Just make the foods that they list out for you to stick to the plan. Some can even take into account things like low-carb or vegetarian diets. Plug in your goals, and the app will tell you how much of what you should be eating. I will caution you to calculate your own TDEE using various calculators. For some reason, across the board, apps seem to be really bad at coming up with the right amount for people to eat.

Apps can offer support

Quite a few apps are part of a larger website. These sites often have large communities of people where you can find others with similar goals. There are message boards and groups based on geography, shared interests, and other demographics. This gives you a place you can turn to for support and accountability. (And I’m here for you too!)

Apps that are out there

Here is just a small sampling of apps that you can use to log your nutrition to help keep you on the right track!

What about you? Do you use one of the nutrition trackers listed above? Share your favorite tracker in the comments below!

Measuring vs Weighing Your Food

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MeasuringvsWeighingYour Food

Weight loss pretty much boils down to eating fewer calories than your body burns in a day. It’s not about just eating some random amount “less” than before, you have to eat below your TDEE. And in order to do that, you have to know how much you are eating. This is where tracking comes into play. The more exact you can be, the quicker you will see results.

The scale of food tracking, from best to worst:

  1. Weighing everything out
  2. Measuring with spoons and cups
  3. Eyeballing it and guessing how much
  4. Basic tracking where you just write down what was eaten, not how much
  5. Not logging anything at all

I’d like to make the case for weighing your food rather than measuring it imprecisely. However, if you have obsessive tendencies, and this will worsen that or trigger an eating disorder, please don’t.

Buy a kitchen scale and USE it

Having a kitchen scale will give you the most accurate picture of how much you are eating. Keep it out on the counter so it is easy to use. You won’t use it if you have to dig it out of a cupboard each time you need it. Get used to using that “tare” button that zeroes out the scale. Need to measure peanut butter for a sandwich? You don’t have to dirty a separate utensil. Just put the plate and bread on the scale, and hit the tare button. Now pick up the bread and spread on the peanut butter. (The scale should go negative) Once your bread is (peanut) buttered, place it back down on the plate, and record the amount. Now you can hit the tare button again, and add more ingredients.

Guessing just leads to frustration

There are countless articles and infographics out there about guesstimating how much food you are eating. Sometimes this is really useful; for example if you are eating at someone else’s house. (Most restaurants these days post their nutrition information online if not right on the menu, so you can just look up the numbers there) But often, these guesses aren’t very clear. How much is a “handful” exactly? Should I be able to completely close my hand around it, or is it as much as I can possibly grab without any more falling through my fingers? And whose hand? I have relatively small hands, does this mean I should grab more? Should someone with larger hands grab less? And what do you do when it tells you that a “serving” of meat is the size of your palm, but doesn’t tell you how many grams or ounces that is?

Weighing is most accurate

You don’t want to be inadvertently consuming more calories than you actually logged. This leads to slower progress, and frustration when the scale doesn’t reflect what you think it should. Certain foods can be difficult to measure. And measuring requires dirtying whatever implement you are using to measure in the first place. With weighing, you can just put things on the plate you are going to use anyway, and just use the tare button to zero out the scale between different items. Weighing also keeps you honest. You might grab a heaping spoonful of peanut butter, and mark it down as 1 teaspoon. Weighing will tell you exactly how many grams it is, regardless of whether that spoon was made by Oneida, Mikasa or IKEA.

Being honest and accurate with your logging is the fastest way to get results.

Why Tracking is Essential to Reaching Your Goals

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Why Tracking is Essential to Reaching Your Goals
Have you ever watched a movie where the character is lost in a forest or maze and they make marks to let themselves know where they’ve been? Often, as a plot device, they end up going around in a circle, and finding one of the marks they had made, and then they get a bit disheartened. But what if they hadn’t made any marks? What if they had no idea that this was familiar ground? They could go around in circles forever and never realize it.

 

Or how about when there is an arrow pointing the way to safety, and it gets spun around or knocked over? Now our character doesn’t know which way to turn. (And thus gets eaten by a Dilophosaurus)
Knocked over sign
Now which way do I go?
To keep this from happening, today we are going to earn our tracking merit badges. It is so important to track what you are doing, whether it’s tracking your food, your exercise, your mood, or your sleep. If something isn’t working, you have a way to see where you’ve been and what you’ve done, and make a course adjustment into a new direction, rather than constantly going in circles. It’s also essential that you are accurate in how you track, so you know which way to turn when choosing your new bearing. Perhaps you’ve tried running before, but going back to your notes, you find that in the past, you’ve found it boring. Now you know to try something different this time: perhaps spinning or weight lifting. Similarly, if no matter how hard you try to eat Atkins or Paleo, you just cannot manage to give up rice for more than a couple weeks, then perhaps you should try an eating regimen that doesn’t restrict what you can eat.

 

How you choose to track is up to you. The best system is one that you will use regularly, whether that’s a spreadsheet so you can create your own graphs of the data, one of the many apps that are available for phone or web, or even just a journal and your favorite pen. The important part is to start. Having this roadmap of where you’ve been will keep you from going around in circles and help you reach your destination sooner.

 

What is your preferred method to track various aspects of your health?

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