Healthy Girl 365, Day 7 - Track it! Track it all!

Why yes, a screen shot totally counts as a photo! Today I'd like to talk to you about the importance of recording what you eat. I'm following Weight Watchers which is all about tracking your food. I'm sure we all know the basic structure of Weight Watchers right? Rather than counting calories in food, you count "Pro-Points" which have been calculated through various means over the years, but are currently calculated using protein, fat, carbs and dietary fibre. Weight Watchers isn't for everyone, but I like the flexibility of the program, and the fact that it's so personalised. For paying members, there's an AMAZING app which I find exceptionally handy (I won't bore you with the details, but for info click here). Above is a screenshot of my daily tracker (I know, a pie... but it was home-made and filled with vegetables!)

For those who aren't on Weight Watchers, I hope I haven't quite lost you because the point of today's post was not to convert you to the Pro-Points system but to let you know that anyone who's trying to lose weight can benefit from keeping a diary of the food they eat each day! People have done studies, this is legit info! Whether you track things like calories, fat content, etc is up to you, but even just keeping an ongoing list of the foods (and drinks!) you consume each day can keep you accountable, and shed light on patterns between what you eat and how much weight you lose/gain each week. You can keep a notebook on hand, a list on your computer, or find a great app to keep track on your phone (there's a lot of free ones out there) - whatever works for you! But if you do keep a food diary, track the bad days too - you should find it helps get you back on the straight and narrow in no time! Google "Food Diary" for some great ideas and even templates you can print off and use.

Also, on a side note I wanted to point you to a great little post on A Beautiful Mess today, called "10 Super Healthy Recipes". After reading it I'm pretty keen to brew up some infused water and bake some grapefruit!