Tracking your food

Tracking your food intake is a very important first step to living a healthier lifestyle and losing unwanted & unhealthy weight.

We often don't realize how much we truly consume every single day. We tend to under estimate how much food or how many calories we eat at each meal. There is also the opposite problem, that people OVER estimate the amount of food they eat, and they are actually under eating which can lead to weigh gain as well.

It's a delicate balance of calories in vs. calories out, but to that I need to add that it has to be the correct calories. You can't wolf down a double cheese burger with bacon, large fries and a coke for 900 calories and think that was OK to count towards your daily intake. It needs to be balanced food, clean food, and enough... but not too much food.

I know that this all seems like a lot of work and calculating, but through the miracle of technology and the internet there are countless online calorie counting websites out there and the best part is that they are FREE.
I use myfitnesspal.com and it can track my calories consumed as well as estimate how many I burn. It gives me a pretty accurate amount of calories I should be aiming for each day based off of how active I am, my lifestyle, my diet & my age.
Now I don't use it everyday, or even every week for that matter, but if I am feeling like I am off a bit and need to check in for accountability sake then I use the app on my phone. I suggest anyone starting out on your good health journey & are ready to make a healthy change, to track your food for at least a month to gage where you are at & where you can use some improvement. You might be surprised!

Be sure to not let tracking your every bite end up an obsession. It can be a healthy safe way to monitor your calorie intake but there needs to be room for cheat days.. and life in general. Don't beat yourself up if you don't hit the mark everyday. Move on without guilt.

Happy Thursday!