The Power of Tracking Nutrition
One of my best tips for losing weight and becoming more healthy is TRACKING NUTRITION. When you’re just beginning your journey toward a healthier lifestyle, it is SUPER important to track your nutrition so you can learn what you need to learn to make it stick.
Why is it Important to Track Your Nutrition?
Tracking nutrition will teach you to eat right by bringing total awareness to your food choices and the consequences of these choices. Self awareness is a significant aspect of adopting a healthy lifestyle…without it, it’s doubtful you’ll make the transition.
Some of the things you learn by tracking your nutrition are:
- What food groups you might be eating too much from
- What food groups you’re not eating enough from
- How to eat nutrient dense foods
- The ratio of the different food groups you eat (carbs, proteins, etc.)
- The quality of the foods you’re eating
- Perspective/the “Big Picture” of your nutrition
- The impact of the little “extras” you eat but don’t pay much attention to
- How good you’re already doing (so you can do good more often!)
What is the Best Way of Tracking Nutrition?
There are countless options for tracking your nutrition. What’s important to know is that tracking nutrition doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. I’ll share my favorite ways to track.
First, you should know that I use Autumn Calabrese’s Portion Fix containers to measure my food because it is simple and structured (exactly what I need!). This has me tracking my nutrition in one of these four ways:
1. 21 Day Fix App—If you’re doing the 21 Day Fix program and you’re comfortable using phone apps, I highly suggest you use this as a tracking tool. It’s FREE and simple to use. In addition to meals, it tracks your workouts, water intake, weight and measurements. (Don’t forget to get educated on how to properly track your progress!)
2. My 21 Day Fix Meal Planner—I created this to help people who are doing the 21 Day Fix easily track their meals and create menus they can use again and again. Just click on the link and print it out.
3. 80 Day Obsession Menu Planner—I am madly in love (dare I say obsessed???) with Autumn’s newest program, the 80 Day Obsession. What I love most about it is the Timed Nutrition Plan, which has you eating what you need when you need it (click on that link to learn more). The Menu Planner that comes with the program is printable (put it on your fridge!) and easy to use.
4. Good Old Fashioned Pen & Paper—Is it weird that a piece of paper and colored pens totally excite me??? Considering I am a former elementary school teacher, probably not lol. Not only are paper and pens cheap, but they don’t require instructions and the end result can be easily hung on your fridge so you don’t miss it. Have fun!
Just look at the STUNNING meal plan one of my customer’s recently created:
How Long Should You Track Your Nutrition?
So how long should you be tracking nutrition? My rule of thumb is until it becomes second nature! This might be 21 days (remember that it takes 21 days to make a habit) or it might be several months (and that’s TOTALLY okay!).
Once you’ve become thoroughly educated and healthy eating becomes a lifestyle that comes naturally, you can stop tracking if you want. I don’t track all the time anymore, but I definitely go back to it on occasion—like when I started the 80 Day Obsession’s Timed Nutrition Plan or when I’m wavering in my eating habits and need to be re-centered.
Tracking Nutrition Tips
Here are a few tips for tracking nutrition:
- When it comes to tracking nutrition, the more specific and accurate you are, the more accurate the lessons you learn will be!
- Don’t forget to track all the little extras—like what you put in your coffee and/or tea, condiments, candy, beverages, etc. My guess is that you’ll be shocked at how many calories these things are adding to your daily calorie intake. (Did you know that an extra 100 extra calories every day can add up to 10 extra pounds per year???)
- Take time to learn about food swaps. There is almost always a healthier option to a food that you feel like you can’t live without! Here’s a post that will help you with this—35 Healthy Food Swaps
Get Help From Me!
If you have any questions with tracking nutrition, click below to ask them. And, of course, JOIN MY PRIVATE FIX FAMILY FACEBOOK GROUP!
