Food Journaling

They say that food journaling is a key component in the success of people that are trying to lose weight... and lets face it - how many women out there aren't trying to lose a few pounds in some form OR aren't trying to tone/reshape at least one part of their bodies?


It does take discipline to food journal - but it is the most eye opening thing you'll ever do! There are several forms of food journals - as my friend Meg once wrote about. I choose to follow my daily intake right now in two different ways.


1. I like to use Daily Plate at Livestrong.Com - this gives me the ability to look at my calorie intake and how it breaks down for the day. They also have periodic contests and give aways for people logging their food everyday and the like. I think for those that managed to log their food everyday in March, they are giving away an Ipod Touch... which I don't need, but I could always sell on Ebay to buy some new clothes or something - right?


2. I like the idea of a photo food journal - because truly looking at images of everything that you've put into your body has a vastly different impact than just seeing a list at the end of the day. Maybe not for everyone, but for me - it makes me realize that I've eaten much more than I thought. Or at the very least - it will give me the power to reach over and grab one of those Special K Protein Water packs instead of looking for something more to eat. (At least it did yesterday!)


I promise that I won't bore my regular readers indefinitely with posts that have pictures of my food intake, but I'm going to hit you with it again today. You'll see some repeats, but some new things too - and at the end I'll break it down for you so you can see how the numbers flushed out upon entry into Daily Plate.


6:15 AM - An Atkins Advantage Shake to start the day with a good healthy dose of protein. I drink it in the car on the way to work.





9:45 - Del Monte Diced Peaches with Splenda and Breakstone's Liv Active 2% Cottage Cheese eaten at my desk. (60% of my meals are eaten here!) I enjoy this meal because it gives me a little something fruity in my day - and I'm going to try to change it up a bit at times and bring in some fresh strawberries to go with my cottage cheese. I use the Liv Active cups because they're the same price, and I can use any added benefit of digestive help that I can get.

11:45 AM - For lunch today, I'm eating my Meatballs in Marinara which sadly aren't as low in calories as I had hoped for. They aren't too bad - around 253 calories for my portion size, but it's the highest caloric meal that I'll have for the day. I am glad that it is my lunch so that there is plenty of time for me to burn those extra few calories in my workout this evening.

1:45 PM - Chicken Stir Fry, I don't have a recipe over on the other blog for this one - but when I run out of portions of this in the freezer, I will put one up and take some pictures of my actual stir fry. Again it has chicken breast pieces, zucchini, mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, soy sauce and a little bit of butter. It's pretty basic, but yesterday I realized that I'd forgotten how yummy it really is!

3:45 PM - A South Beach Living High Protein Cereal Bar - Peanut Butter. This is my favorite of their flavors, they do have a Chocolate one and a Cinnamon Raisin... I'm not a fan of the Chocolate personally occasionally I'll grab one... and I don't like raisins... so there you go. I am however a HUGE fan of all things peanut butter - so this works well for giving me that little fix along with some protein.

5:15 PM - A serving of dry roasted cashews gives me a little boost to make it through my workout - I could change this up and have some of that Special K Protein Water instead of I'm having a particularly bad day calorie wise... but today - I'm alright to eat these. A serving is about 21 nuts - so I stay under that amount.

7:00 PM - Dinner tonight will be my Chicken Fajita Salad. It is a good mix of veggies and protein... with a little bit of the "good stuff" too. You can click on over to see my version of how this is served up.

In addition to all of that - I try desperately to get in at least 60-80 ounces of water or liquids per day. Sometimes I get in most of it in water, but then at the end of the day - my little bit of decaffeinated iced tea makes up the rest.

Today's Nutritional Breakdown:

1,141 Calories

70 g Carbohydrates (25.06%)

96 g Protein (34.45%)

50 g Fat (40.5%)

I feel pretty good about my calorie intake - even if it hasn't been getting my stupid scale to move... it's a good number - less than the 1,200 calories a day that I shoot for. I am planning a workout tonight, it might not be the level 10 one that I've been doing... but I am going with the philosophy that anything is better than sitting on the couch for that extra 30 minutes. I might try a level 7 or something...

So there you go... it's almost time for my meatball lunch...

Okay, the totally bizzare thing - after writing this post - I feel more exposed than I've ever felt when writing this blog. I guess truly writing this and sharing the details is pushing me outside of my comfort zone, and I see that as a good thing - because if I find myself staring into the pantry later... or at a vending machine... I'll remember this post and it will help me walk away!