PraxisFitness

Like Miz said, “ain’t nothin’ new under the sun” (well, she used different words)… but I’m going to write about a few tools anyway. No, not tools as in stupid men or construction equipment, but tools that can help you achieve your fitness goals.

One such tool is the food diary.  Can I just say (actually, yes, I can - it’s my blog, eh?) - I hate keeping a food diary!  It feels tedious and childish, but mostly just tedious.  And I don’t even keep a detailed diary.  You can do it many ways; nutritionists & lots of places on the web often recommend listing the foods, the portions, perhaps even the calories and macronutrients (fat/carbs/protein).  Some people might need to do that, especially if their goals are very dependent on a specific dietary intake, but whoa, baby! Too much work for me.

However, studies show that keeping a food diary increases weight loss, so if that’s your goal, why not try to do it?  Here’s one study from Kaiser Permanente that showed keeping a diary doubled weight loss - that’s some compelling information.

Food journals can work for other reasons too. For example, my goals are more nutrition oriented at the moment:  get in 2 servings of whole grain, 2 servings of legumes, 3 servings of fruit and 4 servings on vegetables per day.  Along with that I try to be sure I have a decent portion of protein in every meal; after working with a nutritionist, I have a good idea of what a serving of protein looks like for me, so I just eyeball it.  These goals are to help me kick a sugar habit - and I’ve found that by only allowing sweets after I get the above in… I’m a lot less likely to want said sweets.  However, without the food journal I’ve not been succeeding at it, so it’s time to dust it off and dig out the pen again. I’ve found this item, picopad, is handy for me because it’s tiny and I can carry it everywhere (and it comes with a pen so I have no excuses).  There are also lots of online diaries, examples being NutritionData, Fit Day, SparkPeople, CalorieKing… I personally like NutritionData but that’s certainly not to say the others aren’t good. Try them and see which works best for you.

PS For those of you more connected (or more willing to spend bucks on a cellphone), there’s also Lose It! for your iPhone…