My Fitness Pal - I use this website to look up calories of certain foods. It has a great database of foods, a calorie tracker, progress/weigh in reports, exercise tracker, etc. Also, you can sync the App on your IPhone or Android. Instead of using their calorie tracker, I made my own spreadsheet on Excel (see below). It's just a matter of preference - paper or digital.
Ex: Diet day 1 (My eating habits did not evolve until the 3rd/4th week.)
| Date | B-fast | Cal | Snack | Cal | Lnch | Cal | Snack | Cal | Dinner | Cal | Snack | Cal | Total | Gym |
| 5/8 | Yogurt | 140 | Pear | 100 | Pasta | 340 | Cheese | 480 | Pretzel | 330 | Hummus | 150 | 1540 | 123 |
Now, 8 weeks in, comfortably settled in a fairly healthy routine, I no longer record my calorie intake on paper. Sometimes I still do make a mental note. The habit is there like a crack addiction... If I eat a large meal or dine out, I immediately jump on My Fitness Pal and calculate the total. Why?! I don't know! To make myself feel bad, I guess? And surely bad you will feel if you do the same... for me, one dinner out (with a drink?) is always 1200-2500 calories - I ate more than my daily allowance, AHHH!
Calories weren't my only obsession. Dieters are commonly advised against weighing themselves too often. But I must confess, I step on the scale everyday (sometimes even twice a day :x) and still do. The main difference between now and then is, I can look down at the number and not let the weight fluctuation play mind tricks. Even though I step on and off the scale aimlessly throughout the day, I only record one weigh in about every 8 days, along with my body measurements. This allows you to accurately assess weight/fat loss/gain. Looking back at 5/8 to 5/24, I went from 136 to 133 to 130 - the big picture allows a sense of accomplishment! If I recorded my weight everyday, it would look something like: 136, 135, 134, 135, 136, 134, 133, 135 etc. Imagine how discouraging that would be in the moment - am I gaining or losing?
| Date | Weight | Waist | Hips | Thigh | Body fat % | Notes |
| 5/8/12 | 136 | 31 | 37.25 | 22.75 | 30.5 | (a) |
| 5/16/12 | 133 | 30.25 | 36.5 | 21.25 | (a) | |
| 5/24/12 | 130 | 29.25 | 36.5 | 21.25 | 29.9 | |
| 6/1/12 | 129 | 29.5 | 36.5 | 21.5 | ||
| 6/9/12 | 127.5 | 29 | 36.5 | (b) | ||
| 6/17/12 | 127.5 | 29 | 36 | (b) | ||
| 6/25/12 | 126.5 | 29 | 36 | (b) | ||
| 7/3/12 | 125 | (c) | ||||
| 7/8/12 | 124 | 28.5 | 36 | 20.5 | 27.5 | (d) |
| 7/17/12 | 123.5 | 28 | 36 | 27.1 | ||
| 7/24/12 | 123.5 | 28 | 36 | 20.5 | 26.2 | |
| 8/1/12 | ||||||
| 8/9/12 | ||||||
| 8/17/12 | ||||||
| 8/22/12 | 121 | 27.5 | 35.5 | 20 | ||
| 9/2/12 | ||||||
| 9/8/12 |
Notes:
(a.) Lost those 3 lbs in the first 3 days (mostly water retention).
(b.) Hit a plateau! Even with cutting calories and running 3-5 times a week, my weight didn't budge for almost 3 weeks. I decided to intensify my workout by incorporating HIIT and weight training the week of 6/25.
(c.) Lost 1.5 pounds from weights and HIIT! :D
(d.)
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