Class 3 ~ Put it on paper: Recording your habits

Much to my surprise, keeping track of my fitness habits through the program has been rewarding. I'm not usually very good at the record keeping (ugh! numbers!), but seeing how I've progressed at the gym has been very encouraging. It's great to see that what I now consider "normal" activity wasn't even possible a year ago. Seeing it in black and white means knowing I'm on the right track.

Here's a handout about that:

One of the areas I still need to work on is food tracking. To help with this, I'm returning to an old resource: SparkPeople.com. I found them years ago when I was struggling on my own and I had good success. They're an excellent FREE food and activity tracking website with a large community of users who contribute to the wealth of the resources they offer. Sign up is easy ~ you go to the site, set up a free account, and answer some basic questions about your health goals. Although one of the first questions you need to answer is how much weight you want to lose, don't be put off by that. They use your weight goals to calculate your recommended caloric intake, as well as suggesting daily activities you might like.

They very sensibly suggest a reasonable goal of one pound per week, and once you enter the basic info about your eating habits, it just takes a few minutes each day to click and record. The more detailed the info you put in, the more valuable the reports it can create for you. Many food items are already in their database, which has been built by users over many years. SO if you can find what you eat already entered, you just click on it. If your particular food isn't entered, I found it was best to enter the info on the nutritional panel from the packaging ~ as I say, the more accurate, the better the tracking will be.

But there's much, much more to Spark People than just food tracking. They have recipes, fitness videos, a blog, forums where you can find other people who share your goals, and a whole lot more. I haven't completely explored the content since there is so much there, but I suggest giving it a look and seeing if there are some tools there that can help you. Two points: I'm not affiliated with them in any way, apart from being a user, and nothing replaces the wonderful programs Kate is running ~ so don't stay home! :)

Here's the SparkPeople info in a handout:

A few more handouts about tracking:

And for those of you who wanted to have the forms in a printable form for your use, I've redone the Food Diary to match the Canada Food Guide. I've set it up for women aged 51+, but you can go to their website and adjust your goals if you don't fit in this category. Here are the forms:

Whoosh! That's a lot of info and forms! The next post will be prettier ~ I promise!