Tracking
One of the most useful things I do as a dieter is diary. I remember as a kid my mom constantly writing down her portions from all the different food groups as she lost weight through weight watchers. I always thought it looked like such a pain.
When I was dieting for baby I got to a point where I wanted to diary so I could see what I was eating. I invested the best 40.00 I’ve ever spent on the Calorie King. It tracked weight, vitamins, minerals an calories. It broke my food down into genres and sub genres, encouraging me to eat fiber and discouraging me from eating too much or poor choices. But what it really did was help me see the connection between intake and output of calories. It helped me to see that when I took a walk, my net calorie intake would shrink from the calories burned and I would end the day having consumed 1600 but only showing 800 or so. What a motivator.
Calorie King is a subscription thing these days so I’ve let it go. I invested 3.99 in Livestrong. While it doesn’t break everything down into pie graphs and it doesn’t track the vitamin/mineral/fiber content I’ve taken in daily, it does show me how my calories are being consumed. It helps to keep me accountable. It reminds me of portion sizes. It makes me consider whether I should eat the tablespoon of peanut butter or the endless pile of celery. It subtracts my calories burnt for exercise based on how much I weigh right now (like, I burn more than Bradley because I weigh muchly more than he and have to carry all that around). But mostly it just keeps me accountable and that is unmatchable motivation.
There are others that have a community attached but the apps don’t attach and I’m an iPhone and iPad girl so I’m cool with Livestrong. 🙂