I need to eat more protein to keep up with my yoga and walking activities. Image courtesy of amenic181 and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
For the last couple of evenings, I’m feel famished at about 10:00 pm. Rather than eat, I start chugging water. Thirty minutes later I’m hungry again once my bladder bursts. Something is afoot.
This is the beauty of keeping a food journal. I thumbed through my FitBook this morning and I found a potential culprit – protein. I’m averaging 3.5 oz. of protein at lunch and 4.5 oz. at dinner. Since I go low carb, I try not to go over six ounces of protein during breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Clearly I’m not near the 6 oz. limit per meal. But with the yoga and walks, I need to up my amount. Phew! An easy fix. I’ll find out tonight if this does the trick.
Doubling down on food journaling! Today kicks off the start of my 12-Week Tracking Challenge.
Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m horrible at tracking my food. I don’t know why. I seem to go through cycles. Some weeks I am the most awesome tracker in the world. Others, I completely suck at it.
Guess what cycle I’m in now?
I know tracking works. When I track, the pounds fall off. It’s that simple.
Over the last 2 weeks, I went from tracking everything everyday to just a couple of meals a day to no tracking at all.
A part of me just thinks I don’t have to write it down. I can count my points and carbs in my head. Ha! I ended up snacking all last night and lost count sometime between dinner, the jello, the almonds, the wine, and the late night chicken wings.
Tracking Challenge
I decided to create a 12-Week Tracking Challenge using both paper and my iPhone. I want to reinforce a good habit…hence the 12-weeks. I’m tracking:
Food (PointsPlus and Net Carb)
Water
Exercise
Goals
Weekly Challenges
Paper Journal Vs. Apps
Conventional wisdom says apps make tracking “easier.” But I’m not so sure.
I find with paper, I’m actually thinking about what I’m doing. With the app, it’s more like I log it and think more about improving the app, not myself.
Truth is no one app does what I need it to do – calculate PointsPlus and net carbs, and track my activity. My Weight Watchers’ app is my workhorse for tracking, but it doesn’t count carbs (please WW gods add this feature!). Friends recommended My Fitness Pal and Carb Masters. So I’ll also review the apps during this challenge.
Behold! My paper food journal for the next 12 weeks.
I know paper isn’t a walk in the park either. I don’t know the PointsPlus value or net carb count of everything I eat. Paper is so DOS!
But again, if I write it, I tend to think about what I’m doing. Thinking is key to living healthy.
For the paper tracking, I settled on using Fitlosophy’s Fitbook. It’s a 12-week fitness and nutrition journal. It includes long- (3 months) and short-term (weekly) goals. It’s very clean and allows detailed info. It’s small enough to fit in my purse so I can take it with me.
I can’t believe that I fretted about losing “only” 0.6 lbs. last week.
Ok, I need to shake things up this week. Here’s my plan:
Write It Down – Research shows you lose weight with a food journal. I keep a food journal, but I’m not diligent about it. The goal this week is to track everything, including the tastes I take while cooking. I set up the Weight Watchers app on my phone and tablet. I even set up alerts to remind me to track. No excuses now.
7 Hours – My insomnia is back. I’m getting about 5 hours of sleep a night. So my body isn’t properly producing the appetite-regulating hormones. Ghrelin tells you when to eat. Leptin tells you when you are full. Lack of sleep and you’ll have too much ghrelin and not enough leptin. Time to break out the herbal tea 45 minutes before bedtime.
Water Weight – Thanks to the more intense walks, my legs are sore. I think this is the source of my gain. When you workout microscopic tears appear in the muscle fiber. The fiber basically becomes a sponge, absorbing water. In a few days, my muscles should release the water (and the 1.2 lbs.).
Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint. My resolve is a lot stronger than 1.2 lbs.
