Tracking Your Way to Success!
Setting good goals is one thing, but achieving them is another! Tracking your progress is a great way to stay motivated – it acts as a constant reminder of your goals and allows you to stay accountable to yourself, and if you so choose, others. It also makes it easier for you to reach your goals by letting you see what works while helping you troubleshoot around what doesn’t. Here are some of our favourite ways to stay on track:
Food Records
One of the first things you do when you meet your FitNut Dietitian is fill out a food record. They are not just for us to see what you have been eating; they can be useful for you as well! One study with over 1,500 subjects found that those who kept a food diary every day lost nearly double the amount of weight compared to those who didn’t keep track at all.
Food records work because they let you see how you are actually eating throughout the day. While we can generally remember what types of foods we ate at a meal, it’s harder to remember the specific amounts or the little snacks we have in between when we’re not keeping track.
Keeping a food record can also actively reduce the amount you eat because of the Hawthorne Effect, or the phenomenon of people changing their behaviour simply because they knew it was being measured. Also, many people avoid eating a nibble of this or a bite of that just so they don’t have to write it down.
It’s very important to keep your food record in a format that is convenient for you – otherwise, you won’t use it! Some people continue to use the FitNut template, while others buy a notebook and make their own. There are also many pre-made food journals that you can buy and fill in the blanks.
If you are a little more tech-savvy, set up your own Excel spreadsheet or use the FitNut ONP (Online Nutrition Program). Attached to your smartphone? There are lots of apps available for download, or try a Twitter-based service like TweetWhatYouEat.
Note that some websites and apps (including ONP) will try to recommend a target number of calories – make sure you discuss this with your FitNut Dietitian to see whether this is appropriate for you; a computer can never replace a trained professional in assessing your needs!
What to keep track of in your food record is also important. The basic food record keeps track of what and how much you eat – anything else is up to you! Some people keep track of when they eat to see if there any large gaps between their meals and snacks. Others keep track of where they eat as an indicator of how many meals they have outside the home, or whether they are always on the go as opposed to sitting down and focusing on their meal. Making a note of how you feel when you are eating can be useful if you are an emotional eater or prone to mindless snacking. Finally, for those dealing with food sensitivities/allergies, keeping a food/symptom record can help pinpoint the culprits of your discomfort.
Other Methods
Keeping a food record is important, but may not apply to some of your health and nutrition goals. Some other ways to help you stay on track are:
Get a buddy – The jury is still out on whether telling others about your goals can help or hinder your progress. On the one hand, having a strong support network of family, friends, coworkers and – of course! – your FitNut Dietitians is like having a personal cheerleading squad as you work toward your goal, and can be a great resource for tips to pull through any plateaus or tasty recipes when you are in a cooking rut. On the other hand, you might feel judged or pressured to eat healthy all the time if others know that you are trying to change your eating habits. If you find that having a buddy will make it easier to stay motivated, give our Nutrition Couples Consult a try! But choose wisely – you might be more likely to slip if your buddy is slacking too!
Blog – There are lots of free blogging platforms out there that will allow you to broadcast your progress to the world. Blogger and Wordpress are the most well-known, and allow users to create elaborate, beautiful blogs. Don't want to get too fancy? Tumblr and Posterous Spaces (also free) can get you set up quickly with a more barebones site.
One of our favourite blogs is 344pounds.com – Shawn lost 150 lb from 2009-2010 mainly by exercising and counting calories, and is still posting photos, calorie counts and workout playlists every week as he tries to put on some muscle on his new frame.
A newer favourite is Picky Niki – Niki’s goal is to broaden her palate by trying one new food every day before her 40th birthday. The hand-drawn illustrations are very cute!
Try a goal tracking website – Just as there’s an app for everything, there’s a website for everything too! A simple search of “Goal Tracking” brings up a plethora of websites, from simple calendars to complex websites that walk you through all the steps of setting, tracking and achieving your goals.
Joe’s Goals is a simple system that allows you to list your goals next to a simplified calendar. Each day, you can add checkmarks for things that you want to do more of (for example, eat breakfast or drink water) or x’s for habits you want to do less of (for example, eat junk food or drink coffee). There is also a Logbook area for you to write notes.
43Things is a community goal setting and tracking site. Almost anything that anyone has ever thought of doing is on this site. Each goal has its own page that notes how many people are working on this goal (currently, nearly 41,000 people want to lose weight), as well as stats on how long it takes most people to achieve the goal and whether it is worth it. Users can swap stories related to their progress and give each other “Cheers”. It’s like blogging, but within a group that is working toward the same goal!
However you choose to follow your progress, remember that the FitNut Team is always here to help! Make an appointment for a follow-up session or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter!
