Weight Watchers: Beyond the Scale–Week 2

The excitement from the first week rolled into nervous anxiety for this week’s weigh in. First, I feared the dip that I mentioned in my last post about slacking off during this week and picking up some of the weight I’d lost during the previous week. Well, I guess my mind wasn’t set firm enough on achieving this goal. I gained 1 lb. Granted, I could say that those 1 lb may have been the weight of the clothes I was wearing—a long cow neck sweater. Maybe. However, when I look back over the pages I’ve been jotting down my daily food intake since the beginning of the year, I know different. In the two days before this weigh in, I indulged in cake. A few days before that, I had a scoop of ice cream (NOT low fat or light) on a cone. And the weekend before I wasn’t as prepared with ideas for fun healthy weekend food and ended up with Chinese food. To my credit, though, I did abstain from the fried rice but my beef and broccoli, soaked in gravy, I’m sure didn’t help.

I say all of that to confirm the importance of tracking with any goal that you’re trying to accomplish. Most of you already know of all the different apps and online tools available for tracking but just in case you need some suggestions, here’s a list of the best ten. But for those who don’t always want to be regulated by your phone or computer a good ‘ole fashion notebook always does the trick too.  I do both. What I like about logging in my notebook is that I’m free to not bother with ounces, cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc. I simply want a reminder of what I ate. My memory isn’t so bad that I don’t remember how much of it I ate.

Lack of categorization is the biggest advantage for tracking in a notebook. Sometimes you just want to write it down. On one page I write down what A.M. exercise I had a chance to do before leaving for work. Lately I’ve been doing seated waist twists with my 8lb medicine ball. This morning I did a few minutes of hula hooping and 15 kettle (15lb) ball swings (whew! on the latter). Shortly after arriving at work I write my breakfast down, and then follow that with whatever exercise I do during the day. Next is lunch, snack, and then dinner. Near the bottom of the page, I jot down any money that I’ve spent during the day (yes, I’m tracking that too).

Keeping track of what I’m putting in my mouth is helping me become accountable for the numbers on the scale or judging from how my clothes are fitting. I definitely recommend some form of tracking to keep you on track on whatever you’re trying to improve in 2016.

Are you a tracker.? Share your preferred method.