Switching things up: Paper tracking edition

A few days before I went away on vacation (the end of April) I decided to switch things up to help me be more honest with my tracking but also to shake things up. I’ve been an etools tracker my entire “Weight Watchers career”. I find it’s easy, it’s always accessible (from computer or my phone) and I was just what I got used to. Everyone has their own means of tracking that works for them and for a long time etools tracking was working for me. That is until I started to get a little lax with my meal planning and was eating the same thing more often than not. And also veering away from what I had planned to eat because my weekly “menu” isn’t as visible online. By that I mean I have to go through each day, individually, to see what I ate on a certain day … whereas I find on paper it’s a few flicks of the wrist and I can see my entire week ... my entire month.

Paper tracking was a little foreign to me at first. But that thought process only lasted 2 days … and then it was normal. I left my tracker out on the countertop while I was on vacation so if I wanted something to eat, I had to write it down first. Now that I’m home it’s on my desk while I’m home and when I leave or go to work it’s tucked away in my purse.  I am sticking to pre-tracking at a minimum my breakfast and lunch – typically I know what I’m having for dinner so I jot those down as well.

What I find I’ve been enjoying the most about paper tracking is it’s really made me more aware of my food choices. It’s made me think twice about if I want something because I have to go write it down first (because otherwise I’m one of those eat it and forget it because your brain ran off on a siesta people). I also like that it’s made my food menu more visible; which has also made looking back at my week a lot easier. This way I can see what I liked, what worked and what I may want to recreate another time.

It’s been about a month and I’m still paper tracking … I’ve really found something that I enjoy. Plus, switching things up from time to time never hurts!