Eating on Track

As a young adult woman in her mid 20's, it wouldn't surprise many than I eat out more than I eat in. And not only does eating out seem to take more $$ from my bank account, it also seems to add calories substantially quicker on my daily caloric count.

Yes, I do purchase food from the grocery store and try my best to make lunches and snacks at home to take to work. And yes, the food I purchase comes and goes and it sure takes quite awhile sometimes for me to make time to go back to the grocery store to replenish my supplies.

So in the interim during my grocery droughts, I stay on track with my daily caloric intake by utilizing the Super Tracker from choosemyplate.gov.

Choosemyplate.gov was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help improve the well-being and nutrition of Americans. A couple of years ago the USDA had switched from a complex food pyramid to a plate diagram that is easier to understand...it's all about portion control! :)

I highly recommend going on to their website and checking it out. The site has tons of information regarding nutrition that benefits the entire family. Here's what the new MyPlate diagram looks like:
 

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/

 The Super Tracker is similar to other calorie trackers out  there in that is monitors how much calories you're eating daily. What I especially like about the Super Tracker is that it also keeps track of much you're eating in each food group. So in essence, I could eat 1,000 calories of ice cream or 1,000 calories of fruits...and this wouldn't really be quite noticeable on other calorie trackers, but the Super Tracker helps me keep a well balance diet.

Here's a great example of how the tool helped me realize that I wasn't getting any protein in my diet. I was able to easily fix that with my next meal decision for the day.

There's all sorts of great tools on the Super Tracker site. Not only does the site help monitor your food intake, you can create health related goals (such as weight loss or maintaining an amount of weekly physical activity) and the website has a place where you can log and monitor your progress. I also registered for email newsletters that are customized to my goals and are filled with tips on how to stay on track.

The only downside right now to the tracker is that there isn't a convenient smart phone app that syncs to the website. So to keep my tracker updated, I either go on the website through my phone web browser or jot it down somewhere and add it in later.

Keeping track of what you're eating could get overwhelming and some would say tedious. After awhile it becomes a routine and definitely has lots of benefits.

How have you kept track of what you're putting in your body?