A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

Ever since I started tracking my foods three weeks ago I’ve done a lot of research, gotten advice from my trainers, friends and family and have paid an even closer attention to my diet. I have also gotten a lot of continued support from everyone. I’ve been consistent with tracking everything I eat even when I treat myself (aka cheat) or go out to eat. Those meals are the toughest though because I have to do extra work to find out nutritional information. I’ve made improvements each week and I am on track to meet my new goals for this week. Earlier this week I posted that I needed to increase my protein intake and lower my fats. I’ve done that. There is still some refining to do but I am happy with the improvements so far.

Throughout this journey I’ve been working on making permanent lifestyle changes and not temporary ones. So if I make a little progress each week but I’m doing it with foods that I like eating I feel that I will have a better chance of sticking with it. In the past I’ve put myself through a few different plans like Nutrisystem and Atkins and it’s taught me that once I’m done with the ‘diet’ I go right on back to my old habits. So, other than a sporadic shock to my system it’s not really helping me change how I fuel my body. Not to mention those diets either rely on taking necessary nutrients out of your diet or consist of dehydrated food that doesn’t require any work. You become completely dependent on their foods rather than learning to eat differently and still enjoy it. Neither of those things sound like good permanent solutions for me or us.

I’ve been asked to share a day or two out of my food diary and as much as that scares me to no end, I will do it. For each day I’ve listed my foods and the day’s nutritional average.

I’ll do this from time to time, post some sample days, so you can see how I’m changing things up. The 2 sample days above I consider to be OK days and a good average representation of my last week. Do I have days when I eat a cookie? Yes, I do but it’s just one or 2 cookies and not a box or bag of them. Is there room for improvement? Of course. But I want to make it stick this time. I don’t want this to become something I hate and not look forward to. A fad. I also don’t want to be obsessive about it so I’m trying to make it part of my everyday. Habits that soon will be second nature and not  just something different I’m trying. I always think about incorporating changes into my existing routine and slowly refine ingredients and preparations. I also find it motivating to help support local farmers there in turn I end up with fresh, organic and local foods.

I’m happy about the foods I eat + I eat good foods = A healthy diet I’ll be able to continue

I’m enjoying a day off from TWR tomorrow but tonight it’s me and the ice pack, just hangin’ out relieving pain and recovering. I had a funky pain in my knee last night and this morning but it’s fading. A little more icing and I should be 100%. Dan and I will get out and enjoy a Chicago summer festival tomorrow and hang out with our dog Brady. I’m looking forward to that. Hope your weekend is fun and relaxing as well!