Keeping Track and Label Reading

Keeping a log of your weight loss and daily calorie counts is one of the many things you should be doing to monitor your progress as you change your nutrition and improve your health. Your mood, stress, sleep, exercise and water intake are other items that can be tracked as well as keeping a journal of how you are doing and commenting on your goals and failings as you go.

If I didn't have a way to keep track of my calorie, protein and fat intake daily I would never have lost the weight I did. Before you can keep track of these you need to know your way around the Nutrition Facts label found on most foods. This is where you start while shopping to see what foods are high in protein, low in carbohydrates and low in calories.

We start at the top of the label where it says "Serving Size". Just because that 20 oz soda fits in your hand doesn't mean its one serving. More after the jump.
If something says 2.5 servings on the label, you need to be aware of that and log your intake accordingly. I recently saw a soda bottle label that gave both the serving size and the total containers nutrition info, so read the label carefully.

The next item to check is the Calories, know how many calories there in a serving. Balance this with the total carbohydrates for the serving size and the total protein for the serving. The example in the picture is for 1% milk, it has 110 calories for an 8 oz/1 cup serving with 13g carbs and 8g protein. pretty well balanced as is.

These are the more important items to be aware of when label reading. Total fat, sodium and fiber also are very important too. You need the fiber in your diet and want to watch the sodium and fat levels, keep the fiber high and the fat and sodium low if possible.

lastly, sugar. Too much sugar and it just turns to fat, so make sure you are keeping those to a minimum too.

Having a good sense of what is in the foods you buy and consume will aid you in your trek to a healthier lifestyle. Tracking those calories along with all the other items I mentioned truly are the key to attaining that healthy lifestyle goal. I invite you to join me using the tracking system that helped me attain my goals.

http://www.ichange.com/register/getting-started-RogerK You will become part of my wellness group and I will be your coach and together we will work towards getting you to meet you fitness goals.