write it down

The 12WBT challenge this week is to document all food intake for seven days. This morning I downloaded the free iPhone app, 'My Fitness Pal' and have been using it to record what I eat. The great thing about this app is that it forces me to be precise and record exact serving sizes. It also tracks my calorie intake as well as specific nutrients such as sodium, fibre and calcium.

So far today I have eaten my usual breakfast (yoghurt, muesli and a piece of fruit), lunch (salad and cheese sandwich on wholegrain bread) and morning tea (six squares of Cadbury chocolate and a 250ml iced coffee - not my usual fare but it was being given out for free at the train station). I was having a great time logging it all into the app, until I saw the calorie count creeping up and up and up. It is 12.30pm in the afternoon and I am already at 1028 calories. I am also over my saturated fat and sugar allocation for the day. Gah! How on earth did that happen! Actually I know darn well why I am over my calorie count and I think it has something to do with the iced coffee and chocolate...

As suggested in the 12WBT challenge email I will try to resist adjusting my food intake to hit my calorie target. I want to get a real picture of what I eat this week. Surely I will be horrified with the result, but shock tactics may be necessary to inspire me to take action.

For someone who has never bothered with counting calories this is going to be an eye-opening week.

Thank you to those who commented on my blog entry yesterday. It's so great to have your support and words of encouragement. You have also inspired me to use the spell checker.