Lovin' It: The Ultimate Diet Log

I know, I know. It's mundane. It's tedious. It's a food log. It doesn't get much more exciting than that, now does it?

Seriously though, I love this new log that I found: The Ultimate Diet Log by Suzanne Schlosberg & Cynthia Sass. So much so that I sold a copy for Borders the other day. Yes, the Borders employee was floundering in the diet section when this woman asked for help finding a food log. The customer was totally lost in the Atkins diet logs (nothing wrong with those as long as you are actually following the Atkins diet, and this woman was not), and the Borders employee had that look that I know I have when I'm clueless. You know, deer in the headlights. So I piped in, showed the woman my new found love and she bought it for herself! Score for me.

So why do I love it so much? Oh, let me count the ways!

• You are set for six months. That's awesome!


• You set goals for yourself right on the inside cover along with spaces for you to report your results. These goals don't just stop at the usual number on the scale, but add in fitness assessments, exercise habits, and focus areas and goals for your eating habits.


• The introduction includes a five-day assessment. Yes, you track your normal eating habits for five days. Once the five days are up, the book walks you through looking at your current diet to see what changes you need/want to make. And don't worry, you can still take baby steps in making those changes.


• It is amazingly flexible, and will work with whatever diet or non-diet you are following at the time. Each page includes two columns next to your food list which are your focus areas. These can change every week or stay the same. Example focus areas are fiber intake, protein intake, fat intake, calories, etc. Right now, I'm using my two columns to track my calorie intake as well as my POINTS for Weight Watchers. It's a dream come true for me! (And yes, it really was something I had been wanting to find before I found it.)


• And don't let me forget the daily diet tips on each page. Monday's Nutrition Shocker: A chocolate chip cookie at Starbucks has 540 calories, 10 more calories than a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese. Betcha didn't know that!

I really could keep going on and on about this, but I don't want to ruin the other surprises in the book (hint: weekly check-ins). Sure, keeping a food log is hard, can be annoying at times, and can also be time-consuming, but it's a habit that will pay off in the end because you will be more aware. What did I say yesterday about setting yourself up to succeed? If you bite it, write it. If you don't write it down, then it's that much easier to pretend that you didn't finish off that entire bag of chips all by yourself in one sitting. Been there! Done that! Not fun!

Until tomorrow!

Court

P.S. If you need help finding the information on the foods you want to track, then try http://www.calorieking.com/. It's my go-to for nutrition information.