Keep Track of EVERYTHING!

As I said before, one must make sure their output is more than their input, as far as losing weight based on calories. However does this mean to starve yourself? Absolutely not!!! You see, if you don't put enough food into your system, sure you might lose weight, but it's not the correct weight loss you are looking for!
When your body is in starvation mode the body will actually start to burn your muscle! Once the calories and nutrients you placed into your body are used up, your body is still looking to burn and it will turn to your muscle supply! You do not want this to happen! So please keep a good eye on what you are eating!

When I heard about food journaling, I thought "Ok, I tried to keep a journal several times throughout my younger years...never really worked. I just wanted to doodle. Is this for me?" To my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was sort of a challenge to myself, another motivational tool to assist in my weight loss.

Here's what I did: I took one day and just ate my regular diet, making sure I wrote EVERYTHING down. My human side made me think "It's okay if I don't log that piece of cake...or those few pretzels...or that glass of milk" But in the end everything counts, so log it! And I did! Jeepers!, after one regular day of eating I consumed way more calories than what my body needed!!

Here is an interesting tool online...

http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/calguide.htm
Copy and paste into your search bar! This site is awesome to figure out how many calories you need to maintain or loose weight. It also breaks it down by specific nutrient needs your body has! Use this as a base of intake! Make that daily number your goal! So now plan those meals accordingly...take the time out of your day to plan, YOU DESERVE TO DO THIS FOR YOURSELF!

How do you know how many calories are in the foods you eat? Several ways!

1. Look at the package : ) It says it in the Nutritional Info!

2. If you are going out to eat...check out the restraunts website for their nutritional values before going there!...but be warned: CONTENTS WILL SHOCK YOU!!!!!!!

3. http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/ or http://www.calorieking.com/
Check these sites out to look up calories that may not be listed on foods!

4. A good friend just informed me that her cell phone has a calorie counter on it...how awesome!! If you got it...use it!

I know it may seem like a pain in the booty to do this...but trust me, if you are dedicated to that Calorie goal...go for it! Carry that little journal with you! Some advice: As soon as you eat it, log it! If you log as you go, you are able to see how many calories you have left for the day and can adjust accordingly!

So I said to log EVERYTHING...and this is so true. We covered logging our food...but have you ever considered logging your activities/calorie loss as well? Yup Yup! This is the next step!
This by far was the coolest thing I found online! At the time of my weight loss adventure, I was working from home. This meant I had time to do house work too! You better believe I was logging every little activity I did from showering to dishes to sweeping to playing with the cat; from driving to the gym to activities I did at the gym to sleeping. EVERYTHING! I wanted to know how many calories I was actually burning throughout the day.

Here are a couple I found useful:

http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/calculat.htm
This site is kind of confusing-you put your weight and duration of activity, it will then pop up a HUGE list of activities done for that duration and how many calories it burns.

http://www.soft4everyone.com/tools_activity_calorie_counter.php
This site is good to use because it calculates all of your activities together...saves you from doing the math : )

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/
Another option! I like this because it supports LIVESTRONG.COM!

There are so many ones out there! Don't like any of these...there are plenty more out there to choose from!!! : )

So your ultimate goal: More Out Than In...but get those nutrients your body needs!!!