A Peek At My Tracker

I feel that any good weight loss or maintenance plan needs some sort of tracking component.  How do you know how much you have consumed if you don’t pay attention?  I know tracking doesn’t work for everybody but tracking is what got me through my weight loss journey and what continues to keep me going through my maintenance journey.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?

I prefer to still track via paper and I’ve been using the WW 12-week tracker for over a year now.  With technology always evolving and eTools as a perfectly good tracking tool, I still prefer to write all my stuff down and usually calculate it all by hand!

The 12-week tracker changes slightly from year to year and so far I really like this current version.  You are given space to write down groceries.  I usually use an app on my phone but since I can’t have my phone on at work this comes in very handy.  I am having a party on Sunday and friends over for dinner on Tuesday so this is my list of what I need to pick up.

There is also a space for notes and also if you are preparing a recipe where you go to find the recipe and what you might need.  I used this more last week but since I’m eating leftovers right now I didn’t have much meal planning on my list.  I also started using the note section and this week it is for my party planning.  I like to start my week off with some notes, usually writing “stay focused.”  I think that is why the paper tracker has been so helpful.  I like to write down stuff that I’m thinking about!

I do like the new full calendar planning pages.  This is really handy as it gives you a spot for upcoming things as well as breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack.  You can also plan your activity.  It has been very helpful for planning out what I have going through out the week and then trying to fill in the holes with meals.  I did better last week.  This week has a lot of holes.

You get one day for each of the seven days in a week to track your food.  My meals are measured and sometimes I write all the measurements and sometimes I don’t.  Usually I eat the same foods but I still write it all out.  Like my morning oatmeal on Wednesday.  I could just put “usual oatmeal” and a total of 7 PPVs.  It hardly ever changes!  I cut it off in the photo but down at the bottom you check off your GHG boxes.  I also fill in the activity and add up the PPVs at the bottom each day.  This is something new that I also like.  I used to have to just write it at the top of my tracker.

Lastly is the totals page.  They just moved this to the end of the week when it used to be at the front of your week.  This is where you check of the WPPAs as you eat them and where you keep track of your total APs for the week.  Then you check those off as you eat them.  They added the gains/losses and also meeting notes and thoughts about the week.  I really like to wrap up my week on this page.

It doesn’t matter what you use or how you track as long as you find a way to stay accountable and that it doesn’t feel like a chore.  My tracker goes with me everywhere so tracking is really easy.