How I Track My Food Every Week For Sustainable Health

Have you ever tried to follow a diet? And maybe you just kind of gave up on it? Because the food got boring. It was just too hard. You had a bunch of cravings or you just got kind of stressed out from it, maybe had consistency for about two weeks or so but kind of just threw in the towel lost motivation and fell off the wagon, and kind of just went back to those old ways.

Sound relatable?

Even though you've tried you just keep trying because you want to be a healthier version of you so that you can reap the rewards of being the healthiest version of you. Because when you get healthy, you become a much better person, just in general because you can think clearer. You feel more energized. You look better, you just feel better. And that's the big piece of why we're talking about health today because the hardest part to being healthy and staying healthy, is the consistency piece.

It's building a habit, that over time, you have something that's sustainable for you that last a lifetime that you can stick with and that's enjoyable for you. So today, we are going to discuss my personal simple and effective way to visually track your food every single week over time without using apps like MyFitnessPal without doing calorie counting or you know, knowing your Macros and your micros and all these other things that most people tell you to follow.

Understand that I'm not a doctor, or a nutritionist, or some kind of health professional by any means. If you really do want to get like, tangible numbers and know, specifically where you're at with your health and go see a doctor, go see a nutritionist. Get that professional help.

I'm just a dude that wants to eat healthy, natural foods, 80-90% of the time, and be able to go out and have a beer and some pizza with my friends and not feel guilty when I'm doing it.

Now, if that sounds like something that you'd like to do as well. Then let's dive into my personal way of tracking, my food every single week, to make sure that I'm staying on track with my health.

Define What "Healthy" Means To You

Some people are keto, some people are paleo, Vegan and plant-based are super big since The Game-Changer's documentary came out. Maybe you're a carnivore as well, I don't know what it is to you.

To me being healthy is eating natural Whole Foods primarily. So that's things like sweet potatoes, vegetables, dark, leafy greens, having some fruits and eating foods that naturally come from the earth, increasing your vegetable intake as well.

I don't personally think that eating meat is bad unless it's pumped with a bunch of hormones and crazy stuff like that. If and when you do eat meat, I recommend getting the best quality meat that you can. If you're going to eat like a steak or something, get the best organic grass-fed. If you can get meat, Dairy, those kinds of things from a local store that you understand, kind of how they process their foods, then that's obviously the best.

Whether you agree or disagree with me, decide what healthy means to you.

Find Your 3 Rules

First and foremost, then I recommend picking 3 things where, if you were consistent with those three things 80-90% of the time, would make you a healthier version of yourself.

My 3 Rules:

• No refined or processed sugar
• No simple carbohydrates
• No alcohol

 When I stick with these 3 rules, I know I'm on track with my health.

This is my Health Board in my kitchen. Every time I abide by my 3 rules, I get a big Red X. Anytime I have a drink with some friends, go out to dinner, or have some ice cream with my girlfriend, I get a black X. This allows me to track my days and weeks to see how well I've been able to stay on track with my 3 rules.

Why This Works

There were 2 main influences that inspired this idea; Jerry Seinfeld, and Magnus Lidbeck.

Magnus has an awesome YouTube channel about Health, Fitness, and Nutrition. And he's a great resource that I like to use because he's really big on like, develop a healthy lifestyle that makes sense.

You can check out his Method here.

Jerry Seinfeld's Method

The other inspiration to my little method was Jerry Seinfeld.

As Jerry was becoming an established comedian, he had a challenge for himself where he wanted to just stay consistent with his work. He put work into being a better comedian and his challenge for himself was to write one joke every day.

What he did to ensure that he was staying consistent with this was that he got a big calendar that he put upon his wall and every time that he wrote a joke, he would draw a big red X. He wrote one joke a day and was consistent with it. Then he would reward himself with that big red X. And over time. He got to see his progress and his whole thing is like, don't break the chain. 

Doing this really inspired him to just stay consistent to not break the chain. He kind of gamified instilling a new habit into his life, which was making a joke a day.

So these two methods are what really inspired my whiteboard idea. Every day that I'm on track with the three rules that I set for myself, (No refined or processed sugar. No simple carbs, and No alcohol.) I give myself that big red X and the days where I maybe have a drink with some friends, or I go have the pizza or something like that for dinner. Then I put the black X.

Here's an important note: It doesn't mean that the day that I put a black X means that all day I'm just eating drinking (maybe once in a while lol) but seriously, it means that I had a fun meal that day. Most importantly2, I had one meal, maybe 2, but even still on those days I'm still eating healthy throughout the whole entire day. I'm still staying on track with what good health is to me. I'm just giving myself an open window to have some kind of meal that is not aligned with my rules. 

Conclusion

So there you have it! That's how I track my health progress every single week just to know that I'm somewhat on track.

I'm not always perfect with it but, like anything in life, you're going to get off track and you're going to be on track. The key is that we get back on track. And the faster we can get back on track, the faster that we can see success.

Take what you learned here, get out there, get healthy and I will see you in the next one.