Tracking your food

One of my biggest struggles is keeping track of how many, or how little, I've eaten. I have the 21 Day Fix Fit tracker (which is only for Iphones right now), but I don't always log in my food. I used to eat WAY too much, and now I feel like I'm shoving food down. When you change your relationship with food from using food for comfort to mostly using food for fuel, you don't want to think through it so much! You wouldn't think it was a problem, but I want to burn FAT not hold on to it. You're body  needs to properly be fueled, frequently, and with the right foods.

I decided to come up with a little system to help me. Maybe it'll help you too!

I got some button magnets and craft paint from Walmart. The magnets were $5.97, and the craft paint was $2.97. This may seem expensive when you can just get a free, or fairly cheap app on your phone, but I will explain why this will help me better in a moment.

 I found some clear nail polish in my bathroom, and laid down some news paper. The paint didn't go on nice and smooth as I hoped, so I put it on thick, and dabbed. It made a lumpy coating, but it looked kind of cool.

I painted all the magnets with the colors I needed and let them sit and dry for about 2 hours, just to be safe.

I added a thick layer of the clear nail polish. It evened out the lumpy look. Then I let them dry another hour. (You may not need to wait this long, I just wanted to make sure they would be dry before moving them to my fridge.)

As you eat a container, slide a colored magnet to the right. You can spread them out on your fridge or keep them fairly close together. Whatever you prefer. 

Why will this work better than an app? Because first of all, I never even logged into the app every day. It's kind of hard to avoid these when they're right on my fridge. I walk past them 1,000 times a day, so I'll be reminded to eat. AND in the evenings, when I just want to keep eating, I have the accountability of those magnets right there stopping me from opening the fridge! 

I'm about to make Jake's set, and I'll keep going and make a set for each of my kids as well. Sometimes we get distracted and don't even know how much our kids have eaten, or what. I can make sure they get in all their fruits and veggies, and feel better about what they've eaten at the end of the day. As they get older, they can learn to keep track of it themselves, and learn to get them in because it's so important.

Is this something that would help you? What would you do differently? Let me know!