How many of you out there are tracking what you’re eating? It’s a scary process because we can’t eat “perfectly” 24/7 and sometimes it seems like we’re eating well when really we’re not. I started tracking again this summer and it went really well for me. It pushed me to work out more, to be okay with some of my food choices that weren’t spectacular and to face the fact that I’m not perfect. It also gave me a chance to see my progress on a screen before I could see it in a mirror.

It takes three days to fall out of shape and a full week to get back in shape.

When I was at Northwestern this summer I was in a new environment surrounded by people who didn’t know me and food that was “foreign” in the sense that it wasn’t the variety of goodness that I was used to. I was living under strict circumstances: I couldn’t drink, working out was the only way I felt I had control over my life and tracking food and running on a half-marathon plan helped me manage my stress levels. I was in this controlled environment that allowed me to excel.

Being back in Santa Barbara, I’m realizing that I was able to let my tracking slip a lot faster than I expected. Tracking is hard work. It requires total and complete honesty with oneself and definitely relies on self-accountability. If you don’t track then you can’t see exactly what you’re putting into your mouth and therefore you don’t have to be outwardly accountable for the changes going through your body. I thought my hiatus from Lose It! was going to be a week-long affair and yet it’s turned into a month-long affair.

I kept telling myself that I was going to track and then I didn’t, until this weekend when I realized that I am my own best friend and my own worst enemy in this game of fitness. If I sense changes in my body that aren’t for the better, the only one who can change them is myself. And so I’ve started tracking again. I have goals that I could have been a month closer to but to which I’m now a month behind on. I realized that without tracking it’s been harder to motivate myself to go to the gym and to go for a run or even stretch my body out in terms of yoga. I can only get stronger if I keep practicing and the way to practice is to do. 

If I want to look (more) banging in a pair of shorts or a cute new dress, I have to do the work both in and out of the kitchen. If I want bragging rights to a seven-mile run then I need to push through the four and five mile runs. I can’t get there in a day but every day brings me closer to my goals, every day is a step in the journey to total body nirvana.

Tracking may not be right for everyone and in the past it certainly wasn’t right for me, but I’ve developed some awareness this summer and I now know that the way to my goals is through Lose It!, good food, plenty of water, an abundance of yoga, solid weight-lifting, long runs and self-discipline. So it’s time to get back on track because the only way to success is by doing.

xx Morgan