Even though I did not track every single thing I ate for one straight month as I intended, it wasn’t a total failure. I did learn a thing or two. And perhaps the reason I didn’t stick to the plan as strictly as I wanted to is because I didn’t want to know to much about the things was I was eating! Here are some of the ups, downs, and tips from my on-and-off month of food journaling.

An app is the way to go

I always have my iPhone within an arm’s reach, so it made sense I would use it as my food journal. There are quite a few apps out there, and I had heard good things about My Fitness Pal. It’s free, and you can log in either through your phone or online. The app is much more intuitive than the website. It seems like it was really designed to be an on-the-go smartphone app, and the website may have been an afterthought. That’s fine by me, because I mostly used the app.

My Fitness Pal tracks pretty much everything there is to track — calories, plus nutrient details day-to-day and week-to-week. It will translate all that data to fancy charts and graphs and let you know how you’re doing on carb, fat, and protein intake.

Pre-made meals are easier to track

I prepare about 75 percent of my meals at home, both because it’s better for my budget and healthier. But these homemade meals take longer to log on an app like My Fitness Pal because every item must be individually entered. For example, if I prepare one of my go-to dinners, shrimp curry, I have to enter each ingredient — shrimp, red peppers, green peppers, onions, coconut milk, brown rice. Plus, I guesstimate proportions of each. So part of my frustration with this system is that it takes longer to log healthier meals.

If I were eating a pre-packed dinner, like a Lean Cuisine Indian-Style Marsala, for example, all I’d have to do is type that into the search bar. My Fitness Pal searches data other people have entered, so there’s a lot of information saved from typical “diet” meals. There’s plenty of information saved from “non-diet” foods, too. I find it funny that the whole McDonald’s menu is available on My Fitness Pal. That’s not so helpful for healthy eating!

The more you use it, the easier it is to use

Even though it takes longer to log these homemade meals, My Fitness Pal will save the foods you eat more frequently. So take my favorite homemade shrimp curry for example. I only have to input those ingredients once, and the next time I make that meal, I can find those ingredients quickly.

It becomes easier to track meals the more you use the app because you’re likely eating many of the same foods. So I’d say the first week or two might take more time, but once you get going, you can quickly log your favorite foods and move on.

Snacks add up fast!

I already knew I was a champion snacker, but logging what I ate helped me realize the effects of all my unnecessary nibbling throughout the day. Sometimes the total number of calories I consumed from various snacks was higher than one of my meals. I don’t intend to completely cut out snacking completely, but I can be more conscious of what I snack on.  

Weekends are challenging — and have the most room for improvement

I mentioned that I didn’t stick to food journaling very strictly, and my weekends are to blame. I’d usually start out the week just fine and would log everything, down to every last Hershey’s Kiss. But when the boozy brunches and late-night tacos of the weekend rolled around, I steered clear of the My Fitness Pal app mostly because I didn’t want to know the damage. And every day I didn’t stick to food journaling made it easier to fall off completely.

I’m going to try to keep logging food and hopefully can make it through a consecutive month. I’m spending Memorial Day with my grandparents, which is always a struggle for me because they stock their fridge and cupboards full of their granddaughter’s favorite snacks. I hope that by using the My Fitness Pal app, I can be more conscious of what I’m eating during my visit and hopefully stay on track.

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com

I hear over and over that weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% gym time. As in, you can treadmill, crunch, lunge, and lift as much as you want, but if you’re eating pizza, burgers, soda, and cheesecake all the time, all your hard gym work will be in vain. I’m one of those people who tries to eat good-for-you-foods, but who has a great weakness for plenty of bad-for-you-foods. And since I spend so much time at the gym and bike everywhere, I often convince myself that I can eat more bad-for-you-foods than other people.

It all goes back to finding balance. Even though health and fitness is extremely important to me, I can’t eat tofu, spinach, and egg whites for every meal. If I did, I’d be miserable. Maybe I’d be two sizes smaller and maybe I wouldn’t even have to go to the gym because my calorie intake would be so low, I wouldn’t feel the need to burn off any of my bad eating decisions.

But, I’d be miserable. I’d dream about cheeseburgers. Watching anyone else eat one would bring me close to tears. Plus, an all-good-for-you-food-all-the-time diet wouldn’t be sustainable. I can see myself getting so sick of eating so well that I’d swing the other direction and spend a week going after every piece of fried food, sugar crystal, and carbohydrate I could get my hands on.

I don’t think the Women’s Health “Think Before You Eat” graphic is telling us that we better steer clear of milkshakes, frappuccinos, and fried chicken for the rest of our lives. Instead, it is reminding us that these foods should not be part of our everyday eating habits. We often eat these sorts of things on impulse, and the chart is reminding us that we should really think about chowing down on one of these bad-for-you-foods.

It’s reminding us to ask ourselves, “Is this really the best choice at this very moment?? Sometimes the answer the answer may be, “Hm… I should go for something with vegetables in it instead.” Or sometimes the answer might be, “Well… maybe I will share a milkshake or get a 12-ounce frappuccino instead.” And there may be some days when the answer is “Yes! I am going to eat this whole chicken burrito, and like it! I understand the consequences on my health and fitness goals, but I am willing to deal with those consequences.”

So maybe the Women’s Health chart is not telling us that we can’t eat the donut. Instead, this chart is telling us not to eat every single donut that crosses our path. But we can have a donut or two. And when we do eat that donut, we can really appreciate it because we worked for it.

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com

So when pregnancy took me out of the fitness routine that I’ve maintained for over a year, it was immensely frustrating. In my mind, I should be able to walk just as fast, I should be able to walk just as long as I always have but the reality is that I have to make adjustments. Something called Round Ligament Pain keeps striking me down when I try to walk at my “normal” pace on the treadmill so I’ve had to slow slow slow down until the pain is bearable enough to handle for 30… 40… 50 minutes. 

When I stop to think about it, it’s absurd. I’m four months pregnant with twins. OF COURSE I’m not going to be able to go as fast or as far. It’s ridiculous to expect my body to be able to do such things. 

So my problem is linking the reality of my situation with my unreasonable expectations. Ultimately, it’s not important how fast I can go or how long I can go. It’s maintaining fitness and good habits throughout my pregnancy and accepting that my limitations are being caused by something (well two things really) that is ultimately going to change my life. 

So being slower has become my “New Normal” and I just have to learn that it’s okay! 

–Jenn Howell

While working out a couple of times a week and sneaking in a yoga class to sweat off a long day certainly is better than nothing, I had kicked off 2013 with a full-blown commitment to making workouts a bigger part of my week. I love them, they’re good for me, so why not? But then…

Then the To Do list for work got longer than it has ever been (a blessing and a curse when self-employed), the personal stuff blew up (buying and selling a house can do that, right?), and my kids and family life got hectic. All good things, so I know to count my blessings and I do that often, but something really unfortunate did happen.

“Me time” kept slipping to the bottom of the list. The Outlook calendar reminders to get to the gym sat overdue for a day or two before I laced up those shoes or hit the mat.

Get Back Up

But like anything else, I got back up. No, I do not have the time at this exact moment to commit to major workouts, and I’m staying up far too late at night working and organizing and packing to set the alarm for 5 a.m., but I’m not letting myself fall so far off the list anymore.

As I result, I’ve gotten a bit more creative. I’m working out at home in a spare 30 minutes or running around the neighborhood when we’re graced with beautiful sunshine. Or sometimes I run to the gym – fresh-air fix! – lift weights for a few reps, grab some water and run home. It gives me the best of all worlds – freedom on the street and structure at the gym, all in about 35 minutes!

Like all of those habits we work hard to break, it’s hard work to maintain the good ones, too.

Here’s to not falling off anything, especially our own To Do lists!

Think Spring,

Jill

I’d treat it like a fad diet. I would probably lose a bunch of weight, feel great, receive tons of compliments. Then I’d gain it all back one month later when I went back to eating burgers and cutting cupcakes in half, then ultimately devouring both halves (I’m not the only one who does this… right?).

I’m still not against trying Isagenix, but I decided I have some work to do on my own before I jump into the program and expect it to solve all my nutrition problems. I need to have a better sense of what I’m eating day-to-day. I convince myself I eat really well because I load up on vegetables at the grocery store, but I tend to block out how many glasses of wine or pieces of pizza I also might have consumed.

So, I’m trying something I’ve resisted for years and years: tracking what I eat. A food journal is a proven and effective way to improve your eating habits because you see “on paper” everything you might have forgotten that you ate each day. I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app, and I’m giving it a shot. After a few fits and starts, I am going to do my best to stick for this for one month.

I don’t like certain things about this. I tend to stay away from calories. I prefer to read ingredient lists and try to stay away from unprocessed foods because counting calories takes all the fun out everything. I don’t want to be obsessing about numbers all day.

But, I have to admit it does help put things into perspective. That pasta salad was 500 calories? Yikes. And that was just my afternoon snack. It also helps me realize what I already know to be a fact, but have trouble admitting to myself. An hour at the gym can be gobbled up in just a few seconds. By that I mean, I can spend an hour burning 500 calories in spin class, only to eat the same amount of calories in a few bites. I tend to convince myself it’s okay to have a little bit extra of this or that because I’m such a gym rat. But it kinda doesn’t work like that. Not at all, actually.

Now that I’ve publicly told the world I’m trying this thing, I really gotta keep it up! Hopefully I’ll be back next week with some insight. Have you tried tracking what you eat?

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com

It was a relief to hear they were fine, but I was still upset. Like most people, I was confused and horrified. I plugged straight into the news, to Twitter, to Facebook, to Google and furiously started trying to piece together the various news reports with my co-workers.

I felt really connected to this tragedy for some reason. Maybe it’s because I have many friends who run marathons and have run a few myself. Many of us are 4:00-4:10 marathoners, which is right when the explosions hit. So perhaps I felt some sense of solidarity with the runners and spectators. It is a great joy to cross the marathon finish line or to cheer someone on as they do. That moment is worth the months of training and running yourself into the ground. Even as a writer, I struggle to find the right words to describe what that feeling is like, but I can say it is one of those rare moments in your life when you are the happiest you have ever been. To learn that so many people instead experienced terror, confusion, and pain made me so upset. And I felt helpless to do anything about it.

Soon, reports of acts of kindness began to appear. People did everything from open up their homes to send pizza to offer up their frequent flyer miles to fly people home. Airbnb is waiving service fees and is encouraging members to offer their spaces for free. I am sure we will soon learn more of the selfless helpers who offered support whether they were on the scene or on the other side of the country.

I wanted to do something, too. But what could I do? Red Cross issued a statement that they did not need more blood donations. Could I donate money somewhere or to something? Could I do anything?

While I was thinking I should do something, my friend Katie actually did. She whipped up a fundraiser called Chicago Runs for Boston to raise money for the Red Cross and get people together to run in the honor of Boston. Even though Red Cross was not asking for donations, it made me feel better to unite with friends and strangers over the cause. And you can never really go wrong with donating money to Red Cross. They will put the money to good use in some way. You can donate here, too. Donate $10 or $26 or what you can.

So I’ll be at the lakefront next Monday April 22 at 5:30 to meet the Chicago Runs for Boston group for the run. Come join me if you feel up for it! Or grab a few friends and run around the block. To quote my friend Katie, “I personally have found running to be therapeutic and I think sometimes when you’re faced with something like this that’s violent and horrible, you feel like you can’t do anything. I feel like by running, you’re doing something.”

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com

My three months working out with Jenna twice a week transformed my workouts and overall fitness. Jenna probably found my first pathetic burpee hysterical. Before my sessions with her, I avoided about half the gym because I didn’t know how to use any of the equipment. I had been a slave to cardio because that’s all I knew how to do.

Jenna whipped me into shape and sometimes her workouts had me limping for days. Once my personal training sessions ended, I followed her to bootcamp. I still work out with Jenna 2-3 times a week. I’m glad she hasn’t gotten sick of me yet!

Reminiscing over the past year, I’m proud of how Jenna has helped me escape a life boring cardio machines. I honestly would have probably eventually lost interest and may have fallen off of exercising completely. Now, my posture is improving. I have much better all-around strength and sometimes — if the light is just right — you can see muscles in my arms! For someone who just picked up her first dumbbell a year ago, that’s a big deal.

But, there’s still one thing I can’t do: a handstand. And I know it’s not because I’m not strong enough; Jenna has certainly made sure of that. It’s because… well I make lots of excuses why I can’t do it. My shoulders are too narrow. I’m too tired every time I try (which isn’t very often). This one is my favorite because it is just so ridiculous: All the muscles I’ve accumulated from constantly running and biking make my legs heavier than the average person’s, so it’s much more difficult to get them over my head. I know, it makes no sense. But I convince myself of that one all the time.

The real reason is that I’m a scaredy cat.

I know I’m strong enough, especially after the strength I have developed over the past year. I know that if I get up there and feel like I’m going to collapse, I can bring my legs back down in a split second. I know that even my arms did give out, I’d only fall about 6 inches.

And since I’m such a go-getter who likes to succeed at everything she puts her mind to, I don’t even try handstands that often. Because I know I can’t do them, and I hate failing. But how am I ever going to succeed at this if I never even try?

Maybe I could motivate myself with a reward. Every time I attempt a handstand, I could put a dollar in a jar. When I finally accomplish it, I can use those dollars to celebrate with my favorite forbidden treat, a McDonalds Frappuccino Green Wheatgrass Smoothie.

Really, I just need to start trying again. I need to allow myself to fail again and again to get over my silly fear of putting my feet over my head.

What about you? Did you overcome any fitness fears? Do you have any tips I could try so I can finally get to that first handstand? 

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com

I kept running until it simply became too difficult. Simple things that I’d been doing for a year were suddenly far more challenging. Just walking on the treadmill for an hour was difficult because of back pain and exhaustion. Trying to readjust my state of mind regarding fitness has been an even bigger challenge. 

Now I listen more to my body. When I can’t run, I walk. When it’s difficult to walk, I get on the recumbent bike. There is something comforting for me about the gym. When I talk to my doctor, she’s thrilled that I’m still working out on a regular basis. For me, this is my life now. There is no other option, just a shift in what I can and can’t do. 

I know that keeping my fitness as a priority will have an effect on the next few months. I’ve seen heavily pregnant women in yoga classes, on the treadmills and elliptical machines. Now these women are my new inspiration. If they can walk through it, I can sure try. My goal of being a runner will be put off but I love the knowledge that when I’m ready, I have a place to go where I can try again.

– Jenn Howell

WAC is my jam. I feel at home there, and it’s not just because I know the class schedule by heart or have grown attached to a particular treadmill. It’s because after becoming a more active WAC member since I joined two years ago — upping my attendance to 5-6 days a week and sometimes twice a day; squeezing in early morning, lunchtime, and after work workouts; and personal training sessions and bootcamp class with Jenna — I’m familiar with the instructors, trainers, and other gym goers and staff.

It’s nice to see these faces every time I go. Some I know by name and am friends with on Facebook. Some take the same classes or work out at the same time as me, so we’re more on a nod-and-smile basis.

I’m not the only person who keeps up her attendance by getting to know the other gym folk.

I recently read The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, which touched on this very topic. One example from the book goes back to 2000, when the YMCA was looking for methods to stay competitive in the fitness industry and keep their members coming back.

The organization hired a mathematician and social scientist to review member surveys, and the pair discovered something interesting. Member retention had nothing to do with fancy equipment or sleek facilities. Instead, retention was driven by social factors. If a member made a friend at the gym or the staff greeted them by name, they were more likely to keep coming back because they felt part of a community. This made the gym attendance a social habit, and less about burning a calorie quota.

This same social habit is what will keep me at WAC, even if a new club opened just down the street from my apartment.

Though instructors or other members would never chide me if I skipped a class or a workout with them, I like to think they might miss my red ponytail and glasses just a bit. Plus, there’s a certain sense of “yes I did it!” when an instructor knows you by name or notices you’ve been gone a couple of weeks. Like the cool kid acknowledged you, so you’re now part of the “in” circle.

Some of them even take it one step further to motivate us to attend more classes. At the moment, if you attend any of Angela T.’s yoga classes, you’re entered to win a free month of membership. Spin instructor David is running another challenge; if you attend 10 of his classes over a 14 weeks, you could win a coffee gift card.

Of course, my gym buddies push me, too! One of my fellow bootcampers recently invited me to join her at a Saturday morning spin class. I never would have attended that class without a friendly nudge.

What about you? Who are the familiar faces at your gym who keep you motivated?

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com

I’m not really a massage “person.” I know all the benefits of massages, especially for someone like me who spends most of her day hunched over her computer desk and bike handlebars. But it’s hard for me to rationalize doing nothing for an hour when there’s work to do, recipes to try, laundry to finish, and books to read. I have a compulsion to fill every minute of my day with activity. Which is exactly why I should be getting more massages, not fewer of them!

I know that running all over the place is not always good for me. There are weeks I toe the line of burnout, but I always tend to power through (I rarely sacrifice sleep and I’m pretty active, which keep my energy levels high). What’s ironic is that I excel at mentally and physically challenging tasks, but I often fail at giving my brain or body time to rest to keep up with myself. It’s just so hard for me to be still. I hate hate hate stretching. I struggle to give myself time to recover after a tough workout. I don’t like being unproductive. Is it really that hard for me to rest? Yes!

But I know I need to scale things back. And so, I got the massage. Jeff, my massage therapist, was super great. He identified some problem areas and gave me useful tips and exercises to strengthen weak muscles. And guess what! An hour of my time was not that much to sacrifice. The world didn’t even notice I was gone. Leaving my to-do list alone for a short time was perfectly fine.

I won’t go so far as to say that this one massage was a giant wake-up call as to how I should be spending time to better take care of myself and slow down. It was more like a wake-up nudge — a reinforcement of something I already know. I have come to this realization before. Last year I even went so far as to block out “nothing” weeknights on my calendar. On those nights, I wasn’t allowed to make any after work plans and had to go straight home with no agenda. I may need to reinstate that forced relaxation time. And perhaps I’ll schedule more massages, too!

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Betsy Mikel | betsymikel.com