Taking Note

As I have been working on getting back on track in my Quest for 200, I realized that one absolutely key aspect of my previous successes in losing weight was zealously tracking what I ate. And I mean everything that I ate. As some of you know (and have heard me talk about way more than you wanted to hear...), I've been using LiveStrong.com to do this tracking.

I credit the time last year where I was gaining the weight back, in part, to not being habitual and brutally honest about taking note of my eating. So, as this year starts, I have been reflecting on how it is easy to observe things but often hard to take it all in. What does that mean? Well, for me, it means that I was always aware of what I was eating at the time but, without keeping track of it, I could easily "forget" about it later. This led to rationalizing each time I went to the fridge, or the drive-thru, with things like "It's just this one time" or "It's only a litte bit - it won't hurt me."

That's why I got back on the wagon with tracking everything, everyday in LiveStrong. It's also why I paid attention to something I was seeing among friends and others. Keeping a notebook or journal regularly. I've never been big on journalling (or really writing as the faithful readers here can attest....) so I was more interested in the pocket notebook idea. The idea being that you carry something to write on (and write with) that is easy enough to fit into a pocket. This way it is accessible and ready for you to scribble notes, ideas, sketchs, thoughts, whatever no matter where you are.

I chose to get a couple of small note books from the Field Notes line. Specifically, the County Fair 3 pack for my home state of South Carolina (picture at the top of the post.) I've been using it for almost 2 weeks and I love it. I'm amazed at all the things that I write down that I otherwise might have a) missed completely, or b) not recalled later on.

Now some of what I write down is not what you might call "important." But some of it is. And all of it, in some way, allows me to keep track of not just the past, but of the here and now. To quote the makers of Field Notes:

I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it now.

 So, in the vein of keeping track of things, here is the number for this week:

243.8

Not a lot, but a little keeps adding up. I'll take it.

Here is the link to the data for Week 2: Week 2 LiveStrong Data

I got another supporter for the Love146 and TWLOHA causes this past week. That gives us $4 per pound lost ($2 for each cause) for a total so far of $12. Again, it doesn't look like a lot but the little keeps adding up.

It will add up faster if more people can add their "little" to it. If you want to help out either of these wonderful organizations (or both) please let me know and I can add you to the donor pool. Drop me a comment below or contact me through email, twitter (@scbubba), or facebook (http://facebook.com/scbubba).