If you read the post in The StrongFast Planet called Putting the Kibosh on Calorie Counting you know that we're not fans of all the measuring and counting that goes into keeping careful and continued track of what you eat. But...
It is useful to do this occasionally to get a clear picture of your diet. (And we use the word as intended; i.e., the usual food and drinks consumed by a person or animal. We all have a diet, but are hopefully not on a diet.) In particular we're interested in the calories and nutrient profiles of the foods we consume. We'll look at calories and nutrients in more detail in a future module. For now, we just want to learn how to track them.
Don't worry: this won't be an ongoing activity. It will only be for a few days, and then periodically to check on how things have changed.
The first step is to find a tool for tracking what you eat in detail. Since you're obviously online (assuming no one printed this out for you to read), the best options are online tracking tools, and there are lots of them! A couple we like are:
myfitnesspal.com (preferred)
fatsecret.com
These, and many like them, are free and have smartphone apps as well. (Note that we don't care about any activity tracking on these sites; only food.) Have another you like? Post a Blitz comment about it to let us all know!
Make sure the tool you choose can remember sets of foods (better known as "meals") to make entering faster and easier once you get them set up. Because we tend to eat a lot of the same meals.
The second step will be to actually record what you eat. When this is called for in the Blitz, you'll need to record everything you eat during the day. It's best if you can record a meal or snack shortly after you complete it, as our memories for these things tends to be suspect.
You should also measure foods when the amount is not fixed (e.g., one medium apple). This includes small quantities, such as any creamer you put in your coffee. (You might be surprised how much you're putting in.) You don't have to measure every time; after measuring once, just be consistent in using that amount.
It's particularly important to measure high-fat foods like olive oil, butter, and coconut oil...not because fat is bad, but because it has more calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein so a small difference in quantity can make a meaningful difference in calories.
Also keep in mind that a "serving" of a food is not always what you might think it is. For example, a bowl of cereal is probably not one serving as defined on the nutrition label. (This is also an opportunity to find out how big your bowls are!)
Be as complete and accurate as possible with your entries. This is important stuff! You may find that calories are piling in where you didn't expect, and that even your healthy meals have more calories than you might have thought. Again, we won't be doing this all the time, or even a lot, so when we do it, do it well.