Keep a record of what you eat and drink and you can do more to succeed at weight loss than almost anything else. Tracking keeps you accountable. You’re more likely to make positive food choices when you’ve committed to writing down every bite you eat (even on days you exceed your SmartPoints® Budget). Keeping tabs on other aspects of your life, including sleep, alcohol intake, and even your mood, can give you valuable feedback.
The good thing is, you don’t have to be perfect—it’s more important to be consistent and to give tracking your best shot.
Estimating your portions, if you’re not able to weigh and measure them, is fine. Not tracking a meal is fine—so long as you get back in the saddle at your next meal or as soon as you can. To help you with tracking, we have a bunch of resources, literally at your fingertips.
Your tracking toolbox
*On our website:* This is your online home base, with access to a SmartPoints Tracker, a calculator, Recipe Builder, weight tracker, and more. You can “favourite” meals you eat regularly for easier tracking, look up offerings from popular restaurants and add recipes right to your tracker.
*Our mobile app:* Take your Tracker and other tools with you wherever you go by downloading the app to your smartphone. You’ll also have a nifty Barcode Scanner (to look up and instantly track SmartPoints values of packaged foods). There’s even a voice-activated search that’s integrated with the tracker. Just tap the microphone icon on the keyboard in the app’s search bar, say what food you’re looking for and tap the results to track instantly.
*Old-school pen and paper:* You can pick up a SmartPoints Tracker free in your meeting room. This handy booklet is easy to stash in a purse or book and offers an easy, at-a-glance way to log SmartPoints values.
Souped Up
Here are a few "souper" creations you can make to usher in autumn: What about this delicious *Tortellini Soup*, or this substantial *Chicken, Vegetable and Orzo Soup*. Or, try another zesty meal-in-a-bowl; most of the time spent on this *Italian-Inspired Vegetable Barley Soup* is hands off cooking, making it easy as well as delicious!