Day 7

“A food journal is one of the easiest ways to keep track of what you are eating. If you write it down, it seems more real. If you don’t, it’s so easy to pretend to yourself that you didn’t eat that much.”  

― Anne McTiernan

Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

 You came back for more after yesterday’s royal kick in the butt? Now that’s dedication! 

Grab your lemon/lime juice and let’s close out week one with a bang! 

Day 7 Wellness Action: Keep Track of Everything You Eat Today

Keeping a food journal is important to eating healthier because it helps you understand your food habits and to pinpoint areas of change. Without keeping track of what you eat, at least for a while, it’s easy to underestimate how much bad foods or overestimate how much healthy foods you’re eating.

Today’s task is simple, write down what you eat and/or drink today and how much. You can add more information by including what times you ate or how you felt before and after you ate, but you don’t have to.

Once you know what and how much you are eating, you can start to find easy things to take out or add in to make your diet healthier. For example, you can set a simple goal to stop drinking soft drinks (soda) or cut intake to one bottle a day if you drink more than that per day. Another example will be to order plain white rice with the stew separately so that you can control the amount of oil in your food.

While these simple changes won’t make you lose 10 kg in 10 days (which you don’t want to be doing anyway), they can lead to a healthier diet that will result in long-term success with your weight loss or maintenance goals.

If you are looking for a sample food tracker to use, check out this sample template by Radiant Health’s Fitness Contributor, EJ Ogenyi.

Day 7 Workout: Out and Back Run

Running is one of the best cardio exercises; it requires no specialist equipment, can be done almost anywhere and anytime and also burns lot and lots of calories. This workout has an extra twist because it also includes an element of competition. Set your stopwatch and run in any direction for five minutes.

Don’t dawdle but don’t sprint either – you should feel like you are exercising at around 6 out of 10. Stop for a moment and then run back the way you came but try to cover the distance as fast as you can. Your task is to see how much faster you can do the return journey compared to the outward one.

Once you have warmed up (click here for warm up video), follow the exercise demonstration in the video below to get started on today’s fitness challenge.

When you run, focus on keeping your upper body relaxed, only lightly clenching your hands, keeping your head up and your neck long, striding out with purpose but keeping your footfalls light and maintaining even breathing that is in time with your strides. Note: if you don’t enjoy running, feel free to substitute powerwalking.

Can you believe you made it through the first seven days?! Great job on staying focused.

Swing by our Facebook group; let’s chat about week 1.