Bootcamp Success Journal.

Why do this?

Because human beings have an innate tendency to lie to ourelves and to others when reporting our food intake.

I mean, this is so prevalent that they actually did a scientific study on it and the results were sickening. North Americans typically will say they eat less sugar than they actually do, while saying they eat more protein and vegetables than they actually do.

Translation: we think we do better than we do
Results: not what we’re looking for (remember good nutrition equals results!)

And after reviewing a lot of food diaries, I can completely support this claim.

We just don’t eat enough vegetables and we really eat too much unhealthy food.

So Start A Success Journal.

It is a great way for you to see what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. And I call it a Success Journal because I want you to be in the mindset that you are going to be successful!

Here’s what I would do, go to wal-mart and pick up a small Hilroy notebook for $2.

Set your pages up like this.

Top left hand corner – date
Top right hand corner – put if you worked out or exercised that day, as you would want to eat a few more complex carbs (like rice) after a workout. Put if you came to bootcamp, put if you walked 5 miles with your dog, track your movement! If you are not taking at least 10,000 steps everyday, you are not moving enough! If you have a job where you sit down all day, you have to start moving!

Then down the page put the time and what you eat

Like this.

6am – 3 eggs scrambled with chopped asparagus, green onions, and red peppers. 1 cup of orange pekoe tea with a splash of coconut milk

9:30am – workout.

10:30am – post workout shake with vanilla protein powder, frozen strawberries, blueberries, kale, and water

noon – 1 palm sized chicken breast and steamed broccoli

3pm – handful of almonds (10)

6pm – palm size steak with grilled asparagus and half cup of brown rice

I guarantee you if you are putting days like this together which turn into weeks like this and not bombing on the weekends then you will get success.

And the point of this is to track everything. If you don’t put down the unhealthy food, you defeat the entire purpose of this. You are essentially wasting your time and your life if you do this half assed!

And if you do this long enough, you will see your patterns of success and failure. Only you have the power to make the decisions of what you put in your mouth, so start opening up your eyes to it!

I would then set a day and weigh yourself every 2 weeks in the morning before eating anything. And put it in the success journal. If you don’t have a scale at home weight yourself at the gym at the same time and day. Just do this 1 time every 2 weeks. This is a good time frame to get quality feedback and not drive you nuts with the daily fluctuation of your weight.

Alternatively, you could use your phone to track what you eat. To be honest, I just don’t like using it for this. I don’t want you to get hell bent on how many calories you should eat in an app where the calories probably aren’t accurate.

Just keep a journal of clean wholesome food, 1 ingredient food. and how much you are working out. You’ll quickly be able to flip through and see where you can improve!

Now check out this cool post on good food provided by nature vs. processed food and see the caloric differences!! Recall when I said, I don’t want you to count calories, and this is why!

Because when you eat good food. you dont have too!!

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/what-are-your-4-lbs

Committed to your success,
Josh Saunders
The Bootcamp Effect