Tracking Weight with Field Notes

I thought I would share one of my uses for a notebook for a change rather than a simple review of the notebook.  Many uses are work related and it's not always possible to put those on a blog but tracking my weight is totally personal.  Maybe the sort of thing I shouldn't share on a blog but here goes.
One of the key elements of trying to maintain a healthy weight is keeping track of what you eat.  I find myself falling into a hybernation state every Winter and filling up with food, then having to retrain my habits in the Spring.  This year is no exception.  So if I am going to cut down food intake I may as well combine it with something I like doing-writing in a notebook.

I have been using the Field Notes Summer color edition.  The green one in other words.  The grid lends itself to recording information I feel and I have been pretty good at keeping up the daily food record.  If not so good at recording exercise, mainly because I am very good at eating every day but often miss out exercise!
It pays not to kid yourself on and be as honest as possible when recording what you eat and until you count calories it can be a real surprise what a difference small changes can make.  Changing from pouring olive oil in a pan to using spray oil, not spreading on loads of butter, not eating ready meals!!!
So I have been progressing and these photos were taken a few weeks ago.

I know it looks kind of innaccurate but I do count my checks carefully!  I use Scottish Slimmers which uses 1 check to represent 25kcal.  I guess it just makes counting easier and of course how many checks you can have depends on your weight.  I dont have too much to lose and I'm not massively overweight but I still find it hard going sometimes.

As a motivation I draw a graph of my weight loss - well the Field Notes does have graph paper, seems a shame not to use it!  It is now the beginning of April and I have now lost a stone, so the graph looks rather good.  I'm now 9st10lbs.  I may try to get to 9st7lbs but I wont lose sleep over it and I've just had a weeks holiday and another one coming up, and while I try not to go mad I dont want to get totally hung up on food either so I will eat more than usual if I want to.  There are a few non weight loss weeks along the way and the trick is to expect them and not let that distract you from your journey.  I now only have two pages left in my notebook and will probably try to keep recording what I eat to try to keep things stable.  Camping season is ahead and I tend to have a couple of beers and BBQ at weekends so need to keep on the right track during the week.  However hopefully I shall also do a bit more exercise too which should get my metabolism going....

So now the dilemma is do I use another green Field Notes or one of my new sunshine yellow ones that I have just bought?  Oh it's difficult but the yellow cover is fabulous.  I think I know the answer.....