March – Keep a Food Journal

My March goal is a little different than the other ones I've mapped out for 2014. It doesn't require a specific workout or diet change. 

For March, I'll be keeping a daily food journal and tracking my calorie intake. I knew I'd be going to Europe over Spring Break next week, so I chose to do this goal in March on purpose...I want to eat whatever I want in London and Paris! I figured I'd be taking a lot of pictures and talking about the food I eat in Europe anyways, so this goal lines up nicely with my trip. 

I don't usually count every single calorie I eat every day, but I do estimate them most of the time and try to stay within a certain range. However, I believe everyone should treat themselves every so often and eat what they enjoy, regardless of the calorie count. #yolo? no? ok. 

In order to maintain my current weight, on days when I do not exercise, I can up eat to 1,700 calories. On days when I do exercise, I can eat up to 2,200 calories to maintain my current weight (Source: Calorie Calculator - numbers provided after entering my age, gender, weight, and height). 

I feel like these numbers are a little high for my normal diet. I usually stay anywhere between 1200-1500 on days I don't exercise and anywhere from 1400-1800 on days I do workout. Typically, these numbers are a little higher on the weekends :) But this month, I'm really going to try and keep count and do my best to stick to those ranges. I'm sure in Europe it'll be on the upper tier of it, but I want to enjoy all the food the country has to offer and not restrict myself to their delicious options! 

I've used the My Fitness Pal app before and it's worked great for me in the past, so I'm going to continue to use it for this month's goal. It's free and easy to use, so I definitely recommend it to others who want to keep track! 

I'll be sharing my food logs on the blog about once a week or so (just so it keeps me accountable). I've found that even though monthly goals seem easier than yearly ones, it has been quite tough for me to make it through entire monthly goals. I'm sure this is due to the fact that I know it's only a month and if I fail at it, it's okay because I didn't really commit that much time to it. With the running 1,000 miles last year, if I had quit after putting 3-4 months of work into it, it would have been a bigger deal to me, so I continued to push through and not give up. 

This goal seems fairly simple so I'm confident I can keep track throughout the entire month.

And on that note...I'm back to having a set running schedule to prepare for my upcoming races. Three half marathons within 20 days...definitely need to train!