1. The Low-Tech Way: Good Old Pencil and Paper
When you sign up for Weight Watchers you receive a Week One book and a paper journal called a QuikTrak. Use this journal to keep track of the foods you eat and the points you consume. Along the right side you'll find a column for points used and a column for keeping a running points total. Along the left side of the tracker you'll find 35 numbered boxes. These boxes are to be checked off as you consume additional "allowance points" throughout the week. Allowance points are 35 additional weekly points you can spend any way you please. Along the bottom of the page you'll find a space to mark how many glasses of water you've consumed. You'll also find five empty boxes for fruits and vegetables, two empty boxes for milk and two boxes for oil or fats. These empty boxes represent dietary guidelines to strive for on a daily basis, so you can check them off as you achieve them. The QuikTrak System also provides you with several places to record your weekly activity points. As of Week Two of the program, you'll be able to bank activity points, which allow you to increase your daily food intake. You earn activity points based on the intensity of your workout, your current weight and the amount of time you exercise. You'll receive a tracker to help you calculate activity points quickly.
2. Charting Your Eating Habits
You can pick up a 12-week spiral bound journal at your next Weight Watchers meeting if you don't want to carry around a paper tracker. This journal is roughly the size of a checkbook, which makes it easy to carry in your purse or briefcase. This is a convenient tool for monitoring your eating habits over time. If you're not losing weight, take a look at how your food choices may have changed since you were losing regularly. You may also notice simple ways to cut back on a few points every day. For example, if you find you're drinking two lattes every day, try cutting back to just one. It'll save you up to 3 points a day, or 21 points per week.
3. Log On for Weight Loss
When you sign up for eTools, Weight Watchers' online service, you get access to an interactive food journal. When you click on the online "Points Tracker" icon it takes you to a page where you enter what you've eaten in the morning, mid-day, evening and at any other time. Instead of looking up point values, you simply enter a type of food. For example, if you type "muffin" in the "Morning" field, you get a list that includes mini muffins, breakfast egg and cheese muffins, blueberry muffins and more. Alongside these listings you'll find a points value. When you click on the matching food, it is automatically entered into your daily total and your remaining points are calculated. You can record the foods you eat by entering the calories and fat and fiber grams and hitting "Calculate." If you tend to eat the same foods on a daily basis, you can save them to your menus for easy reference.
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