The kids are back in school (Hallelujah!), so now’s the time to buckle down and get back on the health and fitness track. Even if you don’t have kids, this is the perfect month to get your mind and body ready for the onslaught of holiday temptations and the tendency to put your healthy lifestyle at the bottom of your holiday to-do list.

You can prepare to beat the holiday weight gain blues starting now. I urge all of you to perform one simple daily task that has proven time and again to help people stay on track and follow a healthy lifestyle…the simple act of keeping a food and exercise diary. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just the act of writing down what you eat on a piece of paper does the trick.

If you are like me, and love free stuff, then you might like to take advantage of the myriad on-line weight management sites FREE for you to use to track your food and exercise routines. Here is a rundown of THREE excellent on-line sites:

1. SparkPeople: this is one of the most popular sites around (12 million and growing). It offers tons of stuff such as food and exercise tracking as well as weight tracking and social networking.
2. FitDay: another wildly popular free food and exercise tracking site (over 6 million strong).
3. MyPlate: Livestrong.com’s MyPlate allows you to set weight loss goals, track exercise and food intake. It has one of the largest online food libraries. Almost 4 million people belong to MyPlate.

If you are a smart phone and/or tablet user, you may prefer to track your diet and exercise habits using an app. Here are THREE of my favorite free apps for use on your portable devices:

1. MyFitnessPal: a huge social networking community, myfitnesspal allows you to log food and exercise when you are out and about.
2. LoseIt! Another excellent free food and exercise diary used by millions of people. LoseIt offers recipes, social networking, goals, diet and exercise tracking.
3. Daily Challenge is not just for weight loss but is a great tool to help you set any kind of small daily goals. It links to social media and is available as both smartphone app and a web application.

As we get older, we realize that a large part of our happiness is comprised of the simple health and fitness habits we practice. Whatever works for you (computer, cell phone, or paper and pen) help yourself stay on your

healthy lifestyle track by keeping a food and exercise diary!

Source: http://www.mywell-being.com/