A few years back, my cousin took the car for a drive, went to a new gas station, and broke down shortly after. When the car was in the shop, they said the gas had been watered down. A thousand dollars later, the car was back on the road, and only being fueled with trusted, high quality gasoline.

This really made me think about how careful we should be with our possessions, and how costly it can become if we don’t take care of them. Really, our bodies should be our most valuable possession, but somehow we easily get lost in life’s shuffle and end up at the drive-through or vending machines, eating foods from a box with a long list of unknown ingredients, wondering why we always “hit the wall” by mid-afternoon. I know, because I’ve been there plenty of times.

So, food is fuel for our bodies, right? The type of fuel we take in affects everything we do, say, think and feel. It’s just like fueling up the tank–watered down gas will break down the engine. And our bodies are no different. Low quality foods break us down. High quality foods help us to be the best version of ourselves possible! Eat real food feel real good.

You can start the path toward fueling your body by taking an inventory. Track what you’re eating and how you feel. For anyone who is having difficulty getting motivated to write down foods and moods, keep these 3 things in mind:

1. Little Bites, Big Calories: A “handful here”, a “bite there” can add up to big calories, and it’s important to know what’s actually going into our bodies. It’s amazing to see how empty calories add up, where the nutritional gaps are, and the possibilities that we may have been overlooking.

2. Foods and Moods: There is a direct correlation between what we eat and how we feel. We want to live well and live with energy. Food can be a great tool to feeling like our best selves. Once you identify which foods make you feel great and which foods make you feel lousy, you’ll be sure to make better choices.

3. You are the Expert of You: We’re all individuals. Be the expert of your body. Sometimes it’s not just the food, but it’s the combination of foods that affect our bodies. Have you been feeling especially tired? Moody? Cranky? Have you felt fabulous? Energized? Excited? Happy? It can often go back to how we nourish our bodies.

If you are motivated, but the writing just isn’t working for you, identify why. Then take it one step further. Other than writing, ask yourself, what can I do to keep a wellness journal and planner? I am a firm believer that nothing is impossible to a willing heart. Figure out your “Planner Personality”:

1. The Journalist: You love to write and express your feelings. Use a pretty journal, write your daily food intake, your exercise and activity, important occurrences, how you felt–create a journal of your life.

2. The Project Manager: You love tackling tasks and are considered a list master. Use a 3-ring binder. Create ready made “Daily Intake” sheets or find templates on the web. Simply fill in your foods, your beverages, your moods, your activities, your exercises in the template. You can design your own using a word processor. Create “To-Do” lists so you can tackle habits you’d like to create in your life.

3. The Computer Guru: Writing? You don’t even own a pen! You love typing and you are at the computer all day long. Find an online journal you can plug into, or keep everything in an Excel file. You can even create graphs and pie charts of your daily intake and exercise.

4. The Orator: You love speaking. You are on the phone all of the time, or you just don’t have time to write or type. Purchase a mini-tape recorder and speak to it. Tell yourself what you’ve eaten, your exercises for the day, how you felt, and get to know yourself better.

Anything we want to achieve in life takes vision, work, motivation, and dedication. If we can see the way we want our lives to be, we can create it– we just have to start by taking steps. Writing and journaling is a step towards getting to know ourselves better. And if you are one who has been lost in the shuffle of life, don’t worry. Slow down, take a breath, and happily re-discover your best self!

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