Track Your Current Behavior
Welcome to the Colorado Small Steps to Health and Wealth program. These videos are designed to summarize 13 strategies in our program to motivate you to change your behavior by simultaneously improving your health and your personal finances.
Think about the last long trip that you planned.
In order to reach your final destination, you needed to have a starting point. Making health and financial behavior changes without a starting point is like making a plane reservation and not indicating the airport from which you are leaving. The reservation simply can’t be made because you don’t have a complete itinerary for the trip from start to finish.
Awareness of your current health and financial behaviors is necessary to make realistic plans to change what you’re doing. Most people really don’t have a clue about exactly how many calories they actually consume daily or how many dollars they spend monthly on variable expenses such as clothes, gifts, gasoline, or entertainment.
To increase awareness of your current health practices, keep written records of everything that you eat and drink for several days. Include the type of food eaten and the amount such as 1 small bagel with 1 teaspoon of cream cheese.
Also record every time you are physically active for 10 minutes or more. Whether working out or taking a short walk during your lunch hour. The financial counterpart is to write down what you earn and spend daily, preferably for an entire month.
While tracking your eating and spending patterns can be tedious, you’ll learn a lot about your current practices.
CSU Extension created this Pocket Tracker that will fit easily in your wallet or pocket to help you keep track of what you eat, minutes of physical activity, as well as what you spend and how you paid for purchases. If you would like to receive a copy of our handy pocket tracker, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Nancy Porter, CSU, 4040 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523.
The information you obtain by tracking what you do will provide the “starting point” for an action plan to make changes in eating, physical activity, spending, and saving.
In other words, it is “Point A” on your journey to future success.
Ready to get started on the path to good health and increased wealth? Begin by tracking your current behavior. Then use the information you gather as motivation to improve your life.
For additional information, visit the Colorado State University Extension Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ Web site.
Updated Thursday, May 17, 2012
