My wife and I recently joined a gym. We want to hike more often and want to be in better shape for that. I decided to start controlling my diet to compliment the workouts we have been doing. I tend to eat unhealthy. Often.

My first step was not to cut out all junk food. This would be a disaster. I would hate this eathing-healthy thing when my junk food cravings would hit. Negative reinforcement does not work. It would make me more likely to fall off the wagon. I have to want to cut out junk food.

My first step was to start measuring what I eat. Fried chicken and fries for lunch, a bowl of ice cream after dinner, Dr. Pepper with my burger, pasta and garlic breads...everything. But only measure. Nothing more. Use the options available in the app I downloaded. I don't fuss with the app to get everything just right at this stage. Close enough is ok. I am just tracking at this time. Goals will be set later. The baby step is the tracking.

This almost always works for other cases too. Say you want to control your spending. Start tracking it first. If you fail, try tracking another way till you find a way that works. Then start making changes to your spending habits. This worked for me. It took me two years to find a way to track my spending that actually worked.

Without tracking, you are throwing darts in the dark.

Tracking my food is already working. I have avoided sodas last week.