About

Welcome to FoodTrackerGirl

Hi, I’m Ailene — Home Cook & Real Food Advocate

This is my little corner of the internet where I share the recipes, meal plans, and weeknight food strategies that helped me finally lose the weight — without feeling hungry, restricted, or completely miserable.

If you’re tired of jumping from one diet to the next, only to end up right where you started (or a few pounds heavier), you’re in the right place. I’ve been there. More times than I’d like to admit.

The “Professional Serial Dieter” Years

For most of my adult life, I held the unofficial title of “Professional Serial Dieter.”

You name it, I tried it. Low-fat plans where I ate sad little rice cakes. High-carb phases that left me bloated by 3 PM. Strict calorie counting that turned every meal into a math problem. And especially Keto — I’d lose 10 pounds, feel “successful,” and then, like clockwork, fall off the wagon at the first birthday party.

The pattern was always the same: lose weight fast, feel proud, slip up once, give up entirely, eat my feelings, regain everything (plus a few extras), start over with a new plan that promised this time would be different.

I was a master at following rules. But I was completely disconnected from my own body.

My Wake-Up Moment

My turning point wasn’t dramatic. No movie scene, no big breakdown. It happened quietly, in my doctor’s office, on a regular Tuesday.

I was there for a routine check-up, secretly proud that I’d dropped 8 pounds on a strict Keto plan. I was expecting a gold star.

Instead, my doctor frowned at my lab results.

Yes, my weight was down. But my “bad” cholesterol (LDL) was higher than it had ever been. My blood pressure was stubbornly creeping up. And the constant 3 PM energy crashes I’d been blaming on “mom life” turned out to be a sign my body was struggling under a plan that wasn’t actually working for me.

From Dieter to Tracker

That day, I stopped being a dieter and became a tracker.

I threw out the rigid rulebooks and started paying attention. I tracked everything — not just calories, but my energy levels, my sleep quality, my cravings, and which foods left me genuinely satisfied versus the ones that had me back in the pantry an hour later.

Slowly, I stopped chasing the number on the scale and started asking better questions. What makes me feel good? What gives me steady energy through the school run, the work calls, and the bedtime chaos? What can I cook in under 30 minutes that my kids will actually eat without negotiating?

The weight came off. But more importantly — for the first time in my adult life — it stayed off.

Real Food, Real Recipes, Real Life

FoodTrackerGirl is my personal notebook, made public. It’s where my food experiments, meal-planning chaos, and weeknight kitchen wins all live in one place.

Here’s what you’ll find on the site:

• 🥗 Low-Carb & Keto recipes — the sustainable kind, not the cream-cheese-on-everything kind.
• 🫒 Mediterranean meals — vibrant, flavorful, and naturally satisfying.
• 🥦 DASH-friendly dishes — lower in sodium without tasting like cardboard.
• 🍲 Slow cooker & one-pan dinners — for the nights when I’m officially out of patience.
• 📋 Meal plans & prep guides — strategic cooking that turns one session into three days of meals.
• 🍴 Dining-out guides — because real life includes pizza nights and birthday dinners.

My rule is simple: if a recipe isn’t easy, family-approved, and good for your body, it doesn’t make it onto this site. I have two very energetic kids who happen to be my toughest food critics, so trust me — every single recipe here has survived their honest opinions (and a few dramatic faces).

A Little More About My Health Journey

The story I shared above isn’t only about vanity weight. Underneath it was something bigger: my metabolic health.

After that doctor’s office wake-up call, I realized I needed to take my numbers seriously — especially with a family history of diabetes and heart issues quietly sitting in the background. So I dug in. I read studies (the actual ones, not just the headlines), listened to cardiologists and dietitians on podcasts during my morning walks, and kept tracking my own numbers like a slightly obsessive science project.

That’s where my unofficial title of Independent Wellness Researcher quietly came from. Not in any formal sense — I’m just a curious mom with a tracker, a notebook, and a stubborn refusal to stop asking “but why?” until something actually makes sense for my own body.

A few of the lessons that shaped how I cook today:

These principles quietly shape almost every recipe on this site — even the ones that just look like a really good sheet-pan dinner.

Let’s Stay in Touch

If anything I share here helps you — whether it’s one recipe, one meal plan, or one “you’re not alone” moment — that’s the whole point of this site.

Tracking my food helped me find freedom around eating. I want to help you find yours too.