I actually have a couple of ideas, ones that I am going to be using. (I just started today!) For planning food I am going to be using some recipe websites. I have done this for planning quick and easy dinners in the past for my family and it worked pretty well since I didn't have to think about too much. Now I am just going to subscribe to low-cal ones! They send you ideas, you keep an email folder of them, print out a week at a time, go shopping, etc. Brainless is where I am headed for with meal planning. The other thing I would recommend is for keeping track of food you have eaten, and the calories in those foods. Since almost everyone keeps their checkbook with them all the time, and the batteries can't die(PDA/cell phone), use that. Instead of keeping one register, keep 2. Slide and extra one in behind the one you use for your money. You can use the entry spots for date, time, food, etc. You can put the calories in the withdrawl spots and keep a running total of calories each day or something similar depending on what you are shooting for. You can even keep a running total of your weight loss in there as well! Hope that helps!