I use the sparkpeople food tracker. It's great, shows how many more calories you can eat for the day, you can track your water, your exercise everything. I use it for blackberry, but it's also online. Does a great job of keeping me on track.
I use two journals, actually, plus my blog. I use the LoseIt app on my iphone (tracks my calories, fat, protein, carbs, weight, and exercise) and then I also input all the same stuff in a paper journal as well. I find they definitely keep me on track, so I think you've got the right idea!
I do best when I write it down as well. I was actually just about to start a thread to ask if people had any journals they could recommend (pad and paper style, not digital). Good luck!
littlebiskit: My pen and paper journal is called Lose Weight Fast Diet Journal. It has space for food entries (including calories, fat, carbs, protein, and fiber), water, weight, energy level, daily servings of the food groups, vitamins, daily exercise, and notes. It also has weekly summary pages and monthly summary pages. The back has a short-cut guide for the nutritional information of common items. It also has a graph where you can chart your weight loss. Oh, and it comes with a smaller on-the-go journal that's about the size of a checkbook. In sum, I rather like it.
The main reason I like pad and pencil is because I can use it anytime, anywhere, I don't have to be online. I have done online in the past and it was ok, but I like the portability of pad and pen.
I am using a free iPhone App "Eatwit". It was created by my brother and so convenient to record what you've eaten. If you are using an iPhone, "Eatwit" is very helpfus as a food journal.
There are no doubt Android apps for other smartphones too.
If you're tracking on paper, from what I've heard the Weight Watchers points system is a good way of keeping it simple. I quite like being able to keep an eye on macronutrient levels as well as how my daily exercise factors in, at a level which I think would be too complicated for me to do on paper but is very easy when the software does it all for me. But then I have serious health problems and probably need to fuss about all of this much more than most people do.
I use sparkpeople for tracking and I keep a blog for accountability. The blog is a huge help because I feel like I have an "audience" watching me (even in reality I know it's true) and when I feel like indulging in a moment of weakness, it helps to remember that I don't want to disappoint my blog friends. Silly little trick but it actually works for me. Plus, blog chicks rule!