The app I use makes tracking pretty easy. You can scan in UPC codes for anything that has one, or piece together what you eat into recipes that make it fast to list next time. It's surprising what tracking calories, broken up into carb/protein/fat shows you. Then you add in your exercise. Found out I rarely hit my calorie goal, coming in too far under it. Mainly needing more protein, I'm not worried about the rest. You can also use it across multiple devices, so it's on my tablet as well as my phone, all filled in.
All I log exercise-wise is the type. Stationary bike, weights. The calories burned will be close enough, it does take your weight, age etc into account.
Having to enter everything you eat, including condiments etc helps you identify the hidden calories you might not always think to add in. Being honest with it highlights days I've slipped. The more you use it the faster it gets to use as your "previous meals" fills in to select from. It does list things by brand, most everything I've bought at the grocery store is listed exactly. You might be surprised what you find out if you use it for a few days.

For the holidays, I've said that we're only getting crappy candy for Halloween. Tootsie Rolls and Jolly Ranchers only.Stuff I won't eat. I'm pretty disciplined, but lets not get crazy with pushing that. My goal for the season is just to stick to my birthday plan for Feb 10. Going to be really hard to hit as it is, the holidays aren't going to help any.