How to Start and Keep a Food Journal
Use These Basic Tips to Get the Most From Your Journal
Apr 28, 2009
Research states when dieters write in their journals there is a direct correlation to pounds lost. Factors we may consider important, such as exercise habits, age, and body mass index, have far less bearing on weight loss then journaling.
Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health have strong evidence that food journaling leads to positive results for weight loss. If your goal is to lose weight, you must seriously consider food journaling.
Starting your journal:
- Decide whether you will use an old fashion pen and pad or an electronic web based journal. Either way is fine as long as you use it daily.
- Write it when you eat it. It may be easy to remember the last thing you ate but what about the rest of the day. Get into the habit of writing everything you eat when you eat it. Your records need to be accurate if you’re going to make adjustment to your caloric and nutritional habits.
- Make entries into your journal that are important to you. Do you need to know how you felt when you ate ice cream? Do you always have a soda before bed at night? Do you unconsciously munch on chips while watching television?
- Don’t cheat yourself; if you eat it own it. The only way to get an accurate count of calories eaten is to log them into your journal. If you forget things like coffee, candy, a bite of your child’s sandwich, you’ll be omitting calories that count toward your total for the day.
- If you eat certain foods regularly, it will be easy to keep track of the number of calories they contain. When you are familiar with the calorie content of certain foods, you’re aware of how many calories you’ve eaten and how many you have remaining.
- ‘Out of sight out of mind’ as the saying goes; keep your journal close. You need to log everything larger than a crumb. If your journal is close by, you won’t accidentally omit anything. Remember in order to lose weight you must have an accurate count of every calorie consumed.
- Study your journal each evening for patterns, calories, food groups, and any other category that may offer clues. The more familiar you become of your habits and triggers, the more success you will have in your weight loss endeavors..
- Serious about losing weight; your food journal will be your most important tool. It will provide information to put you in a position to be successful.
- Set short-term goals such as no ice cream for one week. As you achieve your goals reward yourself. It is important that you feel good about your successes and acknowledge them as well. This will keep you on track physically as well as psychologically.
There is hope for those who are serious about beating the bulge. Food journaling puts the information in your face, allowing you to be accountable to yourself. That’s one reason so many have been successful journaling. If you can be honest with yourself you can be successful.
“Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life.” -James Norman Hall
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