Food Journal – Short and Simple!

Food Journal – Short and Simple!

Whether counting calories, points or carbohydrates, keeping track of how much you are eating can be crucial to your success. The one truth that prevails, no matter what plan you are implementing, is …
Food consumed – energy expended (exercise) = weight loss/gain

Here is a very short and simple way to make a food journal. The knowledge gained is priceless.

STEP ONE

Making a food journal does not have to be a tremendous undertaking; it can be simple and forthright. Just grab a piece of paper and a pencil and begin by just writing down what you are eating. You can designate your entries by time or by meal (breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner). Take an extra moment to ascertain and record your emotion at the time you eat (happy, sad, angry, depressed, etc).
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If you do nothing more than this for the first week, you will gain some valuable feedback. You will learn what foods you are being drawn to; this will help in formulating a meal plan you can live with for a lifetime. From here we can look for healthier ways to implement the same flavors by cooking lighter and substituting ingredients.

This journal will also identify times of the day where more or less food is consumed. Information gained from this can help us more evenly distribute our food intake throughout the day, perhaps with 3 meals and 3 snacks, in order to keep our metabolism high and our hunger in check.

Finally, by reviewing the times our food intake was greatest, and comparing that to our emotions, we can isolate and emotion or two that is triggering our eating behavior. This allows us to develop a plan of action to negate that behavior in the future.

STEP TWO

Once you’ve successfully written these entries and gathered the information they provide, we can then move forward in gathering the next level of information. Start recording the calorie content, Weight Watcher points or carbohydrate totals. (If you’re counting calories, you can use calorieking.com)

In initiating this step, we begin to truly become responsible for our food choices. As we write down each item we intend to consume, and the associated measure (calories, points or carbs), we move our eating from subconscious grazing to conscious, knowledgeable choices.

WHAT NEXT?

You now have completed the basics for journaling. Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

After a time, you will begin to know the values by heart and you may even get to where you don’t need to journal all the time. However, any time I feel myself slipping, I once again reach for a paper and pencil to make myself accountable and to know exactly how much I am eating. I am not alone in this; many of my fellow bloggers and weight-loss friends state they do the same.

Always remember to read the nutritional content on your packages, try some new foods, use the recipe search tool here and broaden your horizons. The possibilities are endless.

Here’s to your success!!!

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