Introduction to Food Journals

If you've read my other blogs, and followed my advice, you now have a brand spanking new, nearly blank notebook and you're probably wondering what the heck this thing is all about. This notebook is going to become your best friend during the early stages of weight loss.

According to the National Weight Control Registry people successful in losing at least 30 pounds and maintaining it for at least one year had multiple common health habits that when practiced may help you lose weight and keep it off, your food journal is going to help with 3 of these; portion control, mindful eating and monitoring intake. Click here for the full list!


The concept of your food journal is simple, and again you may make it as detailed or as sparse as you wish. Different things work for different people but from my experience the absolute best way to be successful at losing weight is to monitor your food intake. All you need to do is sometime near the time you are eating (either before, during or after is fine)  write down 3 things. What you ate, how much you ate and complete the sentence ' I feel'.

The most important thing you can do is write down what you ate and how much. For a lot of people it's easy to binge and then forget about it and wonder why they gained weight at the end of a week of tough workouts , instead of losing. This leads to a viscous cycle of getting discouraged and giving up because who wants to spend an hour a day working out and then gain weight at the end of the week? Having a journal keeps you accountable for what you eat so when you have a bad week, with less than satisfactory results you have a record of the why and can work to change the habits that are holding you back.

An added benefit to journaling is the effect it can have on what you eat. When you know you will have to write down the bag of M&M's you devoured after lunch, it helps you think twice about eating it in the first place.

The last part of journaling is your "I feel" statement. After every meal and snack write down how you felt before and after eating. At the end of the week flip back and read about the why you ate, it may surprise you to find trends like you eat when you are tired or you stop by the candy bowl on the way back to your desk after each time you went to your boss's office. Recognizing when you are eating for something other than hunger is the first step to learning to cope with those emotions with something other than food. Not everyone is an emotional eater but most people don't always eat just because they are hungry. Make notes about the last time you had water, how much sleep you had the night before and how difficult your workout for the day was. All are clues to help you understand your eating habits and learn to take care of the real reasons you binge throughout the day.

Your journal, for now, should be simple. When you first start it don't worry about calories, or exact portions as more often than not all the numbers and math end up feeling overwhelming and time consuming and can give you another reason to get discouraged and quit. After a month or so, or whenever you get more comfortable you can start writing down the calories and macro nutrients in your food. Or you could start using one of the many calorie counting internet programs out there instead. Or you could do it how I do it and keep your journal during the day and then at night enter everything into a program and take note of your calories and nutrients that way. Just make sure you get comfortable with food tracking before you start counting calories, if you ever need to. For some, just writing down what they eat is enough.

Your food journal can be used to keep track of other things too, again be as detailed as you want. My own journal has my food intake, my 'I feel' statements and I also write down what vitamins and supplements I take and make a mark every time I refill my water bottle. Make sure you're writing down anything that you drink that isn't water as if it were food. Pop, even diet pop, contains sodium and if you ever get detailed in your tracking you will want to figure your daily drink allotment into it as well. Make sure you write down when you workout and what you do in your book too. It's nice to look back and say "I did workout everyday this week, I rock!"

And there you have it, your all inclusive introduction into food journaling! No need to buy an expensive fancy already made out food journal, all you need is a cheapo notebook, a pen and a desire to change!

Where to Start, Part 3: Weight loss Contract

In part 1 of this series I discussed setting goals. In part 2 I went into detail on how to set up an effective rewards system. In this final installment I want to talk about the final step into setting up your success, making a weight loss contract.

Step 4: The Contract

As with rewarding yourself, setting up a contract with yourself might seem a bit cheesy but as with everything else you are putting in your notebook it has a purpose. Having something 'formal' written out that clearly states you only get your rewards once you hit your goals will help you stop yourself from buying that new outfit even though you only ate your veggies 5 days out of 7. Your contract will serve as a reminder that you are doing this for yourself, that you do want this and you are willing to put in the work. As with everything else writing this down and having it in the front of your notebook (or posting a copy on the fridge door) will help you whenever you are feeling discouraged after a binge or a skipped workout.

The contents of your contract can be as simple or as detailed as you feel the need for. However it should include a few basic things.

1. Your contract should state your overall product goal whether it be a certain amount of weight you want to lose or a race you are looking to run so you always know what you are working towards.
2. Your contract should answer the question WHY? WHY are you doing this? Be completely honest with yourself and put some emotion into it. If you are feeling discouraged and are reading this what is going to help push you past the bump in the road and keep you on track? If you want to lose weight because you were walking through the store and overheard someone laugh at your weight and you never want to feel that shame again, write that down. Write down every negative thought you never want to think again that will remind you of the WHY you are doing what you are doing. You are the only one who ever has to read this contract. don't hide from yourself.
3. Include something about your reward system. You can be as brief or as detailed as you feel necessary but mention it so you know that you are bound by a contract get that reward when you reach your goal. It will help ease any guilty feelings of spending money on something that otherwise would seem frivolous. And if a spouse says something about wasting money, you can throw it in his face "it's in the contract damnit!!"
4. Promise to love yourself and remind yourself that you are worthy of losing weight. Yea, it might not seem that important but if you don't start to love yourself now, losing 50 pounds, fitting into a size 2, running your marathon, whatever your goal may be....it wont change the fact that you don't love yourself. No one ever tells you that weight loss isn't a magic pill for self-esteem. Self-esteem is something that you have to work at everyday by changing the negative thoughts into positive ones.

Once you write out your contract, date and sign it, you are ready to start on your successful journey! Remember that losing weight is a lifestyle change. This is not about a diet, or an exercise program, it's about eating healthy for life and being active for life. It's discouraging, hard and upsetting but in the end it's worth it!

Where to Start, Part 2: Rewards

In part 1 I discussed setting SMART goals and starting your notebook. Today I want to discuss the next important step in setting yourself up for success, planning your rewards.

Step 3: Rewards

Now that you have set clear, SMART, goals it's time to define and set your rewards.

Any parent understands the importance of Star Charts! 

Rewarding yourself for good behavior may seem silly, but positive reinforcement is important at the start of any behavior change. If  you know eating your veggies all month will end with you buying the dress you've been eyeing for weeks you'll be more apt to stick to the vegetable eating goal than if your only reward was losing 2 pounds. Knowing your hard work will pay off in a tangible way helps make the behavior stick, and while a better number on the scale is motivational in itself, it's not always reliable and after a while it may not be enough to make the behavior you're trying to change seem worth giving up the candy bars or potato chips for. 

Fun shoes are always on my reward list, they are something I know I'll work hard for! 

There are many ways to reward yourself. This is the way I go about it. I'll talk about other reward systems in later blogs but for now, I want to go into the details of setting up a reward system!

In order for rewards to be effective they must follow the SMART plan as well. 

1. They need to be specific, written out so you know what you're getting for your hard work. 

2.They need to be based on a measurable goal. If you just plan to buy yourself a new outfit when you lose weight, you'll either go out and buy a new outfit after 2 pounds or never buy that new outfit because you don't know when you hit your goal of 'lose weight'. 

3. It needs to be attainable, meaning you can't say that once you lose 20 pounds you'll go on a year long trip through Europe unless you have the time and money to devote to such vacation. If you plan a reward for yourself that is unattainable, you wont actually be rewarding yourself once you hit your goal.

4. Your reward should be relevant to you. If you set a small reward of if you finish an hour long workout you can play video games for an hour later in the day but you don't enjoy playing video games, then that reward isn't going to be something you work for. However if you really enjoy watching Desperate Housewives, setting a goal of getting to watch Desperate Housewives in the evening after going for a 5 mile run in the morning will be more fulfilling and motivate you to get up and run. 

5. Like being tied to a measurable goal, your rewards need to be set to a time-bound goal as well. Saying you'll buy a new pair of running shorts if you run 3 miles everyday and not specifying for how long will mean you eventually hit a point where you stop running everyday because the reward seems out of reach. Saying that if you run 3 miles 6 times a week for a month you'll reward yourself with a new set of shorts will keep it in mind that if you want those shorts you better work for it! 

Beyond needing to follow the SMART format goals also need to be flexible, revisited and updated often. For your reward system you will need to set product goals that are specific to your process goals. If one of your process goals is to eat vegetables everyday, now you need to pencil in a product goal of 'if I eat vegetables everyday for the next month I will buy a new pair of high heels.' Then at the end of the month you must evaluate how well you did with your vegetable eating and, if you meet your goal, reward yourself and make a new product goal. But instead of just eating vegetables this time make it more specific like "I will eat 4 servings of vegetables everyday and once at least once a week try a new vegetable.' You keep continuing this process until you feel you will be eating vegetables everyday for the rest of your life and not forcing yourself to eat all your broccoli. 

This process is valid for any behavior you are wanting to change. If you want to start running, set a goal of getting a new piece of athletic clothing if you run 1 mile everyday for a week. Then the next week make it 2, and so on until you are running everyday and loving it. 

Make sure you also set a reward for when you hit your overall product goal. If the whole reason you're running and eating broccoli is to lose 40 pounds, make sure you have a big reward in store for that 40 pound mark. For me it's to get my next tattoo!! 

I know I said I would talk about your weight loss contract in this blog as well but I'll leave it at just rewards for now and make the contract a separate blog. Leave a comment and let us know how you reward yourself for your progress!

Where to Start, Part 1: Goal setting

So you've made the decision to get healthier, be active and eat right and now you're trying to figure out where to start.

Most people dive right into weight loss, head first. They buy all the newest equipment and programs, pick up all the fad diet books and waste money on pills and gimmicks that do little more than dehydrate you or give you the runs. As we all know, most people don't lose weight. Or they lose weight and then gain back even more. The reason behind this high failure rate is simple, you need to have a plan and most people go blindly down a path with the assumption that 'losing weight' is enough of a map to where they are going. 

It's not. 

When people ask me where they should start I generally direct them to caloriecount.about.com and tell them to start logging food and walking a little everyday to get active. Today I'm going to get more in depth about how to begin a weight loss program and setting yourself up to succeed. 

Step 1: Buy a Notebook

I understand that while I prefer the online method of tracking food, a lot of people don't want to take the time or get that in depth with it. So I suggest a notebook to start out with. It's simple, always available and less intimidating and discouraging than seeing all the numbers and math that goes into tracking.

Now this notebook can be as elaborate as you want it to be. A small notebook would work best for someone who is going to be eating outside of the house a lot as writing down your food as soon as you finish is important. We tend to 'forget' what and how much we eat if we don't write it down right away.

I personally have a $3 college ruled spiral notebook I got from Meijers. 

It's my handy-dandy NOTEBOOK!!! 

Step 2: Set goals

The first things that you should write in your new notebook are your goals. As simple as this sounds, this is where most people set themselves up for failure. If I asked you what your goals are right now, your answer is probably one of the following or some variation thereof:

1. I want to lose weight. 

2. I want to be healthy

3. I want to tone up

4. I want to look good.

As far as reasons to start being active go, these are good reasons. When combined with other goals they are even pretty decent, but alone they suck. 

Effective goals should be SMART. And by that I mean they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. In other words a good goal should be something like 'I will lose 20 pounds by August 31st' 

This goal is specific in the amount of weight you want to lose, it's attainable (assuming you have actually have 20 pounds to lose!) it's measurable because you can track the number on the scale, it's relevant for you if your original goal was to look good, be healthy or to lose weight and it has an expiration date of August 31st. 

Now that you have set a SMART product goal you need to break it down into smaller, process goals.

Your process goals should be SMART as well, but instead of being one or two goals that you work towards overall these are smaller goals that you want to work at everyday, or weekly. 

Examples of process goals to work towards your product goal of losing 20 pounds by August 31st would be  

1. Keep a food journal everyday.

2. Walk for 30 minutes everyday

3. Eat 1800 calories a day.

4. Lift weights 3 times a week.

These process goals are specific. They are measurable in that you can track them and see your progress. They are attainable since most everyone can do any one of those goals if they put their mind to it. They are relevant to your product goal and they are time-bound both in the frequency (everyday, 3 times a week) and by the product goals time frame.

Once you decide on your goals write your product goals on the first page of your notebook, followed by your process goals. Whenever you start to feel yourself slipping off of the wagon having your goals clearly written out somewhere always accessible will help you remember what you're working towards, the same as a map will help you figure out where you're going when you're lost in an unfamiliar place.  

In part 2 I will discuss the importance of Contracts and Rewards