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!
Boo-ya! i did it. :)
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