Keeping a food diary

Eating is a habit that we generally take for granted after doing it for a long time. It is the habit that we must look into so as to manage our weight. Until we understand our eating habits, we will not be able to design the ideal eating plan that will best address our weight issues.

By becoming conscious again of your eating habits, you will be able to regain control over your way of eating. You can do this through a food diary or journal and through it you can assess how you eat and why you eat the way you do. Use a notebook, some graphing papers, and a pencil and spend the rest of your free time in exercise. Remember though to be honest with yourself.

Using your food diary

In the food journal, you keep track of the food you take in by their categories such as fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, etc. in grams. You will also record the portion size, the time of day you eat them and occasion. It is also important to evaluate the reasons for eating at a particular moment and why you eat a particular type of food. This should include reasons other than hunger, the extent of our appetite and the severity of our cravings for certain foods. The feelings after you have eaten particular foods should also be noted. During the evening before sleeping or on weekends, you will go over your diary and identify the danger zones then subsequently determine the lapses that you have to work on. Do not obsessively go over your calories every hour or minute.

In the beginning, you should write your expectation and goals.  Keeping track of fat and calorie intake will require a nutrient guide: be it a nutrient book or an online food database. From this guide, select the foods and drinks you regularly take and record these in the first few pages of your journal with calorie counts and nutrients. Now, you can go on to formally tracking everything you eat and drink. Divide the pages into different columns as follows: 1 column to list the foods and drinks you take in, and a column each for every nutrient, fat and carbohydrates that you want to track. Write down everything from meals to snacks and every food and drink. The columns will be divided according to meal time or time of day. Sum up your totals at the end of each day and everything each week.

Now that you have your baseline, consult your dietitian or your diet program for the recommended number of fat grams, calories, nutrients, liquid intake and the like. This will be your final target reduction, and you will set a daily reduction which you will try to achieve each day by reducing your intake in increments until you finally discipline yourself to get your target reduction. Once you get your target, you will work further to maintaining that target according to the advice of your dietitian or program. Along the way, you will evaluate your feelings, moods, emotions and reasons for eating the way you do in order to learn to handle cravings and learn to stop eating for health, not merely to fill yourself up. Next, you move on to regulate exercise activities as part of the total framework and achieve a healthy lifestyle.