By Jeffrey Prindle


When you begin a diet probably the most often heard pieces of advice is to keep a food log in which you write down every thing you eat during the day. Keeping your food log not only helps you see clearly what you are eating, it helps you see what you are not eating. For example, after maintaining a food journal for a few days, you might see that you are not taking in very many vegetables but that you are consuming lots of sugar and bad carbohydrates. Writing all of it down will allow you to see specifically which parts of your diet plan really need to change as well as how much exercise you are going to need to do to make sure that you keep your caloric intake in check.

But what if you write almost everything down but no excess weight drop off of you? There is a proper way and a incorrect way to monitor your food. There is far more to food journaling than writing a listing of what you eat during the day. You must write down other vital pieces of information as well. Here are a number of the tips that can help you become a lot more successful at food tracking.

Be as distinct as possible get whenever you write down the things you eat. It isn't adequate to list "salad" in your food record. Write down all the ingredients in the salad and also the type of dressing you used. You need to include the amount of the food you take in. "Cereal" seriously isn't as good an entry as "one cup Honey Nut Cheerios." Remember the more you consume of something the more calories you take in so it is vital that you list quantities so you know exactly how much of everything you're eating and how many calories you need to burn.

Write down what time it is while you eat. This will help you determine what times of day you feel the most hungry, when you usually reach for snacks and then you can figure out how to deal with those times. You'll see, for example, that even though you eat lunch at the exact same time every day, you also--without fail--start to snack as little as an hour later, every day. This will even help you identify the times when you start to eat simply to give yourself something to do. This is important because, once they are recognized, you can find other ways to fill those moments than with unhealthy foods.



Write down your feelings whenever you eat. This will show you whether you use food to solve emotional issues. This may also show you whether or not you gravitate for particular foods based on your mood. There are lots of people who seek out junk food when they feel angry or depressed and are just as likely to pick out healthy things when they feel happy and content. Paying attention to what you reach for if you find yourself upset just might help you stock similar but better items in your house for when you need a snack-you could also start talking to someone to figure out why you cure moods with food (if that is something that you actually do).




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