Would your food log look like a crime scene?

 If you want to lose weight, but are avoiding keeping a food journal you may need to ask yourself why you’re avoiding that task? What you’re eating can all be healthy, while at the same time the amount you’re eating and drinking can be adding up to way too much.

Without keeping a food record it’s easy to not be fully aware of your portion sizes, and it’s easy to forget the extra calories in side items, between meal snacks, and beverages.

For example, years ago when I was a rooky health educator, a patient from the hospital-based weight maintenance program I was working in came to my office asking for help. She was a tall woman who had lost about 70-pounds before entering the weight maintenance program. I’ll call her Teri; she came to me and said, “I don’t understand what’s happening, I need some help!” She was clearly upset, and explained to me (since she was not a patient I was personally following) that she had gained back several pounds a week, for three or four weeks. Again, she was very upset. I said, “Okay, Teri, well let’s sit down and take look at your food records.” Her eyes got big, and she blurted out, “I don’t have any food records!” Yikes, I’m thinking to myself, “now what do I do?” I knew she wasn’t in the frame of mind to try constructing her food records from memory. So, I told her, “Teri, I can’t really help you without your food records, so tell you what. You keep food records this week, and we’ll sit down at this same time next week, and go over them.”

The next week she comes in with her food records, we sit down, and before I even had a chance to open my mouth she tells me exactly what the problem is! She said, “Dorene, I’ve been eating an extra 10,000 calories a week.”

The food records answered her question for her. When people are honest with themselves--accurately recording--everything they’re eating and drinking this will be the case.

If you want to lose weight, a great place to start is by simply starting to track what you’re eating. You can do this with a simple spiral notebook, a purchased food journal, or on many online websites (www.mynetdiary.com, www.Fitday.com, etc.). You will also need to make sure you have a food scale, measuring cups (for liquid and dry), and measuring spoons.

Best,
-Dorene

Do you have a question about healthy weight loss? Comment here, or email me at dorene@beyonddiets.com.

For more information on record keeping, record keeping forms, and to learn a system to track your predicted weekly weight loss see my book, The NEW Healthy Eating & Weight Management Guide.