You are what you eat; and keeping a food diary helps to reinforce the idea of eating healthier to lose weight and to eliminate the bad foods that contribute to the obesity epidemic. If you are overweight or obese, you cannot ignore this weight loss – life changing task.
Did you know that you were drinking 2-3 sodas a day of empty calories? How could you know or even cared if you did not keep track of it. This is similar to a company operating without keeping good records of revenue streams and expenses before ending up in bankruptcy.
The key is to keep the food diary very simple and accessible. Try using Google Docs to maintain the food diary spreadsheet; also enable Google Docs gadget for Gmail, now you have no excuse because you can now access your food diary anytime anywhere that has an internet connection.
Seeing a quick summary of what you eat each day (without even counting any calories) will provide you a complete picture of what’s healthy and what’s not. For example, was it really necessary to snack on 4 pieces of chocolate on Thursday evening for 300 calories? Now if you did not have access to the food diary, how would you know that the 4 pieces of chocolate was a bit excessive especially if you are trying to eat healthy. Reviewing your food diary will eventually help you make the better decisions like switching in fresh fruit for junk food during snack time.
Don’t believe the success of food diaries?
In a clinical study involving 1685 participants, the average weight loss was 9 to 18.7 pounds over the course of 6 months. It is as easy as using pen and paper to write down what you eat each day, and you will be losing weight before you even know it.
Yes, you do have to make a effort to eat good food verses bad food. The food diary will be your coach to eating healthy for the rest of your life. (If you finished reading the article and did not take action to create a food diary, then you are doomed to remain overweight, and obese. If you don’t take action for yourself, who will?)