The Importance Of Diet Journaling

One of the best ways for you to be successful with weight loss is to keep a food journal. While it may take an extra few minutes out of your day to do so, if you want to see success, this is how you should go about achieving it. It will make you more accountable for your actions, as well as it will provide you with something to look at to see why you might not be losing weight if that is a situation you come across.

There are different ways that you can do a food journal and you will want to figure out what way works the best for YOU. The important thing is that a food journal is personal, therefore what works great for one person may not do much for another. Because it is a personal thing, you should feel free to write whatever you want and shouldn't feel scared of it for any reason. Some individuals, maybe those who have significant weight problems, may almost feel frightened to start tracking what they are eating because then they will really have to face the solid facts about their problem. It shouldn't be this way though, realize that a food journal is there to help you and is going to make the process of weight loss much easier.

One option for a food journal is to simply write down the time, what food you ate and how much of it. This is a very basic version that is simply a record of your own individual eating habits. For those who are tracking things such as calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein grams, this type of journal works great. If you're diet is set up so you are required to eat so many of each of these measurements per day, as long as you are hitting your target, your food journal should be working effectively.

The second type of food journal is one that goes a little more in-depth. This journal not only records the time, amount and type of foods, it also records the level of hunger you are feeling. This journal would be more appropriate for someone who might not be working on a certain calorie plan but is dealing with eating when they are not hungry (for whatever reasons). By rating your level of hunger, you can see how much of the eating you are doing is currently out of pure hunger and how much isn't. You can also come to recognize how often your body prefers to eat (by seeing when you are hunger) and hopefully get a grasp on how many calories you really do require on a daily basis.

The last type food journal is the most thorough and while it does require the most amount of time to complete, it is likely the most helpful in terms of long-term weight loss. This journal, while tracking your pure stats of total calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein, the time of day you are eating and whether or not you are hungry, will also track why you are eating. You will want to write down the feelings you are having before, during and after eating. You may also wish to write down what else is going on during your life that day. Did you have a stressful day at work? Rather than just writing down, bowl of ice cream; feeling stressed out, write down - bowl of ice cream; boss got angry with me because project wasn't completed; made me feel belittled. This will give a much better indication of what was happening when you go to examine patterns in your journal over the course of a week or two. Additionally, by monitoring specifics like this, you should be able to better track what may be triggers for you when it comes to your emotional eating. Are there certain circumstances that tend to set you off? - sending you running for the nearest box of Oreos? By identifying these you can come up with solutions that are alternatives to eating as a way of dealing with these issues.

You may also wish to write in your journal each day things that you did that were good. So many people get caught up with the things they are doing wrong which is serving to put them in a negative frame of mind. If all you ever think about is how you screw up on your diet so much, where does that leave your self-confidence on your ability to succeed? No where close to where it needs to be, that much I can tell you for sure. So if you turn down that slice of cake at lunch or choose a fresh salad rather than the plate of chicken fingers, write that down and congratulate yourself for doing so well. It will make you feel good and give you the motivation to continue on as your progress through your diet.

Some people choose to write in their food journal each and every time they have something to eat while others choose to just do it daily, say right after dinner or before they go to bed. The former may be slightly more preferable as it is when you will really remember what exactly is going on but if you simply do not have the time during the day to do this and it means you won't end up journaling altogether, go with the latter option.

One thing you may wish to do, if you have currently hired a personal trainer for the fitness side of things but are not working with a nutritionist, is bring your food journal to your trainer. They can often recognize big problems with eating patterns and he or she may be able to offer you some advice. While most trainers are not certified in nutrition, if they are a good trainer, they realize that proper nutrition and exercise go hand in hand and will have done their own personal research to make sure they are well versed on the subject.

So if you haven't been seeing the weight loss you thought you'd be seeing and are not currently keeping a food journal, now is the time to start. It is the first step any dieter who is very serious about achieving their goals should take before embarking on a solid diet plan. There is no better way to recognize and track how much food you are really eating and why you are eating in the first place. You might just find you surprise yourself when looking at the words on the paper.