Grab Best Fitness Blog FeedFood diary ... by Karli Taylor
On my way home from a dinner out during which I over-indulged a bit too much, I started thinking about writing about diet pitfalls. We all have things that throw us off track, but most of us have DIFFERENT triggers. This makes it hard to write a blanket statement about dietary habits or appetite control. The one thing I can make a global statement about, however, is food diaries. Love them or hate them, they work.
Behavior modification weight control is the number one most successful method for long-term weight management. The number one tool used in behavior modification weight control is the food diary. Why is a food diary so effective? In order to lose weight, you must understand your eating habits and what triggers overeating. You cannot assume that we are all overweight for the same reasons. A food diary helps you identify why you are overweight or make poor eating choices.
A food diary turns what is abstract into black and white. You can go back and forth all day long with theories as to why you think you may have gained a few pounds this week- or why you can't seem to lose those last 5. You can make all sorts of justifications and rationalizations, but you can’t deny that which is on the paper. A food diary takes the feeling out of the eating and puts it into a factual format.
Without a diary, you eat without awareness. Our most damaging eating happens when we’re not paying attention. We eat as a reflex to certain situations or emotions. By using a food diary, you can instantly create awareness where before there was none. How many times have you been on the phone while snacking on some chips and soon realized that the entire bag was gone? How many times have you sat down in front of the TV to watch your favorite television program and realize by the first commercial that you finished an entire box of crackers? By using the food diary, you turn automatic behaviors into conscious decisions.
In addition to logging food intake, you should also log the mood you were in when you ate that food. This type of food diary links the connection between food and mood. A food diary that measures only food intake is missing the most important components of behavior. How often do we eat because we’re bored, stressed, celebrating, etc? These emotional connections to food should be recorded so they can be identified. If you find that you eat because you’re stressed, then maybe your focus should be on finding stress reduction techniques rather than a weight loss program.
The following categories should be included on your food diary:
Food item and quantity: You should write down the type of food as precisely as you can. Don't just write pizza- explain that is was a frozen double cheese pizza. Also, the quantity is very important. Having a handful of wheat thins is ok when there are 10 in a handful, but I know that when I reach into a box, I grab at least 30 somehow!
Location: Where was the food eaten? The car? Your desk? Your dining room table? We want to track where you’re eating to see how it’s connected to your food choices. For instance, if you are eating in the car, we can pretty much guess that you’re not eating with awareness.
Time Started/Time Finished: Most people who are overweight eat too fast. By tracking the time that you start and finish eating, you can become more aware of if you take time to savor your food or if you scarf it down in a matter of minutes. By now, most of us know that small frequent meals are better than a few large ones throughout the day.
Company: Have you ever noticed that you always make poor eating choices when eating with certain people? Or on the reverse side, maybe you make great eating choices when eating with certain people. It’s important to know how your company effects your eating.
Mood: This is an important one. Our food choices are very often a result of our emotional state, not necessarily our hunger. By having your clients track their moods, they can see connections between how they feel and what they choose to eat.
So when you finish reading this, grab a fresh notebook and start writing with your next mood. If you are not a paper and pen kind of person, try an online food logging website like myapex.com. While online food logs do not have specific spaces for moods etc, there are places to write notes. If that’s not enough, go a step further and start to blog. You will be amazed at how effective this is at holding you accountable!!
