Keep a Food Diary!
Hey, do you know what you had for dinner last Thursday? I bet you don’t, but you probably should if you’re trying to lose weight. A study was recently done by several scientists at clinical research centers in the U.S. and Dr. Sanjay Gupta (yep, from CNN) sums it up with this:
The senior investigator, Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., told me that "hands down, the most successful weight-loss method was keeping a record of what you eat." In the six-month study, participants who kept a food journal six or seven days a week lost an average of 18 lb. (8 kg), compared with an average of 9 lb. (4 kg) lost by non-diary keepers.
That’s right. Those who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t. Not to mention, you only need to keep the food diary six days so you get a day to relax too. This should be hardly surprising. Have you been watching the Olympics? Heard the story about how Michael Phelps has accomplished every single goal he has written down for himself. When you write stuff down and look at it every day, it gets implanted into your subconscience and you’re bound to see results.
Now, as you’re reading this, I’m sure you’re thinking you are going to do this food diary thing. It sure sounds like a good idea, but, believe me, you won’t do it unless you do it NOW! Get up for a minute right now, grab a notebook, grab a pen, set up a table or list or however you want to organize it and put it on the dinner table (or wherever you eat). Better yet, can you remember everything you ate today? If you can, get your food diary started right now!
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There are some great online food diaries that make it easy to track your food and exercise. I like NutriMirror.com. It’s easy to use, it does the math for you, and it’s free.