Day 26: Keep A Food Diary | 30-Day Weight Loss-athon
It’s time for Day 26 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon.
All tasks in the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon are adapted from my 52 Weight Loss Missions program.
Read the steps first, then take 10 minutes to complete them.
Move fast, act quickly and stop over-thinking. Ready?
What You Need:
- Pen and notebook, or
- Smartphone app, or
- Interactive Diet & Exercise Diary from your 52 Weight Loss Missions Action Pack.
Step 1
First, let’s work out why we should keep a food diary.
Here are several excellent reasons.
- People often underestimate how much they eat – so this is a great way to get real.
- Having to write down what you eat can help arrest mindless eating – and mindless eating can be a major factor in overeating.
- It can feel very rewarding when you fill in healthful, weight-loss-friendly choices – so that’s some nice positive reinforcement
- Tracking your food can give you helpful weight-loss insights into problem foods or problem times of day
- Writing down everything you eat can suddenly reveal ‘invisible’ calories you never acknowledged before – such as tasting while cooking, finishing kids’ meals, the true extent of snacking (you ate 25 cashews, not just a few).
- Research shows that tracking your food intake can enhance weight-loss success.
Importantly, keeping a food diary is not meant to make you feel bad; it’s meant to give you information.
Step 2
Next, let’s decide where to keep your food diary. Choose one, or experiment with several to find one that fits seamlessly into your life.
You could:
- Use a small notebook or food diary you can keep in your purse. Keep a pen handy so you can jot down your entries wherever you are.
- Download one of the many apps available on smart phones. Search food diary or food tracker in the app store. Note: you don’t need to use calorie-tracking functions unless you want to.
- Use the Interactive Diet & Exercise Diary from your 52 Weight Loss Missions Action Pack. Use the interactive features to enter text from your computer or iPad, or print it out and write by hand.
Step 3
The key to using your food diary successfully – so it aids your weight loss – is to leave nothing out.
These tips will help:
- Use it every day, for everything you eat. I’ll say it again so there can be no misunderstanding: Everything you eat.
- Record your entry immediately after eating, so nothing is forgotten. Make this a habit.
- Be descriptive, saying small, medium or large; number of items, spoons, cups; etc.
For example:- Medium apple
- 1.5 chocolate bars
- 25 cashew nuts
- Large bowl of cereal
- Small skim cappuccino.
- Include the method of cooking – baked, grilled, fried, etc.
- Remember to include sauces, spreads, dressings, condiments, etc.
- Include drinks (juices, tea, coffee, alcohol), and their sizes. For coffee and tea include added milk, sugar, syrups, etc.
- Be sure to record everything – meals, snacks, tasting while cooking, finishing kids’ meals, etc. If you think you don’t eat much, this may be eye-opening – and therefore useful information in your weight-loss success.
If you already keep a food diary, what will you do differently?
If you don’t, will you start today?
Check in!
And you’re done!
Be sure to leave your comment below to check in and stay accountable. If you’re reading this by email or in a reader then please click here to leave your comment.
See you tomorrow!
I have been doing this since day one. It really makes you more conscious of what you are eating and when.
I always start on a good note, but after a few days, I forget to mark things down. I should try harder to keep track!
Been tracking for a couple of weeks now, bought a weight watchers 3 month journal.
This will keep me on top of my eating habits.. I tend to forget to eat in the mornings and then end up snacking too much at night!
This is how I started working toward my healthy-me goals. I use the Lose it! app.
Started this at the beginning of the month. It’s amazing at the stuff I missed at first, especially little add ins.
I have been using my fitnesspal since we started this and its working out for me!
I did this last night 🙂 Weighed myself this morning, and no more excuses, it’s time to think about portion control, my biggest downfall 🙁
Emm.. I did it once and it didn’t work out for me! I’ll skip! I’m happy eating on a basis of my hand is the measure of the meat portion, and as much allowed vigs as I can!
I do great at keeping a food diary UNTIL I over eat or eat chat I shouldn’t! I’m learning to write it all down no matter what! As the say in WW, “If you bite it, write it!”
My food diary would either be with me when I eat or at my bedside table and when I eat now I turn a blind eye to the food that will not be good for me.
I just download MyFitnessPal app to track my progress and it is AWESOME. highly recommend it to any smartphone users looking for a great app (and its free!)
I have been recording my food on My Fitness Pal for awhile, so I’m good on this one. I will try to be more meticulous about recording immediately after I eat.
I use http://www.sparkpeople.com, but I have a harder time remembering to do this on the weekends. Got to push myself a little more on that.
This has been one of the most helpful things for me to do especially because I cook/bake a lot for my work (and pleasure!) which means I HAVE taste things to see if they are “right”…but, I don’t need to taste as much as I do ;-).
Started the diary yesterday! Hubby treated me to Panera tonight? Probably shouldn’t have eaten that “little” bag of chips.
I have done this in the past and am going to restart now….with this month’s actions I have become more mindful of the things I eat so maybe I won’t be so ashamed of what I have to write down. It will be a positive instead of a negative for me now.
I need to work on this one…esp. the little taste test, that I often do, while I am cooking! I don’t ever remember to write them down….I guess I thought they were free! : )
This is not as difficult as I thought it would be. I have been keeping a log of ALMOST everything online. Now I will pull out that pocket notebook and jot down everything, before I eat it. That way I will try my best not to have seconds or cheat.
I am already keeping a food diary as I have been using Myfitnesspal for over 75 days. It really makes a difference when I note everything and waht is worth eating or not.