Wednesday, December 9, 2015

How to Keep a Food Diary and Why

How to Keep a Food Diary and Why

By Jim F

how-to-keep-food-diary Many nutritional experts agree that keeping a food diary is critical to weight loss success. A food diary creates a conscious awareness of food intake and eating patterns.

After keeping a diary many people are often surprised at how that “occasional” big dessert turns out to be a regular occurrence.

While some factors such as age or genetics are outside of our control – we can make choices about what foods we eat.

Basic Guidelines for Keeping a Food Diary
Details you record could include:
What you ate or drank: Be specific and include everything.
How much: Size, volume, weight, and number of items.
Time: Time of day you ate this food or drank this beverage.
Where: What location were you in when you ate.
Alone or with whom: Were you by yourself or with others.
Activity: List activities done while eating (watching TV, driving).
Mood: How were you feeling before, during and after eating?
What is your purpose?
What you include in your food diary depends on which area concerns you the most.

If your problem is portions: focus on weighing and measuring everything you eat.
If you want to focus on a nutritious diet: record the nutritional components (fat, sugar, salt, etc).
(NOTE: There are some great on-line resources reviewed here).
If your problem is habitual eating patterns: Focus on recording time of day, where, with whom, and activity.
Emotional eating issues? Log your moods and their connections to eating patterns.

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