Keep a food diary
When I started to pay more attention to my health some years ago, I decided to get the help of an expert. I signed up to work out with a personal trainer. I would work out with her three times a week then the rest of the week I would work out on my own. I would do everything I did when I was with her-the workouts were gruesome but I was hardly losing weight. I expressed my frustration to her and she told me to start writing down what I ate. I thought it was absurd and a total waste of my time. However, I respected her as the expert so I just went home and did the exercise for a week. After one week I showed her and we started going over my list, I'm sure she was disappointed by some of the food I had on there but she didn't show it. Instead she directed me on which foods to eat less of and which ones to eat more of. Oh, she also highlighted the fact that I was just eating a lot of food. Really? I thought. This girl has got to be kidding me! I don't even eat that much. So putting all my trust in her I asked her to give me a sample of meals for a day. She emailed a sample to me. I looked at the sample and I thought, dang this girl wants me to be starving. But anyway, I'm sure you already know now that I trusted her so I tried to follow her instructions. Finally, the weight started coming off. Eureka!! I wrote down everything I put into my mouth for the next six months. Nobody else knew because you know, people can be nosy. Why did I do it for half a year? Because the weight was coming off. I felt like I had finally discovered the missing piece of the weight loss puzzle.
Keeping a food diary trained me to watch my calories and deterred me from nibbling between meals. Everything I put in my mouth had to be written down so if I didn't want it in my diary I stayed away from it. The food diary also made me realize that sometimes we eat mindlessly but still wonder why we are overweight. I love the food diary concept because it really tells you the truth about your eating habits.
I'll be honest, I do not keep a food diary now because I kept one for a long time so now I can pretty much ballpark the calories in my food.
Have you tried keeping a food diary?
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