The Very Best Strategy To Track Your Food

By Robert Abbey


When you start a diet just about the most often heard pieces of advice is to keep a food journal in which you write down every thing you eat during the day. Keeping a food journal helps you determine the foods you are eating as well as the foods you are not eating. For example, after maintaining a food record for a few days, you might see that you are not consuming very many vegetables but that you are consuming lots of sugar and bad carbohydrates. Writing all of it down will help you see precisely which parts of your diet really need to change as well as how much exercise you are going to need to do to make sure that you keep your caloric intake in check.

But what if you've been writing every thing down and still aren't losing weight? You can monitor your foods the correct way or the wrong way. A food record is more than just a basic list of the foods you eat during a day. You have to keep track of some other very important information. Here are some of the things you need to do to be more effective at food tracking.

Be as specific as you can whenever you write down what you take in. It is just not adequate to list "salad" in your food record. Write down every one of the ingredients in the salad and also the type of dressing you used. You ought to include the amount of the food you take in. "Cereal" just isn't beneficial, however "one cup Shredded Wheat" is. It is vital to understand that the larger your portions, the more calories you will be eating so you need to know just how much of every thing you actually eat so that you can figure out how many calories you will need to work off.

Record the time of day you eat things. This can help you discover when you feel the most hungry, when you are vulnerable to snack and what you can do about it. You'll see, for example, that even though you eat lunch at the exact same time every day, you also--without fail--start to snack as little as an hour later, every day. You should also be able to discover whether or not you happen to be eating since you're bored. This is important because all those are moments that you can choose other things to fill your time with than food.



Record your feelings when you eat. This could show you if you use foods to solve emotional issues. It also assists you to see plainly which foods you tend to choose when you are in certain moods. Many of us will reach for junk foods if we are worried, angry or depressed and will be more likely to choose healthier options when we are happy or content. When you look closely at how you eat during your different moods and psychological states, you will be able to keep similar but healthier choices around for when you need those snacks--you might also start talking to someone who can help you figure out why you try to cure your moods with food.




About the Author: