Keeping track of the food and drink that you consume each day in a food diary can help you lose weight.
How?
- Visually, you can see it all in black and white. Many of us think we know what we eat each day, and how much we eat. But when you look at it all written down, it can sometimes be quite a shock to see just how quickly all those little snacks and nibbles here and there can add up. For instance, if you finish off the rest of your child’s meals each day, you could be consuming the equivalent of an extra meal per day.
- See patterns in your eating habits. For instance do you buy an unhealthy treat every time you fill up at the petrol station? Do you skip lunch on the days when you have to start work early? Do you eat unhealthy snacks when you are grocery shopping? By seeing the patterns you can begin to make healthy changes.
- It keeps you accountable. Just the fact that you need to write down everything that goes in your mouth can make you more mindful of what you actually want to be writing down. If you would be embarrassed for someone else to take a look at your food diary, this could be a sign that you need to make some positive changes in order to realise your weight loss goals.
- It helps you to see how emotions affect your eating habits. By adding your mood to the diary you will see how being bored, frustrated, lonely, joyful or over-tired can lead to bad food choices.
- You can make the diary as detailed as you like depending on your goals. For instance, some people may wish to use a calorie book or website to add approximate calories to the food diary; whereas other people may find that just the act of writing it all down is enough to keep them honest.
So if you think you would like to give it a go, take a look at our Lose Baby Weight food diary.
Once you are ready to begin, be sure to remember our tips for making the most of the experience. Be honest, accurate, complete and consistent.
- Be honest. Record everything you eat and drink. EVERY. THING. That means you do need to write down things like ‘half a fish finger’ that you polished off your son’s plate or ‘a quarter of a piece of toast’ that you stole off your husband at breakfast. This way you get the full picture of what you consume each day. If you don’t want to have to write it down, you most likely shouldn’t be eating it in the first place.
- Be accurate. Write down exactly what you ate, including brands and portion sizes. So instead of writing down ‘pasta’ you would need to write ‘1/2 cup cooked Barilla wholegrain spiral pasta’.
- Be complete. Include details such as how the food was prepared (e.g. whether the chicken was fried in butter or grilled with a spritz of olive oil spray makes a big difference) and which condiments you added. Many people don’t realise that things like tomato sauce or sweet chilli can pack a big calorie punch.
- Be consistent. Always carry your food diary with you so that you don’t forget to fill it in. It is hard to see patterns when there are big chunks missing. Keep it up for at least two weeks to get the best result.
Good luck!
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