Food Diary

Hello everyone!

We are full swing into summer, and we all know what that means. Longer days, more summer festivities & fun, and possibly even a summer weight loss plateau. If you are experiencing a stagnancy in your weight loss efforts, now might be a good time to start a food diary.

I know that logging everything you eat can be tedious, but it does hold great value in achieving your weight loss goal.

When you put down on paper exactly what is going into your mouth, it can be quite eye opening. Did you account for the few chips you had in between lunch and dinner? Or the handful of peanut M&M’s you had after lunch? What about the few glasses of wine you had after dinner? (which were really double sized, because we all know that no one drinks a 4 ounce pour anymore). Did you really need to eat the entire portion on your plate?

Writing it down will hold you accountable-which is exactly the reason why many put off the food diary. You will become aware of how many calories you are truly eating, which may be more than you had initially thought.

I recently read an article written by Will Dunham on Yahoo news that I found interesting. “A study involving 1,685 middle-aged men and women over six months (the subjects came from four U.S. cities: Portland, Baltimore, Durham, and Baton Rouge) found that those who kept a food diary lost about twice as much weight as those who did not. The average weight loss was about 13 pounds. Those keeping the food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18 pounds compared to 9 pounds for those not regularly keeping a food diary.” The average age of people in the study was 55.

The subjects were asked to eat less fat, more vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and exercise 180 minutes a week mostly by walking.

This is quite profound, isn’t it? Now, knowing how powerful a food diary can be to your weight loss efforts, why don’t you start today? You have nothing to lose…except a few pounds! HAHAHA. :o)

With love!
Jeannette