Tips for Keeping a Food Journal

A food journal is an essential tool for helping people lose weight. But, a food journal can also help you determine what foods trigger certain conditions. There are tips you can take though that will help make keeping a food journal easier.

Just Get Started

The thought of writing down everything you eat can be a bit scary if you’re trying to lose weight. Even if you eat healthily, it can seem like a daunting task. But, the truth is, once you get started with your food journal, it’s actually quite easy to keep up with. You’ll soon find yourself writing down each food without even thinking about it.

Record a Few Normal Days First

Changes don’t happen overnight. It can be extremely difficult to change your diet all at once. Also, you need to see what your food habits are. Recording a few days of normal eating will help you see where you’re going wrong and which foods are hurting you the most. For example, you may find that you’re not eating enough throughout the day to lose weight or that your diet consists of mostly junk food.

Be Honest

If you’re keeping a food journal to help you lose weight, you’ll be the only one looking at it. You must be honest with yourself. If you ate a pint of Ben amp; Jerry’s, write it down. Don’t just write down that you had ice cream. Even if you’re keeping a food journal to help you determine trigger foods, and a doctor will view it, be truthful. A food journal is kept to help you. The key is to narrow down which foods are causing the problems. You’ll never know which food that is unless you’re honest.

Write Down Everything

It doesn’t matter if you consume foods that are calorie free; you still need to write those down. For example, write down that you had a cup of tea with Splenda. Also write down how much water you drink. This will actually ensure you get enough water each day. Also, there may be a type of tea that is causing stomach problems. Writing everything down ensures trigger foods are found and can help encourage healthy eating habits.

Make Notes

A food journal should be thorough. This means that if you’re trying to lose weight, you should write down the calories, fat, etc. each food has. You should also write down what time you ate and what you were feeling if you did eat a high calorie food. For example, you may have experienced stress and ate a king sized candy bar. Writing this down will help you determine why you make unhealthy choices. If you’re trying to determine trigger foods, write down the time of the day you experience symptoms. For example, if you ate broccoli at 12pm and experience IBS symptoms at 1pm, you can better determine what caused the pain.

Keep Your Journal with You at All Times

You may think that you can easily remember what you eat when you’re out, but when you sit down to make an entry you can’t remember. Keeping a food journal with you at all times allows you to quickly and accurately write down what you ate. You can either use a notebook, make notes on your cell phone, or even access online journal sites from your cell phone or laptop.

Just read full story in order to grasp the nitti gritties of managing a food journal so that it helps you in maintaining your weight.

Brandon

Brandon Ingram created Galactic Squid and he hopes to see his site to touch the heights that it deserves. Brandon loves to write about tech and gaming.

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