Saturday, July 7, 2012
Summer Weight Loss Series- Day Two
Day Two- Keep a Food Journal
Many studies suggest that keeping a food journal is
quite beneficial for both weight loss and healthy living. The results show that
people who kept accurate food diaries lost nearly twice as much weight as
people who did not. So how does writing down everything you eat and drink
affect your weight loss or healthy living goals? The first reason is that
people become far more aware of what they eat when they keep a record of it.
Everyone snacks now and then and the truth is that eating throughout the day is
quite beneficial in terms of maintaining proper insulin levels and boosting our
metabolic rate. However a lot of people do not realize how much they eat or how
often they are eating the wrong kinds of foods. For example if you eat a single
serving bag of chips or a small order of fries with your lunch three times per
week you are looking at about a seven pound weight gain per year just from
that. This does not include other diet choices and drinks can be especially
troublesome. Like one can of regular soda per day can pack on another 15
pounds! Plus drinks high in sugar are also linked to diabetes and heart
disease. Keeping a food diary makes people so much more aware of what they eat
and how often they eat it that it is a powerful tool to have in your healthy
living arsenal. But that is not the only reason to jot down your daily
consumption. Another major reason why food journals are beneficial is
accountability. People feel guilty plain and simple if they have too many
“bad" entries but feel proud when they are making better choices. This
affect is even more prominent for those who share their diaries with others. Finally
those who ramp up their journal entries by including information about
portions, calories, sugar, sodium etc. increase their benefits by truly taking
control of their nutritional habits. So plain and simple the goal for today is
to begin a food journal. Start recording what you eat and drink and become more
mindful of your choices. Continuing this habit will really help you to reach
your goals and to maintain your weight loss.
There’s an app for that…
By the way there are literally hundreds of apps for
both recording your daily food intake and many of them also provide nutritional
info at a glance. There is also a convenience factor to being able to keep
track of everything on your smart phone or media devices.
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