Saturday, December 21, 2013

Tracking Your Food: The Proper Way To Do It

By Wendy Cox


When you go on a diet one of the first things that you will learn is that it is important to keep an eye on what you eat during the day. Keeping your food log not only helps you see clearly what you are eating, it helps you see what you are not eating. For example, after retaining a food journal for a few days, you might see that you are not taking in very many vegetables but that you are consuming lots of sugar and bad carbohydrates. Having it all written down can help you recognize the elements of your diet that need to change as well as how much exercise you need to get to make sure that you burn enough calories to keep your waistline in check.

But what if you write almost everything down but no weight drop off of you? There is a good way and a sluggish method to track the food you eat. A food log isn't only a list of the items you've eaten during the day. Other sorts of important information will need to be written down as well. Here are a number of hints that you can employ to help your food tracking be more successful.

You should be very precise when you write down the things that you are eating. It is just not enough to list "salad" in your food journal. You need to record each of the materials within that salad as well as the type of dressing on it. You should include the quantity of the food you consume. "Cereal" will not be sufficient but "one cup Fiber One cereal" is acceptable. It is important to understand that the bigger 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 morning that you consume things. This helps you figure out when you feel the most hungry, when you are prone to snack and what you can do about it. After a day or two you may notice that, although you eat lunch at the same time every single day, you still feel hungry an hour or so later. You may also be able to identify when you are eating only to have something to do. This is unbelievably useful because realizing when you're vulnerable to snacking will help you fill those times with alternative activities that will keep you away from the candy aisle.



Write down your feelings when you eat. This helps to show you whether or not you use food as a reaction to emotional issues. It also assists you to see plainly which foods you tend to choose when you find yourself in certain moods. Many individuals will reach for junk foods if we are disappointed, angry or depressed and will be more likely to choose healthier options when we are happy or content. Not only will this enable you to notice when you reach for particular foods based on your mood, it will help you find ways to keep healthier (but similar) options on hand for those same moods and help you figure out whether or not someone professional can help you deal with the issues that are sending you towards certain foods in the first place.




About the Author: