Yes, I know – BLECH — I get that face every time I mention the food diary to someone. And every time someone bitches and complains that they are “working out all the time” and not losing anything, I say “oh, show me your food diary, I bet we can figure something out”. I am not being a jerk in asking, I simply know that the answer is in your diary if you are actually keeping an honest one.
So many people blow this step off as annoying or too much work. I think it takes about a minute or two after you eat and seriously what can that be in a day — less than 10 minutes so why blow it off and roll your eyes, it is proven to be one of the most effective tools there is for weight loss and weight management.
I get it can be time consuming to look up all the calories and everything but if it is – then just start with simply writing down what you ate.
For example — breakfast — 2 eggs, a whole wheat toast, coffee, banana
I think you will find like most people that you will often repeat meals over and over so you may only need to look this up once. And if you use an app, it will save your favorite items and your favorite meals so the time consumption gets less and less every time you do it. There is NOTHING wrong with the breakfast there but lets do another example
Breakfast – 2 eggs on 2 white toast with butter and salt and pepper, 2 cups coffee with 2 tsp sugar and half and half in each.
OR
Breakfast — 2 cups coffee with flavored Coffee Mate and 2 sugars
OR
Breakfast – McDonalds Egg McMuffin with Sausage, coffee with cream and sugar, McDonalds Hashbrown
DO YOU SEE WHERE I AM GOING HERE?
If you kept an honest record, you might see that you had the McDonalds about once a year because you were at the airport — fine. Or you might see that you have it every Tues and Thurs and that might be a problem.
Or you might see that the NO BREAKFAST and just coffee happened only once because your alarm didn’t go off or one of your kids was sick. Or you may see that you do that every workday and that is why you are eating a donut or a candy bar at 10am — because you are “starving” and this not eating made you go completely food crazy.
If you don’t keep a diary, you may not be able to see these things and your judgement and memory may be clouded by all the other things you have going in your life. So try a food diary this week and see if you can spot some hidden issues (like a 400 calorie latte) or some hidden habits (like meal skipping) This may be all the help you need to shed a few pounds and get back on track.