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By Lee Sabin


When you begin your diet one of many things you will learn right away is that maintaining a food journal is very helpful. Tracking all of the foods you consume can help you figure out which foods you will be eating as well as which foods you are not eating enough of. For example, once you keep a food journal for a few days you could notice that while you eat lots of fruit, you almost never eat any vegetables. Writing all of it down can help you see precisely which parts of your diet plan really need to change as well as how much exercise you are going to need to do to make sure that you keep your caloric intake in check.

But what if you write everything down but no pounds drop off of you? There is a good way and a idle method to track the food you eat. A food log isn't just a list of the things you've eaten during the day. Other varieties of important information are going to need to be written down as well. Here are a few of the suggestions that can enable you to become a lot more successful at food tracking.

Be as specific as possible while you write down what you take in. You have to do more than simply write down "salad" into your food log. You should list all of the ingredients within that salad as well as the type of dressing on it. You also need to note down the amount of of the foods you are eating. "Cereal" is not as good an entry as "one cup Honey Nut Cheerios." Remember the more you consume of something the more calories you consume so it is important that you list quantities so you know exactly how much of everything you're eating and how many calories you need to burn.

Write down precisely what time it is while you eat. This will allow you to figure out precisely what times of day you feel the most hungry, when you usually reach for snacks and then you can learn how to deal with those times. You'll observe, for example, that though you eat lunch at the exact same time every day, you also--without fail--start to snack as little as an hour later, every day. You may possibly also be able to identify when you are eating simply to have something to do. This is critical because, once they are identified, you can find other ways to fill those moments than with unhealthy foods.



Record your mood when you eat. This makes it possible to determine when you use foods to help soothe emotional issues. This may also show you whether or not you gravitate for certain foods based on your mood. Lots of us will reach intuitively for unhealthy foods when we feel disappointed or angry and we are more likely to choose healthy options when we feel happy or content. When you focus on how you eat in the course of your different moods and psychological states, you will be able to keep similar but healthier options around for when you need those snacks--you might also start talking to someone who can help you figure out why you try to cure your moods with food.




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