Tracking Your Meals: The Proper Way To Do It

By Martin Bojorquez


When you begin your diet one of several things you will learn right away is that maintaining a food journal is very helpful. Tracking all of the meals you eat may help you figure out which foods you will be eating as well as which foods you are not eating enough of. For example, after you keep a food record for a few days you might notice that even though you eat lots of fruit, you almost never eat any vegetables. Writing all of it down can help you see specifically which parts of your diet 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 happens if you write each thing down but still can't figure out how to lose fat? You can observe your meals the right way or the wrong way. There is more to food journaling than composing an index of what you eat during the day. Other varieties of important information are going to need to be written down too. Here are a number of hints that you can employ to help your food tracking be more successful.

Be as particular as you can while you write down what you consume. You should do more than merely write down "salad" into your food record. The correct way to do it is to write down all of the ingredients in the salad as well as the kind of dressing that is used. You need to include the volume of the food you eat. "Cereal" is just not as good an entry as "one cup Honey Nut Cheerios." It is very important to remember 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.

Write down exactly what time of day it is while you eat. This helps you determine when you feel the most hungry, when you are vulnerable to snack and what you can do about it. After a day or two you could notice that, although you eat lunch at the same time every day, you still feel hungry an hour or so later. This will even enable you to identify the times when you start to eat simply to give yourself something to do. This is unbelievably useful because realizing when you're vulnerable to snacking will help you fill those times with other activities that will keep you away from the candy aisle.



Record your spirits when you eat. This helps you to show you whether or not you use food as a reaction to emotional issues. It will even identify the foods you select when you are in certain moods. There are lots of people who seek out junk food when they feel angry or depressed and are equally likely to select healthy things when they feel happy and 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.




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