Posts Tagged ‘weight loss workouts’

Call it what you want; trimming the fat, slimming down, dieting, taking off some pounds…whatever. One thing that all successful weight loss programs need to include is a journal. Unfortunately most of them gloss right over this step. If you can’t easily find out where you are going wrong (or right) changing your habits is going to be very hard.

Basically, anything that can’t be measured (and you need records to measure) can’t be improved upon. The idea is that you have to know what is causing your weight gains before you can find the most successful weight loss programs to take it off.

Weight loss is a one-step-at-a-time process. To get healthy results that are fast and long lasting, we need to go back to the basics. In other words, we need to find out what we are doing wrong before we can change.

The smartest beginning step is…keeping a food journal – daily. It can be complex and filled with masses of details or you can keep it simple, clean and basic. By keeping track of your daily eating habits, your food journal will give you some pretty surprising insights and help you stick with whichever of the successful weight loss programs you decide to use.

Your food journal can record a whole host of valuable information. First, how about listing your daily food intake? Just this simple and basic step can provide you with a lot of unexpected data. It will help you to actually see what you eat on any given day – and you’ll start to notice patterns of unhealthy eating that you had never previously considered.

It’s our habits and daily patterns that make us succeed (or fail) in any aspect of our lives. We habitually do things without even noticing. Your good as well as your bad habits and patterns will quickly emerge once you begin writing everything down in your food journal. After your habits have been exposed, it’s a simple matter to find the successful weight loss programs to counteract them.

Many people find it valuable to record calories, protein, fiber, fat, and other nutrients. Portion sizes could be recorded as well. This is a lot of work, but it is definitely worth the effort. You won’t have to do it very long before you start to find HUGE gaping mistakes in what, when, why, how much and the way you eat.

If you decide to go with a diary format, you’ll want to record details like – the triggers that make you eat for reasons other than hunger, when and what type of cravings you experience, and your inner feelings about your weight loss program and how it’s affecting you every day. There’s a ton of options but, bottom line, it’s YOUR journal so you should keep it the way YOU want.

No one else would have any reason to want to read your food journal – so it’s not like a traditional diary kept under lock and key and hidden away. After all, it isn’t exactly tabloid fodder to read a list of everything you ate in a day. (Unless you’re famous, then you should hide your journal.)

In the actual creation of your journal, use whatever tools work best for you. You don’t need to go out and buy some fancy leather bound journal. (Unless that’s what you WANT.) A simple pad of paper and a pencil will work just fine. You could even keep your journal on your computer. Just fire up your word processing program or an Excel type spreadsheet and keep the icon on your desktop for easy access.

Whether you choose a simple notebook you slip into your pocket or purse…a voice recorder, palm pilot, laptop or any other device, pick something that fits your lifestyle. The whole idea is to make it easy to maintain and something you will actually do – EVERY DAY!

Remember, updating your food journal every day and reviewing it at the end of each week is the key to finding those unwanted habits and patterns and keeping track of your progress. For finding quick ways to lose weight, your journal is far more valuable as a weight loss tool than your scale!

When you hit certain weight loss goals, give yourself a big “ATTABOY” or “ATTAGIRL” It may seem hokey, but buy some gold star stickers and award yourself one whenever you reach a goal. (Seems dumb, but try it – those stars can become pretty important to you.) Skip the tub of ice cream and reward yourself with a non-fattening gold star. Try to set a goal that you can reach every day – so pretty soon your journal is filled with stars. It works.

If you back slide, study your journal and find out what went wrong! It’s all there! You can fix your mistakes and move on to the next gold star.

Take your journal with you when you go to the doctor. They can offer advice and double check to be sure that you are staying with a healthy and safe program. BTW – Never start an exercise or weight loss program without getting checked by a doctor.

Though it requires some extra effort, a food journal works wonders for the people that take the time to make one. As a major weight loss shortcut, it can’t be beat. Start keeping your food journal today.