One of the challenges we all have to deal with, when trying to lose weight and keep it off, is keeping track of what has worked and areas that need improvement. A food journal is one way that can help you monitor your progress. Research has shown that those that those who keep daily food journals end losing more weight than those who don not.. Though keeping a food journal is not easy, you can still make it work. Here are 3 ways you can use it to lose weight and keep it off.
One of the main benefits of keeping a food journal is that it will help you keep track of what you eat. It can help you discover how many times you snack every day or during the week. It help you discover whether you snack more week days or weekends. Do you eat more of unhealthy food during weekend social gatherings or in the office? When you answer these questions or keep track, you will get a better ideas of your eating pattern and the circumstances that.make you eat more.
You can also use it to help you resist the temptation.to eat more than you planned to. Knowing that you’ll need to jot down those bacon bits on your salad or that extra slice of birthday cake may be all you need to stop you in your tracks. Making nutritious food choices becomes easy, because your food journal will help to remind of the time you ate ice cream, instead of blue berries or eat 4 slices of bread, instead of the two slices you planned to it.
The third way, a food journal can help, is that it can help you identify the triggers that make you eat more. Once you spot your triggers, you can change them. You’ll notice the times of day when you crave something sweet or your tendency to eat the whole donut when you meant to take just a bite.
The important thing to remember is that keeping track of what you eat is an effective way to lose weight, because when you keep track, you know your journey.. As long as you’re consistent and accurate about writing down what you have eaten, an occasional slip won’t stand in the way of your eating healthier and looking slimmer. At the end of the day the food journal serves as a friendly reminder to help you keep to the boundaries and parameters, you have decided to use eat smart and lose weight.
