Weight Control Tool: A Food Journal

All the weight control experts recommend keeping a record of what you eat. Seeing your daily intake in black and white reality can boost your pride in your self-discipline, gently confront you with some less than stellar choices you've made, or cast you into a morass of guilt and depression when you face the epicurean debacle that your food intake represents.

A food diary can become so much more useful for your weight wars if you use it as a tool for self-exploration and self-discovery. It allows you to create an oasis of support that anchors you in a world tossed by competing priorities, overwork, incredible dietary temptations, and social pressures that all lead to frustration, inwardly directed anger, diminished self-esteem, and terminal fatigue.

What do we need to do to create such a tool?

1. Buy a good spiral notebook with lots of pages and a hard cover - you're going to keep this for a long time so avoid anything that's going to easily fall apart.

2. Enter the date you started your journey: this is the baseline against which you will compare your entries for the next several months. Under the date, enter the following information as accurately as you can make it, as of this very moment:

Age Height Weight Measurements

Waist

Bust

Hips

Thighs

Upper arms

Clothing size

Type of hairstyle

Any daily exercise obtained

Today's primary mood

Self-Appraisal (find 3 adjectives for each area)

General appearance

Size and shape

Personal characteristics

Interpersonal relationships

Self-value

Family or romantic relationships

Level of self-satisfaction

3. Each day, you are going to enter not only what you ate, but the thoughts and emotions that accompanied the food. Note: Don't become obsessive - it more productive to keep this daily but if you run out of time and energy now and then, skip it, and get back to it when you can.

4. It is going to take some thought and memory-searching to ferret out what you need so find yourself a quiet spot where you can be alone and quiet. Keep your book there, close at hand, so you can quickly visit when you want to record anything that occurs to you.

5. Start teaching yourself to identify the inner landscape that accompanies your food intake. Focus on the moments before you ate: How did you feel at the time? Were you (genuinely) hungry - create a 1 to 10 rating scale for yourself, ranging from "not really" up to "starved, faint, light-headed." Were you bored? Were you anxious and trying to calm yourself down? Were you angry and stuffing that anger down your own throat? Were you feeling sorry for yourself? Were you with good friends and just wanted to be part of the group? Were you just not thinking? Were you trying to punish yourself -or someone else? You may find that you ate several times a day for the same reason or that the triggers to eat differed throughout the day depending upon the circumstances and people involved at the time.

6. Once you have jotted down everything related to the minutes before you ate (you may start out with very little to say but as you warm to this exercise, you will find yourself recording more and more information), consider how you felt directly afterwards. Did you feel satiated and serene? Did you feel proud of your food choices? Were you satisfied with all your selections? Did you feel stuffed and uncomfortable? Did you feel guilty about the choices you made? Were you angry with yourself for giving in to temptation and blowing your diet for the day? Did the food make you light and energetic or heavy and sleepy? Did you think about tomorrow morning's weigh-in with dread or anticipation?

7. Take a look at the day from the perspective of now (last thing in the evening or a look back the following morning). Try to look at your entries as if they belonged to someone else. As a dispassionate third party, what are your conclusions about the individual who recorded this data? Is this a self-aware, consciously motivated person or someone who lives on auto-pilot with little planning or direction? Is this someone who has internalized their diet goals and attempts to control their environment and intake? Is this an individual who merely 'talks the talk" but pursues actions that break those verbal rules? Is this a happy person who is cheerfully continuing the weight struggle with a sense of humor and self-forgiveness? Or is this someone who resents the conspiracies of nature which attempt to load on as much fat as possible, to ward off some improbable future famine?

8. If you are generally satisfied with the day's food intake, give yourself a mental pat on the back and relish the day's accomplishment. Promise yourself that one great day proves forever that you can do it. Identify a small, non-edible, reward for your self-discipline, inner strength, and personal commitment. Record your conclusions and bask in the self-satisfaction you so richly deserve.

9. If you feel disappointed in what you read, remind yourself that it is only one day in a lifetime of thousands of days. Forgive yourself and start over. Think about one or two changes you can make so the following day's record will not be quite so disappointing. Guard against swearing that today will be perfect: you are not going to get there overnight but you will get there, over time, slowly, one step at a time. You are learning to take baby steps that will nudge your food intake into closer alignment with your goals. You are going to gradually add techniques to your arsenal of weapons to keep temptation at bay. The simple fact of intake awareness will keep slowly propelling you towards the goals you have so carefully set.

10. At the end of your entry, enter your weight for the day - it will always fluctuate a little bit but will show you how you are doing when viewed over a period of time.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently completed a psychologically-based weight control book: Diet with an Attitude: A Weight Loss Workbook. She can be reached at http://www.DietWithAnAttitude.com

---

Taking Control of Your Cellulite

Cellulite happens to us for many reasons. Some reasons-- like... Read More

Are You Overweight Because Youre Not Sleeping Enough?

If you're like me, you probably wish that there was... Read More

Hypnosis for Weight Control - Why Diets Dont Provide a Long-Term Solution

One of the difficulties with dieting is the well known... Read More

Understanding Weight Loss

A pound of fat represents approximately 3500 calories of stored... Read More

Weight Loss Superfecta

If you are a fan of horse racing, you are... Read More

Buyer Beware: Purchasing Fat Burners and Other Supplements Online

Each month I receive hundreds of e-mails from consumers who... Read More

Dieting Strategy -- Stop Diet Drop Out

Diet drop out, a significant problem for all types of... Read More

Can You Attain Weight Loss While Fasting?

Fasting, when done properly, can be a basic part of... Read More

Tips for Effective Weight Loss

Weight Loss tipsAll throughout my childhood and teenage years I... Read More

How to Lose Weight in a Healthy Way with Hypnosis

More and more people are turning to hypnosis or hypnotherapy... Read More

Say No To Obesity

Obesity still remains one of the commonest avoidable causes of... Read More

Burn Fat Not Sugar!

You are going to be pleasantly surprised! Most people think... Read More

Take Control of Your Metabolism:Quick Tips for Increased Muscle Tone, Faster Fat Burning, and Energy

So many people are talking about how slow their metabolism... Read More

Can Weight Loss Improve Your Health And Make You Feel Better?

Many people today are interested in weight loss and weight... Read More

Changing Our Eating Behaviour

Changing our eating behaviour is one of the critical lifestyle... Read More

Throw Out the Scale

Do you know someone that is obsessed with the scale?... Read More

Ultimate Weight loss: Ephedra is it Good or Bad?

I have had some e-mails come in and everyone is... Read More

11 Steps to Guarantee Weight Loss and Fitness Success

1. Persistence!Violate this step and you'll never achieve permanent results.... Read More

Lose Weight Quickly And Easily - Weight Loss Information

For people that are obese, losing weight quickly can seem... Read More

Dieting to Death

It has been 15 years since I was diagnosed with... Read More

Fat Does Not Make You Fat

Fat does Not Make You Fat. One of the other... Read More

The Secrets of Online Weight Loss Pills

I know a lot of people out there would like... Read More

The Secret to Reaching Your Ideal Weight

There are many books and internet articles written about weight... Read More

Low Carb Diets - The South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, and More

The low carb diet craze has become extremely popular amongst... Read More

Are You Losing Weight and Getting Fatter?

Your Can Turn Fat into Muscle......Fact or Fiction???Completely False!!!!First of... Read More

A Soda a Day: How is it Affecting Your Weight?

Many people limit themselves to one soda a day especially... Read More

The One and Only Way to Lose Weight

There is only one way to lose weightThere really is... Read More

Motivation and Dieting - Whats the Missing Link?

If you are like everyone else who has hit rock... Read More

7 Excuses For Not Starting Up Your Weight Loss Diet

Changing habits is one of the most difficult challanges we... Read More

Mysteries of Syndrome X Revealed

"I've put on 40 pounds in one year!" "It doesn't... Read More

BuildingMoreThanBodies: Best Proteins For Burning Body Fat and Building Lean Muscles and Strong Bone

Lean turkeyLean ground beefChicken breastFish, halibut, orange roughy,More fish, shark,... Read More

Cross Training

One of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is that there... Read More

Whole Grains Prevent Weight Gain

Research from Harvard, recently published in the highly respected peer-reviewed... Read More