Your Secret Weight Loss Weapon, The Food Journal

Studies show that a food journal doesn't just aid weight loss - it turbo-charges it. When researchers from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research followed more than 2,000 dieters who were encouraged to record meals and snacks, they found that the single best predictor of whether a participant would drop weight was whether the person kept a food diary. It trumped exercise habits, age, and body mass index. The number of pounds people lost was directly related to the number of days they wrote in their log.

How your food journal is an essential tool to achieving your fitness goals:

1. Awareness: Instead of mindlessly consuming meals, your diet journal will help you become conscious of what you are eating, how much, and how often

2. Reality: Once you realize where the majority of calories are coming from, you can make healthier, low calorie changes and eliminate excess foods with little nutritional value.

3. Accountability: By writing down all of the foods you eat and calculating the daily calorie and nutritional value for all your meals, you are forced to consider how an extra serving of pasta or a dessert will factor into
your diet.

4. Routine: When you start a diet journal, you establish a routine. This routine helps you to maintain a stable, steady progression towards your goals even if you have a bad day.

How to use your food journal:

Begin by writing down all of the foods and beverages you eat on a daily basis broken down in to Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, & Snacks. It might be a little annoying as you measure out your food for the first few days, but make sure you are paying close attention to portion size. Record the time you eat each meal as well as all the items in your meal, including dressing, condiments, and beverages.

Calculate your nutritional totals for calories, fat , carbohydrates, protein, and fiber (calories are the most important). You can find the values for the most popular food items located online (www.calorieking.com), nutrition facts label on the container, or a calorie counting book.

Be as accurate as possible and try not to miss a day for the first 3-4 weeks, but don't beat yourself up over it if you forget a day or two. The more accurate your food journal the better your results will be it's that simple. You need to see the good and the bad, everything in moderation. You will not need to keep a food journal indefinitely , but it is an invaluable tool to reaching your initial goals.

Now you don't need anything hi-tech to record your entries. A small notebook will be more than enough. The smaller the better so you can take it with you. It's best to complete your journal entry after each meal so you don't forget the little things that might add up to few hundred calories by the end of the day. I really like "The Ultimate Diet Pocket Journal" by Rober Lluch because it is not only a food journal, it also has a nutrient breakdown for several hundred foods in the back of the book. So if you are eating out you can get a rough guesstimate of what you are eating.