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

---

The Secret Meaning Of Compulsive Eating Behaviors

Food is not simply fuel to keep you going. Nor... Read More

Who Else Wants To Lose Weight? Stop Dieting!

From personal experience I have myself like all of you... Read More

Weight Loss Programs: Which Weight Loss Program Will Really Work?

Weight loss programs often have big claims. Understand the "science"... Read More

Six Steps to Weight Loss Success

What does it take to lose weight?When it comes to... Read More

Look On Aisle 5

Have you ever stopped to calculate how much time you... Read More

Resist that Snack Attack and Keep Your Diet on Track

When on a diet, snack attacks can hit hard and... Read More

Hear What Your Diet Pills Say

Used a diet pill recently and got depressed because you... Read More

How to Lose Weight: Food for Thought

When it comes to weight loss, most of us would... Read More

Weight Loss Tip ? The Importance of Lowering Your Body-Fat!

When you hear a doctor or a personal trainer say,... Read More

Breakfast -How Not To Start The Day Part I

Axiom Number FourTo have a great selling diet plan encourage... Read More

Lose Weight and Feel Great

Many people search for a pill, a special diet or... Read More

The Secret Key To Permanent Weight Loss!

With this key, I GUARANTEE YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE... Read More

The Importance and Confusion of Fat in Your Diet

Fats are always looked at as a negative in a... Read More

The Number One Secret Of Successful Weight Loss

There's one thing that most people forget about when it... Read More

Binge Eating: Will This Cycle Ever Stop?

Here's a letter from my email:Dear Carol,I took your teleclass... Read More

Walk Your Way to Weight Loss

"The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of... Read More

Push a Button to Lose Weight

Trash Your TV! is pleased to announce the easiest weight... Read More

Your Words Affect Your Weight Loss - Stop the Struggle

Are you Telling Yourself It's Too Hard to Lose Weight?Telling... Read More

After WLS Patients Must Give-up Coffee, Tea, Soda and Alcohol to Sustain Weight Loss

Dieters are often told ? drink water. Drink a minimum... Read More

Treadmill Weight Loss Tips

These treadmill weight loss tips are a great way to... Read More

Smarter Eating

Dieting doesn't have to be a chore. Actually, you can... Read More

An Interesting Look at Mini Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric bypass surgery has many forms and can involve stapling... Read More

Lose Weight and Keep it Off Permanently Without Fancy Diets

For years the experts have been telling us that diets... Read More

Daily Weight Loss Motivation

When you are faced with the daily challenge of trying... Read More

The Jack LaLanne Diet - Are You Tough Enough?

There's no way you can separate the Jack LaLanne diet... Read More

Schoolchildren on South Beach diet

As a part of a children's diet and health study,... Read More

Add High Water Content Fruits and Vegetables to Your Diet For Fast Weight Loss

Include in your diet things that contain more water like... Read More

Prejudice and Obesity - Have You Been a Victim?

It's a sad comment on human nature that prejudice and... Read More

Tips for Weight Loss

For a healthy body, it is very important to have... Read More

Weight Loss Secrets -- It?s About Perspectives!

Any dietary plan on the market has some portion of... Read More

The Diet Pill They Don?t Want You to Have is Back

It comes as a surprise to many consumers that the... Read More

For All Walks of Life

Why Walking Could Be the Solution to Your Fitness Dilemma.Walk,... Read More

Panic After WLS: Im Succeeding at Weight Loss: Now What?

The fear of success arises in patients when they realize... Read More