by Haven Logan PH.D

        
If you’ve ever been on a weight loss program, chances are someone has asked you to keep a record of what you are eating. When asking my own counseling clients to keep a food diary, I can anticipate glazed-over eyes accompanied by tales of past failures and a variety of excuses for not tackling this task.

I empathize completely! Keeping a food diary isn’t high on my list of favorite activities either. We may start out with the best of intentions and write down everything for the first few days. Then we forget our notebooks or go to a potluck dinner and can’t possibly remember what we ate. Once the record-keeping pattern is broken, it’s hard to start up again. Then there are those “moral dilemmas” of just how truthful to be. Do we count the chips we grabbed as we walked through the break-room? Do we really have to weigh that piece of chicken? Surely it’s no more than three ounces!

There are very few things in the area of weight management upon which most experts agree. I hate to tell you this, but they do agree that a food diary is critical to weight loss success!

Let’s look at why the experts have reached this conclusion and then explore ways to make you successful at using this weight management tool. The primary purpose of a food diary is to create an objective awareness of your food intake and patterns of eating. Perhaps you’ve put on ten pounds in the last year and feel completely discouraged. “There’s nothing I can do,” your emotions say. “Everyone in my family gets fat after they reach forty.” Then you keep a log of what you’ve been eating and notice that an after dinner bowl of ice cream has become a regular habit.

Yes, your age and your genetics often have a major impact on your weight. You can’t change either of these. You can, however, make choices about your food intake. Being able to look objectively at your patterns can give you an enormous sense of control. It is a great relief to realize that your ten pound weight gain over the past year might easily be due to that one cup of Ben and Jerry’s Wavy Gravy ice cream which adds 680 calories to your daily total. While you’re keeping this diary you might also notice that you’re walking only 2 days a week rather than the 4 days a week you used to walk. Giving up your favorite ice cream treat and walking more might not be easy, but it could save you from continuing weight gain and having to make drastic changes in the future.

Writing down what you eat changes food and beverage consumption from an unconscious act to a conscious one. Food diaries provide a basis for planning changes, setting goals, and monitoring progress. Some people find, as in the above example, that minor changes can make a big difference. Other people discover that the simple act of recording helps them lose weight without their making any other changes.

 

Suggested Food Diary Headings

• What you ate or drank: Be specific and include everything.
• How much: Size, volume, weight, and number of items.
• Time: Time of day you ate this food or drank this beverage.
• Where: What location were you in when you ate.
• Alone or with whom: Were you by yourself or with others.
• Activity: List activities done while eating (watching TV, driving).
• Mood: How were you feeling before, during and after eating?

 

Personalize Your Food Diary

If you’ve decided to try keeping a food diary the next question is: What is your purpose?  If you’re just starting out on a weight loss program you might want to begin with logging all seven categories listed above. After that, focus on the area that most concerns you. If your major issue is emotional eating, you could just log your moods and how they relate to your eating patterns. If your concern is more unconscious and habitual eating patterns, you could log under; time of day, where, with whom, and activity. If you think your main problem is portions, then focus on weighing and measuring everything you eat. If eating a more nutritious diet is what is important, then you might want to precisely log the fat, sugar and other components of what you eat. Make the food diary work for your unique needs and situation. Recognize that your area of focus may well change over time.

Choosing Your Diary Form

There is no one correct way to keep a food diary. Customize yours so that it will work for you. Most diaries are created to be kept for a week at a time. That is certainly a good way to get an overall view. Yet even logging for a single day can be helpful if you pay attention to what it tells you.

One way to keep a diary is in a small notebook that you take with you. It is important to record throughout the day rather than relying on your memory at night. You can put the above headings in your notebook. You can also download a diary form from my website: http://www.californiawinecountrydiet.com/.  Based on the USDA Dietary Guidelines 2005, this form focuses on nutrition and portions.

You can find a wide selection of food diaries on the Internet. The one I have been using personally and with my clients is called Diet Power. This program includes a wealth of nutritional information and goal setting tools. It can be used with any recognized diet, or for simply tracking calories and exercise on your own. Once you’ve typed in your favorite foods the daily logging can be done in a few minutes. There is a 15-day free trial of the software. Their address is: http://www.dietpower.com/.

If you decide to buy this product, be sure to type in my name and you’ll get $5 off the purchase price.

Rather than thinking of a food diary as a terrible chore that you have been forced to do, try to think of it as the key to freedom from yoyo dieting. With a food diary you can pinpoint exactly where your problems are and come up with a plan to deal with them. You can also create your own diet based on the foods you love and your lifestyle needs. Who knows? You might even find keeping a food diary enjoyable!