Food journals can be invaluable to dieters. They allow individuals to track the food that they eat so that they can keep count of how many calories they are consuming. They also aid in providing an actual “snapshot” of all the food that one is eating. Individuals are often surprised when they discover that they are eating far more then they believed that they were. Most food journals are bound notebooks. You can also start one online. There are advantages to each of these.
If you have a hard copy, you can keep it with you ensuring that you will be able to write down everything that you eat. An electronic journal allows you to “go green” and it is likely more convenient then lugging an actual notebook around. You will have to make sure that you jot down what you eat by hand so that you don’t forget. Having a photographic memory might also come in handy. While an electronic and an actual journal are great options, an increasing number of dieters are starting keep pictorial and video journals.
Why? Well these types of journals truly expose dieters and keep them honest with themselves. It is one thing to write down in your food journal that you had spaghetti. It is another thing to see a picture of a serving of spaghetti fit for 3 people. You get a more honest picture (literally) of what you are eating.
Many women and men who are overweight tend to underreport how much they actually eat. This may be because they forget or that they simply refuse to be honest with themselves. While this may soothe their conscious, it won’t help them get any thinner. If they want to lose weight, they will have to be completely honest with them selves. A video or picture food journal will do that.
You don’t need to do anything fancy or complicated to start a video or picture journal. It is not necessary to buy any expensive software. Just start taking pictures or video of every meal and snack that you eat throughout the day. You can then place them in an electronic file that you can access on your computer or your can print them out and glue them into an actual journal. If you have video, simply save your clips to your desktop or into your very own “food journal” file.
If you are serious about losing weight, you have to be willing to face the truth and be brutally honest with yourself. This includes keeping an honest and complete tab on what you are eating. You won’t know where to cut back or even if you can, if you don’t know exactly what you are eating. Most of us are busy. We are barely making it through the day. Therefore, we may have a hard time remembering if we had a candy bar at 10:30 or a second helping of mash potatoes at 6:45. We may then be totally surprised when the weight starts creeping up because we have not been keeping track of our food intake. A journal, whether it is paper, electronic, pictorial or video will help us do just that.
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