Keeping a food diary is a very accurate way to establish your current eating habits. Begin by consuming your regular diet for seven days. Put all the items you eat and drink into your food diary – bar none! A log of seven days consumption will tell you a lot about your eating habits, and how you can make positive changes.

You might find you’re drinking more fizzy sodas and eating more high fat foods than you thought. If you are, then look to cut those out first. But if that’s not the case, and what you’re eating looks OK, then just reduce the amount. Whether it’s poor food choices or too much food, the diary will tell you all you need to know.

Produce a programme that you will follow for the next week. Put everything down relating to exercise, food and drink. If some foods are to be forbidden or limited, write that down. Also write down the alternative food that you do plan to eat.

With regard to alcohol, write down which days it’s banned, and which (few) days you’re allowed say two small glasses. Sugary fizzy sodas are banned! Next look at exercise. Decide what you are going to do each day and write it down.

Just before you get started, jump on the scales and weigh yourself. Assess your progress each week, and adjust where necessary. Only weigh yourself at the beginning of each week at the same time of day. Note it down in your diary.

You have lots of flexibility with a program like this. Useful observations jotted in the diary will help to make the following weeks more enjoyable. Also enter the exercise you’re doing, to make sure this isn’t getting left out. A diary is a very simple way to monitor your progress – and a remarkable tool for staying with the program!

It’s vital however not to look for an instantaneous result. At first, it seems to be all effort and no reward! Remember patience is a virtue! Don’t think about what you’re missing out on; think about what you’re going to gain as a result of your weight loss.

Try to get back into good habits as quickly as you can if you find yourself straying. Do you need to change some things about your regime? There are some relatively easy ways to introduce more exercise. Why not take a twenty minute walk every lunch time, and increase the pace each day?

Applaud yourself when you do well. It helps with your motivation if you award yourself little treats for good results. A lovely new suit should probably wait until your full weight loss is realised. However, there’s nothing wrong with a theatre trip to celebrate a milestone.

(C) 2010 – S. Edwards. Browse around Diets For Weight Loss or www.weightlossdietwar.com/Diet.html.

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