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Food Diary for Healthy Eating

Many people who want to lose weight will start off with a food diary or journal. A food journal is a great way to see and visualize exactly what you are eating everyday. In fact, once you get the hang of using it on a day to day basis, you may be surprised about what you learn. Your will easily see where you need to concentrate your diet efforts.

A food diary has several benefits. First of all, it will help you see exactly what you eat each day. If you are good about recording what you eat, you will see how many cookies or how many rolls you ate. This will give you a good idea about where you need to cut back as far as your diet goes.

Another advantage of using a food diary is that it may help you control your portions. If you see that you had five slices of pizza, you will soon realize that you are eating way more than your body needs. This is an effective tool for any dieter.

Yet another advantage of keeping a food diary is that you will be able to tell why you eat. Most people do not eat simply because they are hungry. People eat for many reasons. You may eat when you are bored, or sad or stressed. When you keep a food diary, you will be able to see these trends and work to do something to make a healthy change.

Here are some easy tips for starting and maintaining your food diary.

You will need to get something to keep track of what you eat. You can use just about anything, but if you are on the go, you might want to consider a small notebook or binder that you can keep in your purse or desk. If it is portable, you are more likely to keep up with it.

Next, you will want to get in the habit of using it every time you eat. You need to write down each and every snack, nibble and taste. Make sure you write down the date, the time and the place. This is effective so that you can go back and look at your own diet trends. If you see that you eat a candy bar everyday at 3 p.m., then you can use this information to make a change. You know that you need to work through your 3 o'clock slump by eating something healthier than a candy bar.

You may also want to get a book that will help you learn the fat grams and calories of the food you eat. This is important when you need to know the total amount of fat and calories you eat each day. You can also record your serving size such as "five chocolate kisses". At the end of the day, tally the servings of each food group, your total fat intake and your total calorie intake. This will give you an excellent idea of where you need to go with your diet.