When you start a diet just about the most often heard pieces of advice is to keep a food log in which you write down every thing you eat during the day. Keeping your foods log not only helps you see clearly what you are having, it helps you see what you are not eating. For example, after retaining a food journal for a few days, you might see that you are not eating very many vegetables but that you are consuming lots of sugar and bad carbohydrates. Writing all of it down can help you see exactly which parts of your diet plan really need to change as well as how much exercise you are going to need to do to make sure that you keep your caloric intake in check.

But what if you write everything down but no pounds drop off of you? There is a good way and a idle approach to track the food you eat. There is more to food journaling than writing a list of what you eat during the day. You must record other important pieces of information as well. Here are a number of the hints that can enable you to become much more successful at food tracking.

Be as precise as you can when you write down what you take in. It is not adequate to list "salad" in your food log. Write down all the ingredients in the salad as well as the type of dressing you used. You ought to include the quantity of the food you consume. "Cereal" is not very good, but "one cup Shredded Wheat" can be. It is very important to understand that the bigger your servings, the more calories you will be eating so you need to know just how much of every thing you actually eat so that you can figure out how many calories you will need to work off.

Record the time of day time that you take in things. This helps you determine when you feel the most hungry, when you are prone to snack and what you can do about it. After a day or two you may notice that, although you eat lunch at the same time every single day, you still feel hungry an hour or so later. This will also enable you to identify the occasions when you start to eat simply to give yourself something to do. This is extremely helpful because understanding when you're vulnerable to snacking will help you fill those times with other activities that will keep you away from the candy aisle.



Write down your emotions while you eat. This can help you pinpoint when you use meals to help soothe emotional issues. It also makes it possible to see clearly which foods you are inclined to choose if you are in certain moods. There a wide range of people who seek out junk food when they feel angry or depressed and are equally likely to choose healthy things when they feel happy and content. Paying attention to what you reach for if you find yourself upset can help you stock similar but more healthy items in your house for when you need a snack-you could also start talking to someone to figure out why you cure moods with food (if that is something that you actually do).