You know that keeping track of all of the foods that you eat is one of the best ways to ensure that you will actually lose weight, but one of the hardest things associated with that practice is actually keeping up with it. It’s not that it’s hard, but it’s a brand-new habit that needs to be kept up with consistently in order for it to work.
The Reality of Keeping a Food Diary
Unfortunately, for most of us, that means that we’ll maintain it enthusiastically for a limited period of time, and then our enthusiasm for it will fizzle out, or we’ll just drop it altogether.
However, there are some things that you can do to help to make sure that you make your food diary work for you, and not just for the first few days that you will be dieting.
Tips to Maintain a Food Diary for as Long as You Need To
Use the following tips to help you to keep up with your food diary for as long as it takes for you to thoroughly understand your own eating habits, and for you to get to know the foods that you eat on a regular basis.
Take on a positive attitude
Think of your food diary as a tool that will help you to see the progress that you are making over time. Allow it to motivate you by being proud of the food choices that you are making. Pay attention to how you feel when you have to add something that you know you shouldn’t have eaten, and then use that to avoid having to do it again!
Suit your tracking to your goals
One of the biggest problems in keeping up with a food diary is that it can feel as though it’s extra homework. If it feels like you’re using it to go above and beyond, then it will feel as though it is optional. The trick is to make sure that the tracking that you are doing is aligned with the goals that you want to achieve. Set short term goals so that you can say that you did well three days in a row so now you can have a treat.
Design your tracking so that you can focus on exactly what you want to achieve instead of making it a general effort. If your diet counts calories, then don’t obsess over fats, particularly not at the start. Instead, just focus on the calories. Over time, you can start to learn more about how different parts of foods contribute to your calorie goals and how to achieve a better balance of nutrition but start it off by paying attention specifically to your goal.
Keep learning
Allow your tracking to grow along with your knowledge. As you start to discover your habits and which foods have more or less of what you want, allow your tracker to teach you about other parts of nutrition, a well. This will help to keep you interested. As you start to track a growing number of things, you’ll not only stop yourself from getting bored, but you’ll figure out how to use food to keep you healthier, too!
If you don’t like the first one, try another
There are tons of different food diaries out there. Online versions are by far the most convenient because they do all the calculations for you. That said, not all apps or web-based experiences are the same. If it turns out that you don’t like one, try another. I used to like Spark People’s the best, but now that it has been shut down, MyFitnessPal is a good one and it syncs with Fitbit (which has its own but that I find frustrating and clunky).
