Weight Loss Journal Ideas

Using Tracking to Analyze Eating Habits, Identifying Health Issues

Keeping a diet journal can help ensure a successful diet plan. These are some of the things that a diet journal can do for you.

- A journal will allow you to look at your eating pattern to see if you are incorporating healthy choices into your daily diet.

When you are able to view an entire day's worth of menu plates and snacks, you are better-able to see the faults therein.

There may be far too many snacks in your food list - or too many unhealthy snacks or treats.

On the other hand, a faulty daily diet which is triggering weight gain or prohibiting the individual from losing those unhealthy pounds may not be related to food, rather than to the drinks and beverages in the diet.

That cup, mug or glass may be too large and capable of holding two or more servings of those beverages which contain calories.

A Spike in Weight Isn't Always Related to Overeating

And weight gain may not be related to either an overage of calories contained within beverages or food consumption. Weight gain may be happening because of a hidden health condition.

Diabetes is notorious for playing around with body weight; some individuals might drop pounds out of the blue while others rapidly gain weight.

My father ended-up losing his life to the complications of diabetes and he was in his early forties when he was diagnosed. He had been living with the disease for many years and had absolutely no idea of such.

He weighed about 275 pounds at the time which was about 100 pounds over his recommended weight.

Then suddenly, he lost about 50 - perhaps up to 70 pounds in a matter of weeks. The weight fell off so rapidly that the family was absolutely certain that he had cancer which many in his family had succumbed to; it was in the genes. But so was diabetes, unbeknownst to him.

His mother contacted him about this time - which was a rarity because she had abandoned her children when they were young kids, going on to marry seven times in her life to different men.

She told my father that she had just found out that she had diabetes and that she was contacting all four of her children so that they could be tested.

That was quite nice of her to make the effort, so she must have felt something for her children deep inside of herself.

So my father went in for testing and he had diabetes in a bad way.

We were relieved that it wasn't cancer and that it could be treated, but at that time we had no idea of the damage that diabetes could inflict on the human body - if one didn't take it as a life-and-death matter, which is truly is; my father was placed on pills to control his symptoms as well as a weight loss plan because the doctor wanted him to lose those excess pounds that were still on his body.

But once my father started taking the medication and his sugar levels rectified he started feeling great - and yes, started glutting again. That man absolutely loved food and often proclaimed such.

The family tried desperately to help him get on track, but he wouldn't listen.

At the time, I wasn't in good physical shape and had weight to lose of my own. I had not yet conquered my mass - but years later, I would go forward and do such. If only I had the knowledge and experience back then that I do now, I could have helped him.

He progressed from pills to insulin shots; and back then - there weren't these pain-free apparatuses and testing equipment. A stab to the finger or arm was just painful to watch. I saw him go through terrible stages over the years; he fainted at times and would go into sugar lows that were life-threatening.

Nonetheless, I say all of this to stress the importance of monitoring one's diet - because you can learn a lot. Let's move to the next bullet point.

Challenging Times of the Day Relating to Overeating

- Your journal will help you identify the most difficult time of the day for resisting food and caloric beverages; this will allow the dieter to plan ahead for those times when Mister Hungry strikes.

Perhaps the dieter will need to incorporate foods with stronger satiety power - such as boiled eggs, beans and oatmeal into their meal plate.

Perhaps hunger or appetite can be dealt with by embracing exercise.

Try this next time when you feel like you must eat - and based on the fact that you enjoyed a good meal earlier in the day: when your appetite strikes a chord, get up and take a brisk five or ten minute walk.

If you are like most individuals, within the first couple of minutes of your walk you will notice that your appetite has either faded or departed.

This is a healthy and most excellent method of effectively smashing Mister Appetite - who is much different than Mister Hungry.

- Your weight loss journal will help you account for calories that might otherwise go unnoticed (like that piece of candy or mint).

Take dieter Rose; she is an avid gum chewer and she has jaw muscles to show for her efforts.

By the way, chewing too much gum does indeed create these muscles, making the face appear larger than it is; just like the biceps when muscles are developed.

Rose chews a stick of gum every half hour until bedtime; today she has chewed 24 sticks of regular gum at 10 calories per stick.

That equals 240 calories - just for gum.

Sugar free gum?

It isn't without calories; most contain close to 5 calories per stick even if it's not indicated on the nutrition label; when products are virtually calorie free - at times, reporting such is not required.

The label may even state 'zero calories' because if the calories are at a certain level, they can be claimed as zero. But when accumulated, those 5 calories each can really add up.

- A diet journal will also help keep you motivated as you can see your progress. When you see how well you are doing, that in itself is motivation to keep on trucking where lost pounds are concerned.

How to Make a Weight Loss Journal

We strongly recommend making a physical book rather than an electronic one because you have an at-a-glance tool.

To make a diet journal, you may get as fancy as you like - from a simple tablet to a fabric-covered notebook.

Simply jot down your current weight, your goal weight and begin recording on a day-to-day basis. List all the foods that you eat and their caloric content - which you can discover via nutrition labels; purchase a caloric book too so you can get familiar with food and beverage values.

You'll need to buff-up on this at some point because you'll want to maintain your new weight. Add up the totals ideally the day before so you'll be motivated to stick with your plan.

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