A food journal is 2 things.  First it’s a record of everything you put in your mouth–even if you licked the brownie batter spoon.  Knowing we will have to write it down often stops us from making a poor food choice.  Having a record of what we eat also helps us if we reach a plateau.  We can look back on our choices and see if they are the reason why our weight loss has stopped.  Our food journal shows us when we reach our calorie limits for the day and helps us spread our allotment out evenly through the day.  I once started a fitness plan and consumed my daily allotment by lunch!  That was one miserable afternoon.  Now with a menu plan and a food journal, I never have to live that again.

Second, it’s a record of how you feel during the weight loss process.  If you are angry about missing some of your favorite unhealthy foods, write it down.  If you are hungry and discouraged, write it down.  If you have more energy and feel really great about the postivie choices you are making, write it town too.  Somehow letting it out on paper, helps us keep going and be nicer to our family while we do it.

If you are also making a menu plan from the download in yesterday’s post, this can be part of your food journal.  Simply check off when you eat a food on the menu and write in any additional foods to the side or on the back.  When I food journal, I like to write specific amounts of the foods I eat and the calories in them.  But I’m one of those weirdos that enjoys counting calories.  I also record the time of day I ate it, but that is totally optional.  If I do any exercise or particularly strenuous chore, I write that down too with the amount of time spent on it. 

Choose whatever you like for your journal.  A simple spiral notebook is perfect.  Right now my journal is on the computer at Babyfit.  I love that I can look up the amounts and types of foods and add them to my journal and they keep track of all the calories and nutrition for me!  I can also input any foods that aren’t on their list and save them in a private list of my favorites. If you aren’t expecting a baby, you can get a similar online food journal for free at Sparkpeople.  

While we are on vacation, I won’t have internet access and with all the tempting food choices around me it will be more important than ever to keep a food journal.  I have a small spiral notebook ready to go and am shopping for a pocket calorie guide to take with me.  Do you have a book to recommend?

Update:  I found the book I’m going to take with me.  I was really interested in Calorie King but decided not to buy it in the end, because it didn’t have protein information in it.  I ended up purchasing this snappy little number instead: You can click the photo to find out more and look inside at Amazon.