Most of us eat often throughout the day – and most of us pay so little attention to what we eat that we are hard pressed to try to remember just exactly what was in our last meal. In other words, it’s virtually impossible to remember all the food we’ve eaten. If you sincerely want to improve your eating routines it becomes vital to consider what you are putting into your mouth. You may well wish to consider documenting everything you eat in a personal food journal.

It’s a rule of life that habits are tough to change. If we’re in a rut of ending mindlessly changing to become a mindful eater won’t be easy so don’t expect it to be. We’re all very busy and we will resist the discipline of writing down everything we eat. And some people complain that food is always on their minds once they begin keeping a food journal.

There are multiple advantages to recording every bite you eat and below are some of the most important. Keep in mind that this isn’t a life-long activity but instead it’s merely a tactic to make you more aware of your own behavior. If you understand what you’re trying to accomplish it will be easier when you fail at some times (and you will!)

1. You will discover exactly what you eat or do not eat – and how that affects your life. For example, many people either skip breakfast or scarf down a sweet roll with coffee or other nutritionally empty foods. With a food journal, you will be able to see exactly what such a breakfast does to your body and eating habits. For instance, hunger may force you to the vending machines at 10AM and you will realize that if you take the time to eat a decent breakfast you can skip this nutritionally empty and very fattening expedition.

2. Lots of time we eat when we’re not hungry. There are a vast number of emotional reasons to stuff something in our mouths and these flimsy reasons range from deep depression (eating to ”feel better”) to the most joyous event that, naturally, calls for a food celebration. None of us wants to confess that we are emotional eaters, but keeping a food journal may well reveal these bad habits. Once we recognize that we’re misusing food, we can learn to deal with any emotional issues in a more constructive way.

3. When you clearly see what foods you’re eating, you will absolutely be able to make small changes that add up, over time, to major alterations in your habits. Perhaps you eat a lot of fruit that is canned or frozen with lots of sugar. You can experiment with using fruits that have no sugar and add a bit of stevia for sweetener. If that change is successful, try substituting brown rice for white, whole grain bread for white and using egg whites in your baking, rather than whole eggs. Don’t even try to make huge changes in your eating habits because you are almost certain to fail. Instead, try one small change at a time. Some will be successful and pleasing and some will not but this is the best way to succeed with any major changes in life – and eating habits ARE major!

4. It is very possible to be thin – and unhealthy. Someone who is stays thin by eating very little, yet what they eat is potato chips and cokes, is certain to be missing out on important nutrients provided by food. Constipation, for example, is a sure sign of a deficiency in both fiber and water. Those who eat only “whites” – whit rice, white bread, white pasta – and certain to have a deficiency in B vitamins. Many people think that taking vitamin pills means that they can ignore nutrition and eat anything they chose but this is false. Pills won’t make up for nutrient shortages.

Try keeping a food journal just one week. In just seven days you can find out a lot about your typical eating habits. With that information, you can make changes in your diet that will help you to lose weight, become healthy and reduce your risk of disease.

My son dropped 23 pounds because he read a diet review which recommended Cheat Your Way Thin which will allow your beloved foods.

  Tags: mind body spirit, lose weight, anti aging