Mindless eating

I met with a new client today, who immediately told me that keeping a food journal was difficult, but enlightening.

Let's back up. Whenever I talk with someone about nutrition counseling, I ask them to keep a food journal for a few days before our first appointment. That way they can clearly see in black and white exactly what they're eating throughout the day, and I get a good snapshot of their usual eating habits.

Today's client took the food journal a step further. He was so apalled at the amount of food he ate, that after the first two days he started eating less. He noticed that he ate without being hungry, especially when watching TV, so he started portioning out his food and paying more attention to why he was eating.

He grabbed onto the idea of the food journal, and put it to work helping him restructure his eating habits to meet his goals of weight loss and improved health. Perfect!

Keeping a food journal is one tried and true method to not only learn more about your eating habits, but to also make changes in the way you eat. You can keep a paper and pencil food diary, or use an online tool such as www.fitday.com

Make sure to capture this information:
1. time of day
2. location (are you driving in the car, sitting in bed watching TV, or working at your desk?)
3. What you're eating and drinking
4. How much you're eating and drinking
5. Why you're eating and drinking. This last one can be difficult to answer, but persevere. The answer we're looking for is hunger, not boredom, it's time to eat, everyone else is eating, or stress.

Keep a food journal for a week. It's the first step on the road to changing your eating habits.