When it comes to dieting, so many people do it, but so many people don’t understand the process. They know they need to cut calories, but how does one cut calories when they don’t even know how many they were eating to begin with? And how do people even remember all the things they ate in an entire day? And what about the rest of us not trying to shave off a few pounds? Shouldn’t we be conscious of what is going into our bodies, too?

These are the biggest arguments for getting in the habit of keeping a food journal.

Food logs can help you stay on track in many different ways:

Drinking:
In one evening at the bar you could consume more than 800 extra calories; that’s like running on a treadmill for two hours! If you think about what you’re drinking and add it to your log at the end of the night you will notice how much you’ve actually taken in, which may prompt you to make better choices in the future…or avoid ordering that cheese bread…. (Note: no need to pull out the food diary at the bar, friends. Total buzz kill!)

“Good” foods versus “Bad” foods:
You would be surprised as to how many calories are in foods though of as “good” versus other that are constituted as “bad”. For example, did you know that a Dunkin Donuts muffin has more calories than their regular donut? I bet you didn’t. It’s surprising! Just think what else you may misinterpret as “healthy” or “better” for you. It’s easy to get tricked into thinking something is “good” for you when really it isn’t. So, researching and writing down what you eat will get you thinking about food instead of just throwing it down the hatch.

Becoming Aware:
When you begin to log what you eat you become aware of the food you’re getting too much of and the foods you need more of. You may become surprised as to what you discover about your eating habits. Like that bag of Cheetos you eat every day at 4:00pm, or the late night ice cream binges. (Yeah, I’m talking to you).

So, grab a pen and some paper and try this for a week. You will be happily surprised at the results/waht you learn. Happy writing (and eating)!