Dear (food) diary
July 10th, 2008 at 10:02am Mike DeDoncker
Calling a pencil used to mark the scorecard the most effective club in a golf bag is a joke, of course, but that same pencil just might be one of the most important tools in weight loss.
Keeping a food diary has long been recognized as a way to form good eating habits or to control bad ones because everything that goes down the hatch also has to go down on paper.
Really conscientious food diary writers may even record the exact time that they ate something, why they ate it (not just “I was hungry”) and how eating it made them feel afterward.
Paying attention to this can help cut down on gratuitous extra helpings or mindless eating between meals, because you aren’t going to want to admit to it and write it down.
That leads to fewer calories, less wear and tear on the pencil and eventually less of you on the bathroom scale.
 In addition, you might want to track how many calories you do take in and how many you burn in your daily activities. Here are a couple of Web sites to help you do both:
To find out how many you take in try www.sparkpeople.com, which offers a free calorie calculator. It requires registration on the site and asks for your e-mail address to give you exercise and fitness and meal tips, including recipes. Or you can try www.myfooddiary.com. It also requires registration and asks for your name and age along with your e-mail address. You can join the site’s community for $9 a month.
For calculators of how many calories you burn, you can try www.webmd.com/content/tools/1/calc_calories.htm or www.dftools.ivillage.com/healthtools/calc_cb.cfm.
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6 Comments Add your own
1. William Wolverine | July 10th, 2008 at 11:09 am
If I kept a food diary, I would do nothing but eat and write all day.
2. Derrek Leute | July 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
One option to maintain a journal is iScale from All of Zero. It is a health management program for iPhone and iPod Touch.
http://www.allofzero.com/
Check it out!
–Derrek
3. Mike DeDoncker | July 10th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
William: Maybe you could throw away the pencil after each entry so, at least, you would have to spend time getting another one before you could eat again.
4. Log Lincoln | July 17th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Mike - that’s brilliant advice. You know what else it would do? It would force the guy to actually get up off the couch. I mean, small steps, right? Walking to get a pencil is better than letting more plaque accumulate on your heart. And I’m thinking that Wolverine guy is an attack waiting to happen.
5. Mike DeDoncker | July 17th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Derrek: I apologize because I thought I had already answered your comment, but I don’t see it on the site. I just wanted to say that your idea is good and that I need to make myself more conversant with telephone technology.
6. Mike DeDoncker | July 17th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Log (or is LL more appropriate): Yes, several small steps eventually add up to big ones. It seems that you got the point that the idea is help keep how much food you eat in mind to help reinforce weight-loss goals. Thanks
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