Top Tip For Intelligent Weight Loss

How A Pen & Paper Can Help You Manage Your Weight!

Quite often when I have a first consultation with a new client they tell me that they’re genuinely baffled as to why they are carrying extra weight, saying things like ‘but I don’t even eat that much’, ‘I don’t have sweet tooth’, ‘I just don’t understand why I’m not slimmer!’….

When I hear this, the first thing I will ask a client to do is to get a jotter & a pen and keep a food diary for a week or so. You’d be surprised just how eye opening & insightful this simple exercise is! The vast majority will report back that they were genuinely surprised to discover that they ate/drank considerably more than they thought they did.

To be honest, I reckon most of us underestimate or ‘forget’ how much we’re actually eating in a day. You’d be surprised what our minds both naturally forget and conveniently forget when we don’t really want to remember!

It’s not necessarily that we’re consciously trying to deceive ourselves about what we’ve eaten. It’s just that often it’s really easy to forget about all the little nibbles or extra spoonfuls here or there, and then we wonder why we’re not getting the results we want.

Even if you are fully aware that you’re eating too much of the wrong types of foods, keeping a food diary can still be of help to you as it helps you to identify exactly what your food weaknesses are and when & why you are most drawn to them. It can be extra helpful to record times, locations, mood/energy levels at the time to see whether certain emotions, places, times etc. are trigger points for you.

 

Writing down everything you eat and drink including all the little extras you hadn’t planned to eat, forces you to be aware of exactly what you’re consuming and to be accountable for the health consequences . So, for example you may realise that you’re not consuming enough fibre which may be causing you constipation

Keeping a food diary is particularly relevant if you have a specific health goal in mind e.g. lowering cholesterol or you’re trying to lose weight.  In fact, several studies show that keeping a written record of what you eat increases the likely-hood that you’ll lose weight and keep it off. So, Why not increase your chances of success in anyway you can? What have you got to lose?….

Elsa Jones is a qualified Nutritional Therapist & Bestselling Author of ‘Goodbye Sugar’.

2018-05-16T10:27:12+00:00