Weight Control

Writing it Down

To lose weight and to maintain a new, healthy body weight, you have to make changes in the behaviors that caused the extra weight gain to begin with. Without making those behavior changes, following any diet will be a waste of time in the long run.

Be Your Own Scientist

A key to making positive changes and developing new habits is that you must know what your current habits are. An awareness of these habits may seem obvious: you have a sense that you have certain habits that are detrimental to your goal, you know that you need to make some changes. However, when you actually make a study of your own behaviors by observing yourself and writing down your observations in a non-judging way, you can key in on specific habits, and identify trouble spots, making the next step, changing those habits, much easier.

Do not underestimate the power of observation! Studies have shown that people do lose weight when they keep a food diary, whether they are following a specific calorie diet or not. That is why it is often an integral part of any good weight control plan that includes behavior changes. Here are some helpful suggestions to help you get the most out of your record keeping efforts.

Keep it simple, especially at first. Keep a written log of everything you eat for 3-4 days. Try to include at least one weekend day. Write down everything - little bites of food, snacks, beverages, and record the amounts of each food. It is not so important what you actually eat as much as the fact that you write it down.

If you really are going to keep an accurate log, you have to find a way to keep it with you at all times. You can use your day-timer, if you carry it with you all the time, or a small notebook you can carry in your purse or pants pocket. Write down the food you've eaten right away, do not rely on your memory or you will surely skip important eating events.

When you are keeping logs, it's a good time to focus on details. Really look at the food you're eating and try to figure out what's in it if you didn't cook it yourself. The results of your self-study will be more accurate and useful if you pay attention to detail.

Make a note of where you ate the food item.

Review Your Data

After keeping a record for a few days, review it carefully. What patterns do you see? How many different places do you eat? Do you eat the same foods in between meals? What things would you like to change to make your efforts more successful?

If you find that you eat food in many different places, a good place to start is to limit the number of places you allow yourself to eat food. For example, if you found that you often eat at your desk, or in front of the t.v. , the next week, make your goal to limit your eating to only a few places like the dining room table or the kitchen area. These are basic behavioral principles that apply very well to what you are trying to do when you follow a diet plan.

Make A Change and Observe It

Next, keep a record of 3-4 days of eating, with the goal in mind of limiting the places you eat. Notice that you're not really focusing on what you eat - the goal is to change the behavior, not the food in this case, since you are already trying to choose better foods.

The next time you review your records, notice if you were able to accomplish your specific habit change of limiting where you eat. If not, record another week, with the same goal in mind, and think about ways to make this easier…..Are you so busy that you have to eat while working at your desk? Is your t.v. on during dinner making it tempting to sit in front of it, and making it easier to ignore your own body's signals that you are full? Restructure your surroundings to make it easier to change this habit of eating in many places and while doing other things.

What's Important to You?

There are many things you can observe in a food diary besides the food you eat. Here are some examples:

Your feelings when you eat - do certain emotions trigger eating for you? Anger, boredom, frustration are common triggers for eating.

Time of day - Do you eat more at certain times of day, whether or not you are hungry? Often people eat at the end of the day, when they are tired and are transitioning to home.

Your level of hunger - this is a great thing to observe in a diary because you can find out very quickly how often you eat when you are not truly hungry. (The hunger scale is listed in the member's area weight loss library, review that to get some ideas on how to proceed).

Frequency and rate of eating - How often you eat and how quickly you finish your food are habits that people have that can really impact the total amount of food eaten, leading to weight gain. If you think this is an area you should pay attention to, record the time of day and how long it takes you to finish food, even quick snacks.

To make this exercise in recording your observations meaningful, record habits that you think you need to change. Don't record several habits or situations, just choose one, and really work on changing that until you move on to another.

Is It Really Worth It?

We're all busy people with a limited amount of time on earth. If reaching a healthy body weight is truly a value to you, then you will find time to take an honest assessment of your habits and make a goal to change them. Studies have shown that it really works, it's not a waste of time!

Think of all the areas in life where keeping records is an important measure of change. Your own bank account is an example. If you just spent money without ever accounting for it, you would quickly run out of cash. At work and at school, your achievements are often measured with records of your work over time. Perhaps there are other personal goals you are trying to reach - could you reach them without keeping track of your efforts, assessing where you are in reaching your goals, and making adjustments so that you reach them? The same goes for changing eating habits, if you haven't already done this, start keeping a diary and see how much it helps!

Last, it's important not to place a value judgment on your observations. You are being a scientist, not a critic. This is an exercise in discovery, a place to begin making some positive changes, so don't be hard upon yourself. As you become a better observer, you will see that there are many successes that you've overlooked as well. Be sure to record the times you notice that you made good choices in your eating behaviors. The goal is to increase those behaviors that will lead to a healthy body weight and to minimize the habits that have lead you to gain weight. Your observations will help you accomplish this much faster than just following a simple eating plan.

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