In this episode, Ean talks about the importance of keeping a food journal and why not keeping one may be the key to losing those last 10-15 pounds.
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The Importance of Food Journaling
One thing that people overlook when they are trying to lose weight is the importance of keeping a food journal. In fact, I highly recommend that if you are serious about losing weight, a food journal is a must. In other words it is not an option! Why is this so important? Why do so many people benefit from writing down what they eat? Here are three reasons:
It Keeps You From Cheating (As Much)
Even the best of us cheat from time to time. I’m not talking about the regularly scheduled cheat meal or carb-nite. I’m taking about those times when you eat something (or a lot of something) you know you shouldn’t. Food journaling can help with this problem.
The objective of a food journal is to write down everything you eat and when you eat it. When you keep track of what you eat in this way, you really have to think twice about what you put in your mouth.
Why is that? Well, One of the reasons we cheat is due to the fact that there is an immediate pleasurable experience. But that is not all. For many people, they do not have to face any negative consequence for their bad behavior right away. They can eat that brownie and not think about it for some time.
However, a food journal provides an immediate negative consequence. It is much like a health coach or an accountability partner that you have to confess to right away. If you had to confess every time you ate something bad for you, and you had to confess it immediately, you most likely would not do it.
Even though no else has to see your food journal, simply having one is still a deterrent for most. The very fact that you have to write your bad behavior down creates an objective reality to the behavior that cannot be ignored. This, in and of itself, is enough of an immediate negative consequence. As a result, it reduces cheating.
It Will Keep You Form Over Eating
Even if you are only eating the right food, the amount of food you eat counts. No, I’m not promoting the calories in calories out myth. But an over abundance of nutrients in your system has to be dealt with. Often your body will eliminate it though waste or store it to fat. Not only this, but there are bad hormonal reactions to stuffing yourself. How much you eat does count. Food journaling helps regulate your overall intake.
The truth is that your overall food intake can get away from you fairly quickly. For example, it’s pretty easy to have four eggs for breakfast instead of two, and a double cheese burger (lettuce wrap, of course) instead of a single; a little more chicken than necessary at dinner, in addition to that bag of almonds you ate for snack. Please do not misunderstand me. All this food is fine if you are really that hungry. However, many people do in fact eat well past satiety.
Overeating becomes more of a problem when you are trying to lose those last 10-15 pounds. At the beginning of your weight-loss journey, simply switching to the right foods will often be enough to lose a significant amount of weight. But if you have stalled out on your progress, the amount of food you eat is often the issue. Food journaling tracks your overall caloric intake. When you write down what you have eaten, you can objectively evaluate what you may need to cut out.
It Keeps You Honest With Yourself
This last point is really a combination of the two points listed above. But it is important to note that when we are not losing weight we expect, it is often due to the fact that we are deceiving ourselves. We lie to ourselves about what we have eaten and how much we have eaten.
The fact of the matter is most people who do not keep a food journal cannot recount with accuracy what they ate. To complicate the matter it’s easy for us to lie to ourselves about these issues. This becomes a big problem when a person is not getting the results they are expecting. Wondering what went wrong or what is going wrong becomes common.
A food journal helps in keeping one from self delusion. After all, there is (or at least there should be) an objective record. This record keeps you honest.
In closing, there is only one question you need to ask yourself: Do you want to lose weight? If you do, then a food journal will tremendous help with your goal.
Cheating During the Holidays? (podcast)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness is now available. Are you planning on cheating a few extra days during this holiday season? If you are, there are some things that you can do in order to minimize weight gain. Listen to find out.
Fit For Christmas Challenge (Audio).
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now up. In the podcast, I issue a the “Fit For Christmas” challenge. Hope you enjoy!
One Mental Attitude Necessary For Losing Wight (audio)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. In this episode, I discuss going gluten free and one key aspect that is absolutely necessary in order to lose weight.
Why You Shouldn’t Always Watch The Scale
Consulting the scale is an easy way to monitor your weight loss progress. You step on it and if you weigh less than the last time you stepped on the scale, then you have lost weight–right?
The truth is that this way of tracking your weight loss is great when you are first starting to get serious about your health. However, when you are working on the last few pounds of fat, the scale is not the ultimate indicator in how much fat you are losing. In fact, it can be deceptive.
So what are some reasons the scale can be deceptive? There are two main reasons that I will address in this blog. One is water weight and the other is muscle.
First off there is water retention. Simply put, this is when you store exes amounts of water in your cells. This can happen for a verity of reasons I will not go into here. While every body is different, the average amount of weight you can gain though water is about five pounds in a day. This means that you can gain or lose five pounds in one day as a result of retaining or releasing water.
Muscle is another major factor in why the scale can be deceptive. The reason for this is due to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. One leader of fat weighs about 2 pounds while one leader of muscle weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. If you are lifting as a primary form of exercise the rise in weight on the scale is probably due to muscle gain.
It can be frustrating when you are faithful to your diet, and working out, but the scale moves up. Remember it is not weight that you are ultimately trying to lose but fat. Instead of relying on the scale take measurements. Another great way of tracking your progress is by clothing. Get some clothes that are tight and see if they loosen up.
So if you are sticking to your diet and working out, then don’t sweat it if the scale moves up a few pounds. It could very well be water weight or muscle gain.
Why Breaking Bad Habits is So Difficult
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode, I talk about the difficulty of braking bad habits and creating new ones and what you can do about it. Enjoy!
Eating for Taste
A while back, I wrote a post on eating with your stomach. In that post, I talked about the importance of paying attention to how full you are while you are eating to avoid over consumption.
The way you monitor how full you are is by eating slowly. However, when you eat slowly there is also an added benefit–tasting your food. In other words, not only are you able to monitor how full you are, you also get to enjoy your food.
People are often supersized by how quickly they get full when they eat slowly and pay attention to their stomach. Likewise, it is shocking what you actually taste when you eat with the intention of enjoying your food.
What is the reason for the shock? It is due to the fact that often food you think you like turns out to taste gross.
When we eat too fast, not only do we overeat, but often times we only get the rush of salt and/or sugar (and other flavors) over our tongues. Because of this, we often do not recognize it when we do not like something.
This hit home for me some years ago when I decided to eat slowly and enjoy my food. At the time I was following the Paul McKenna diet. I went to one of my favorite restaurant and ordered the stake fries. But instead of gobbling them down I attempted to enjoy every bite. I did not succeed in that attempt. They were horrible. As a result, I have not eaten them since.
On the flip side, there are now many foods that I now enjoy that I did not before. For example, baby carrots are very sweet. By slowing down and enjoying the flavor, eating these items is a great way to curb your sweet tooth.
In closing, I encourage the reader to try it for themselves. You will be supersized and what you do and do not like.
All Or Nothing
I have seen many people fail on diets for a verity of reasons. However, recently I have noticed an attitude or belief that I have not recognized in the past. Since I have noticed this belief, I have come to see it in many. I have even come to recognize that I have fell into this trap from time to time.
So what is this belief? It is simply this: That adhering to part of a diet should give an individual part of the results of that diet. In practical terms it looks something like this. A person starts a low-carb diet. After a few weeks he notices that he is not losing anything. However, upon review, he realizes that he is really only adhering to about half or three quarters of the diet. He thinks to himself (and here is where the poor belief system comes into play), “I should be losing something. I know I’m not following the diet perfectly but I am following about 75% of it. I should be losing something–shouldn’t I?” Can you relate to this story? I know I can.
To complicate things, perhaps you have seen a friend who needs to lose a some weight and got results by cutting back just a bit on their carb intake. The question, then, needs to be asked: Why does following part of diet work for some and not others? The answer to this lies in what kind of body style one has and how much one needs to lose.
For example, someone with a bean-pole body style who has only 20 pounds to lose can see great results from only following part of a diet. But, even a bean-pole who has 50 pounds to lose is going to have to do better than 50 or even 70% of a diet.
However, for those of us who put on weight easily and have more than 25 pounds to lose, we need to be super strict on the low-carb protocol particularly at the beginning. Why is this? Simply put, doing 50% or even 75% of a diet is not enough to reset your fat burning hormones.
The truth is you need 10 days to 2 weeks in order to down regulate your fat storing hormones and up regulate your fat burning ones. So, if you are strict for three days, but on that forth day you eat a meal that spikes your insulin levels, you are not going to lose weight. If you repeat this process for a few weeks, you might get discouraged.
Fixing this is a matter of being honest with yourself. Are you the type of a person who puts on weight easily? Do you have more than 20 pounds to lose? Are you just starting out on a low-carb diet? If any or all three of these are true, then you need to be as strict as possible. The results will be worth it?
What’s The Difference Between Paleo, Keto, and Low Carb Diets
Hey everyone. This is a new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode I talk about the difference between the Paleo, Keto, and Lowcarb diets. I hope you listen and enjoy.
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