WEIGHT LOSSAre you struggling to lose weight?  It can be frustrating when you are putting in a  huge effort to eat healthily and to  get out and exercise and the results don’t show on the scales.  My advice is to  start now this Monday morning  writing  your own ‘Food Diary’ and be prepared for some surprises.  Initially write your diary for a week, logging all foods, drinks, snacks and timings of each.

There are a number of excellent reasons why this practice could help you make improvements to your eating habits and how these changes could in turn help in improving your overall health.  Writing a food journal will increase your conscious awareness of what you are eating, timings of meals and snacks, your various other eating habits, emotional triggers for eating, portion sizes and how you feel after certain foods, large meals, alcohol etc. Research shows that people who keep a food journal can achieve and more importantly maintain weight loss over a longer period of time than people who do not.  By being more aware of what you are eating will help you identify the changes you can make right now.  Studies also show that generally we underestimate how much we eat by at least 25%.

Once you build up a picture of your current diet  study it.  Start by picking one small change you can make and implement this first.  Listen to your gut and trust it.  We know instinctively what we need to change.  Make it your choice for every mouthful you eat or drink.  It is amazing what happens when we tune in and listen to how our body feels.  Once you have mastered the first change move onto the next one.  This new awareness is one step closer to you reaching your health goals.  If you feel habits are slipping go back to logging in  your diary again and you will be amazed how quickly you get back on track.