Gather Vitality Information

What if making just one tiny START SOMEWHERE change in your habits could boost your vitality and joy?  It benefits all areas, including weight loss.  You must be able to name the problem in order to create solutions.  Gather vitality information by keeping a journal of how you feel throughout your day to see both positive and negative patterns. Write down what and how much you eat, when you eat it, what you feel like after you eat it, and where you eat it.     

One recent study showed that people who kept a food diary six days each week for six months lost about twice as much as those who kept track of their food for only one day or less a week.  Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, dieters kept food journals, attended weekly meetings for group support, and received encouragement to be active and eat healthy.  

Why does writing down what you eat or drink make so much difference? The research has been done in the area of keeping a food diary as a weight loss tool but it is useful too as a way of finding out how certain foods make you feel.  Here are some benefits:

1. It increases your awareness of what, why, and how much you are eating.  With snack foods so readily available, this awareness improves portion control and decreases mindless eating.

2. It helps you identify where changes can be made.  When you see patterns of late night eating, for example, you can make modifications.

3. A food diary can help reveal triggers to avoid, such as the tendency to eat whenstressed or dehydrated.

4. High caloric drinks can be spotted and substitutions or dilutions can be made.

Gather vitality information to know where you need to make changes.  Small changes in your health trajectory can make huge differences in the short term and the long term.  START SOMEWHERE by knowing your habits and tendencies.  You can do it.  I will help you!