Healthy Diets Information

Have you ever been watching TV and reached into a bowl or box – and hit the bottom? It’s startling to realize that we just consumed hundreds. or even thousands. of calories – and we received no enjoyment from our eating. In fact, we don’t even remember all the calories we just sent down our throat. The only way to gain any control over our eating habits is to pay attention to what we’re actually consuming and a personal food journal is the best tool, because we obviously can’t rely on memory.

Documenting your habits in a journal will probably be tricky at first. What nearly everybody gripes about the most is that a food journal takes a lot of time and most of us are extremely busy. And the second biggest gripe is that it makes us rather ‘obsessive’ about what we eat and when. The truth is that whenever we humans try to change our habits it’s a struggle. Habits are strong! But our goal is to develop positive new habits that we don’t even have to think about.

If you commit to keeping a food journal, be prepared for a struggle. Just as becoming aware of your eating isn’t easy, neither is revealing your habits to yourself by writing them down. There will be days when you fail and if you know that, you will be less likely to give up. Because make not mistake, there are multiple rewards for making this effort and persisting until you succeed.

1. You will discover exactly what you eat or do not eat – and how that affects your life. For example, many people either skip breakfast or scarf down a sweet roll with coffee or other nutritionally empty foods. With a food journal, you will be able to see exactly what such a breakfast does to your body and eating habits. For instance, hunger may force you to the vending machines at 10AM and you will realize that if you take the time to eat a decent breakfast you can skip this nutritionally empty and very fattening expedition.

2. Do you eat when you’re bored? Unhappy? Lonely? Upset? If so, you’re not alone because we often eat for reasons that have nothing at all to do with hunger, which is the only genuine reason to eat. Once you clearly face the ways you misuse food, you can think through other activities when you might eat for emotional reasons, activities that won’t damage your body and health.

3. You may well create changes in your diet that improve your health but cause no personal suffering. By using your food journal, you can easily take a look at substitutes that are better for your health and fitness. For instance, if you eat a considerable amount of pasta, turning to whole wheat pasta and decreasing your portion size can lower your cholesterol and your weight. You could possibly modify one recipe at a time and notice how effectively your brand new behaviors are working out for you.

4. You will probably notice what nutritional requirements you’re lacking. Sometimes it is not how much you eat but what types of foods you’re eating. You can certainly be slim and yet have an unhealthy body. If perhaps your personal food journal reveals a shortage of green vegetables, you are almost certainly missing out on several vitamins and minerals like Vitamin E, zinc, folic acid, B vitamins, magnesium, iron and other necessary nutrients that the human body requires to function correctly. A shortage of specific vitamins and minerals can certainly cause hair to fall out or skin to appear sallow.

If you’d truly like some changes in your life, commit to keeping a food journal for just one measly week. But here’s the catch … every time you miss a meal, start over. Continue until you have truly recorded all of your food for one week. This discipline, and the information you obtain from it, will enable you to make serious changes in your life.