Keeping a food diary is a very accurate way to establish your current eating habits. Begin by consuming your regular diet for seven days. Enter every single piece of food and every drink you have into the diary. After several days, you should be able to identify any weak areas and look at what time of day they occur.
Patently if your record shows a higher consumption of alcohol or fatty foods than you’d realised, you might begin by reducing those initially. However, if you’ve only written healthy food and drink down, then it’s probably just a case of decreasing the portions. Whether it’s the first or the second situation, you’ll be able to see how to adjust your intake from the entries in the diary.
Create a regime for the following week. Think of what you’re going to eat and drink, and what exercise you want to include. With regard to food, note what you can’t eat, and what you’ll only eat occasionally. And follow on with the food that you will be eating plentiful supplies of.
If you enjoy alcohol, decide on a small quantity that you will allow yourself at the weekend, and write it down. Fizzy sugar-laden beverages must go! With regard to exercise, write down a reasonable routine that you will stick to.
Early in the morning on the first day of your diet, take an accurate reading of your weight. Every seven days, look at how it’s going and then plan the next week. And write down how heavy you are at the beginning of each week.
With a plan like this, you’re in complete control. Little illustrations of what’s gone well and what hasn’t will encourage and remind you once you’re several weeks in. Also enter the exercise you’re doing, to make sure this isn’t getting left out. It’s amazing how much easier it is to stick with something if it’s all written down.
Do keep your expectations reasonable though. In the early weeks, it may be difficult to see much change – but the groundwork is all taking place. Patience and perseverance are everything. Motivating yourself over a long period has it’s challenges – but if you concentrate on the prize instead of the price it becomes much easier.
Should things start to go backwards, make haste to get back into the diary regime. Perhaps the plan needs a little adjustment. There are some relatively easy ways to introduce more exercise. Why not take a twenty minute walk every lunch time, and increase the pace each day?
Celebrate your achievements along the way. Quantifying the results you achieve makes dieting a great deal easier to maintain long-term. A whole new wardrobe isn’t a good idea until your desired weight is achieved. However, there’s nothing wrong with a theatre trip to celebrate a milestone.
