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The Forgotten Art of Food
Journaling for Fat Loss
By Eugene Thong CSCS
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 I’m here today to teach you about the
long-lost, forgotten art of food journaling. This seemingly arcane
practice is actually one of the master keys to your success in fat loss.
What is food journaling?
Simply, writing down everything you
consume with as muc h detail as possible. It doesn’t have to be done
with anal precision, but the more detail you can include, the more
useful and valuable an exercise it is. (... And The better the
results you’ll get.)
Food Journaling is a difficult exercise
because of the mental hurdle it represents. Most people won’t want to
share the details of their food life with you. Or themselves. It’s
akin to asking them about their sex life.
“So, Mrs. Jones, how was the hubby last
night? Did you try out those positions I talked to you about?”
But I digress.
The key to this exercise is honesty. Be
honest with yourself. Don’t worry about impressing anyone – besides,
all one has to do is take a look at your waistline in order to discover
the truth. I’ve found the best rule is:
“If I don’t write it down, I don’t get
to eat OR drink it.”
As previously mentioned, food journaling
doesn’t have to be approached with the same scientific rigor as the
Harvard Nurses Study or Osteoporosis Project. This is an exercise for
yourself.
As follows are three degrees of food
journaling that all have their relative merits and levels of
dedication. Choose the one that seems to work best for you and
where you are mentally.
The 3 Degrees of Food
Journaling:
1)
Items only
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The least amount of information is to
write down all the things you eat and drink in a day. Even with this
limited information, you can still make tremendous changes in food
selection and save yourself tons of calories. Mike uses his favorite
analogy:
Lets say your
normal dinner was a cheeseburger, fries and a 20oz coke. Well, if you
were to substitute a side salad for the fries, a regular hamburger for
the cheeseburger, and diet soda for the coke, you’d end up saving
anywhere from 400 to 600 calories. And you haven’t even deprived
yourself.
Substitution of calorically-dense foods
for less calorie-dense foods is one of the many techniques you can use
to minimize calorie intake. This first degree of food journaling allows
you to take inventory of your baseline and make adjustments like these
where possible.
2)
Items and
feeding schedules
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By adding feeding times into the
equation, we add another degree of control you have. Now, by seeing
when you eat the things you eat, we can dig a little deeper into the
psychological underpinnings of your daily food habits.
For example, you notice that you eat a
blueberry scone and a tall café latte everyday at 4:30pm (for a whopping
total of 604 calories). Looking at the rest of the day, you see that
your lunch (a decidedly big meal, you notice) is at 11:30pm and
breakfast is nonexistent.
The choices made earlier in the day are
negatively affecting the choices made later in the day. Armed with
knowledge and information, you
resolve to change habits – you begin to
eat a couple of eggs at breakfast time, and to scale down your lunch.
This leaves you less hungry and tired at
4pm, and you’re able to make better choices at this time, opting
instead for a handful of almonds and a
green tea (saving a few hundred
calories in the process).
3)
Items, Feeding Schedules, and Amount
...........................................................
Now we’re getting into the nitty gritty.
By including the relative portion sizes of your meals, you can
really get an accurate portrayal of your daily intake. You also have
the greatest level of control and the greatest number of variables to
control. You get the truest sense of your daily intake when you
see portion sizes.
Here’s where the whole “eating healthy for
fat loss” paradigm falls apart.
You example your “healthy dinner” of brown
rice, chicken breast, and broccoli, and discover (to your horror) that
your “serving” of brown rice was actually 3 cups worth, for a total of
650 calories (yikes) – that brings your dinner total up to nearly 800
calories. But by upping the broccoli portion and reducing the rice
portion to an actual “serving” (about ˝ cup), you
save yourself nearly
400 calories.
I can tell you’re getting how this works
now. We go into much more detail then this with our personal clients,
but this overview should give you a good idea of where to start.
Convinced? Want to start keeping a food
journal? Well, it just so happens that we’ve already gone to the
trouble of creating an easy-to-use, downloadable template that you can
print copies of for easy entering. You get it free as a bonus when you
purchase our Black Book of Secrets. If you're truly looking to lose weight
fast, I suggest you head over and pick it up. It includes 61 fat loss tips, tricks and
techniques. A very solid investment.
P.S.
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About the Author:
Eugene Thong, CSCS, was born a weak, skinny,
bespectacled child. Now, thanks to a steady diet of martial arts,
scientific inquiry, and heavy compound movements, he's no longer weak.
His scientific bent, Zen-like demeanor, and efficient but intense
methods have made him one of New York's most sought-after personal
trainers.
 When
not helping clients cultivate their own inner 6-packs, Eugene can be found
arm barring opponents at Renzo Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy or
sailing through the air on his snowboard. Read Eugene's semi-weekly musings
on exercise, fitness, and fat loss
at his blog
Eugene is Mike's co-author of The Black Book of Secrets- The Bible of
Effective Weight Loss.
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