Plan food diary for the year 2012

Most people around the world associate New Year with making resolutions, setting goals and achieving tasks. Interestingly, health care and weights loss programmes rank top positions among top ten popular New Year's resolutions year after year.
New Year is the right time to make new resolution of getting better physical shape and for shedding extra pounds gained during the previous year. This coming year 2012, you can get a hold of fresh start to stay healthy forever. The success of reaching your task depends on the selection of right tool. The right tool to achieve weight control goal is to keep a food diary. Nutritionists consider food diary as a magical tool. It is a written plan of keeping track of your progress and helps its writer to stay with in dietary plan.
A recent study found that dieters who tracked their food intake lost twice as much weight as those who did not track their food eating. Expert nutritionists forbid excluding of foods and relying on pills to lose weight, instead, they recommend regular calorie burn, well-balanced meal plan, physical activity and a way to keep track of the progress.
The idea of writing food diary is getting popularity because it grows awareness of how to maintain healthy lifestyle. Writing food diary helps in getting rid of obesity, maintaining ideal weight, improving nutrition values, and for planning heart healthy diet. Dr Christopher J. Mosunic, weight loss management specialist from Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut, has found that people keeping track of daily food consumption in a journal are considerably more likely to remain with their plan and keep weight off for good.
Calorie counting of every meal is almost impossible but it is feasible to write daily food records eaten at and between every mealtime. This helps you to keep track of your food intake. The Journal of the American Medical Association, Published that researchers found that actually tracking what you put in your mouth could double the amount of weight you can lose.
Food diary makes you more aware of your relation with foods. It makes you more mindful of what you are eating and how much you have eaten whole day. To lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week, you will need to reduce your caloric intake by 500-1000 calories per day. By writing down what you eat and drink, you become more aware of everything you are putting in your mouth.
Writing food dairy controls food temptation and boost, self-control. Food diary makes its writer responsible for foods they eat throughout the day. For example, you have recorded eating of half pack of your favourite biscuits (six biscuits) on Monday. You are likely to make better choice of consuming less quantity such as three biscuits on Tuesday. The information you write in food diary gives you complete understanding of your eating behaviours and can make positive changes to your diet.
How to write food diary
Writing food diary is not a difficult task, you just have to keep record of what you eat and drink on breakfast, lunch and dinner and in between three meals, what you were doing when you ate foods, your activities during the eating time and location of the meal.
Before start writing your schedule, on the first page, note down in bold prints your goal and task of writing diary. As in life, setting clear and specific goals ensures success in dieting. Be careful not to make unattainable task. Making inaccessible goals will end up in frustration and disappointment. An expert dietician recommends, "Rather than setting a total goal of 40 or 60 pounds, start with a specific aim such as 10 pounds in a month. Then you can aim to extend the next month until you reach the overall goal of 40 or 60 pounds. Ten pounds sounds simple and achievable. Forty pounds sounds like an insurmountable obstacle."
On second page enter your present weight, body mass index (a measure which takes into account a person's weight and height to measure total body fat in adults) and body measurement including size of neck, hips, chest and waist.
Start your day with healthy breakfast and begins recording what you eat, how much you eat and what time of the day you have taken your meal.
Note down quantity of fruits, vegetables and whole grain in your diet each day. Be honest and write details of extras such as chocolates, fizzy drinks, junk foods, butter and deserts.
To get the most out of your food diary it is important to make a note of locations (in a restaurant, party, fast-food chain, and car or at home) where you ate your food and activities (reading, watching TV, driving, or talking with others during your mealtime).
Recent studies suggest that we pay more attention to the circumstances in which we eat. Researchers at Georgia State University in Atlanta have found that when people eat with others, they consume 44% more food than when they eat alone. Additionally, people tend to eat more with spouses, family members, and friends than they do with strangers.
Writing food diary can give you surprise that you have taken more foods during above-mentioned activities. Activities during mealtime divert your attention and you often forget how much you are eating.
Choose a corner of the diary to write the list of nutrient-rich food such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, and lean meats and fish. A nutrient-rich food is high in vitamins +minerals and less in calories, therefore ensure good and healthy lifestyle. This will remind you to add foods in your diet from the list of nutrient-rich food.
There is a strong moods-foods connection for example, Stress and frustration, can lead to obesity. Certain foods alter one's mood by influencing the level of certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Rebecca Puhl, PhD, director of research at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University says "If you're trying to understand how your emotions relate to your food choices, you might also want to include questions in your diary such as, "How hungry am I?" or "What were my emotions before, during and after the eating episode?"
Write down what food types such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals you consumed during the course of the day. Keeping track of carbs, fat, and fiber grams will be helpful for people with diabetes and other medical conditions. By writing down information about every item of food you munch through during the course of the day helps you identify which foods may increase your risk of developing food allergy and which food gives you satiety.
Dieticians recommend writing food diary because it can serve as evidence of how far you have come in this journey. It also feels great to look back and see you are eating better today than you did days, weeks or years ago.
To make the diary more effective it should include information about the times that you failed to achieve your goals.
So in year 2012 forget expansive gym equipments and mind bursting strict dieting rules to reach your goal. Happy New Year.