Using a weight loss journal is one of the best ways to stay on track and succeed at weight loss. Journalizing in the past was typically an accounting term for recording transactions and events. However journalizing has become popular for many areas beyond accounting.
A weight loss journal is your personal diary of whatever you want and need to record during your efforts to lose weight. You can track your calories consumed, times of day you ate, your exercise calories and time and days you worked out and your thoughts or feelings for that day.
How Can a Weight Loss Journal Help you lose weight
By using a weight loss journal to track calories, exercise and thoughts you are helping to keep weight loss as a priority in your mind. This means you will be more committed and motivated to lose weight. But this is not the only purpose of a weight loss journal. When you write down the key information you need for your weight loss you can use this to make adjustments.
For instance, if you were feeling sad or depressed that day, take a look at your food intake. Did you snack more or sneak in a piece of chocolate? This could be an indication of emotional eating. If you see a pattern of certain eating habits coincide with certain emotions you now know where your emotional triggers are. So next time you are feeling sad or depressed, if that is your trigger, you can make adjustments to your normal reaction. Instead of eating chocolate find something to distract you and take your mind off of your emotion.
Another great way that a weight loss journal can help you lose weight is by comparing your weight loss progress to your journal. For instance, if your weight loss progress starts to slow down or even shows a gain, refer back to your weight loss journals. Are you eating more calories lately or exercising less? See if the journal shows some kind of change. If your journal shows you are doing everything correctly by consuming the right amount of calories and exercising then perhaps you hit a weight loss plateau. This is the time to mix it up and change things around to push past the plateau.
Best Way to Use a Weight Loss Journal
Use a printable weight loss journal versus an on-line only journal. The reason for this is you will be able to take your journal with you no matter where you go. You can always update an online journal at the end of the day if you want to keep an electronic copy.
Use your printable weight loss journal to record everything you want during the day. For instance, say you visit a friend and they offer you some cheese and crackers. This is healthy enough and not too bad but if you forget to record this later in an online journal then this little snack may be missed in totaling up your calories for the day. But if you write it down at the moment you are eating the foods it will not be forgotten. If you are not sure of the calorie content of that snack you can always look it up later using a calorie intake calculator.
If you are using a calorie intake chart to track the calories consumed or an exercise chart to track your calories burned during exercise, then at the end of the day transfer the information from your journal to these charts. Although this seems like extra effort the results will be what you are looking for.
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