CHANGE #2

Start a Food Diary

SIMPLY PUT… I want you to write down everything you eat. Not “some” things. Not “most” things. Everything—every last morsel of food and beverage you put into your mouth from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bite of toast, two sips of a latte, or five M&Ms, write it all down. (You’ll quickly realize it’s easier to just skip the M&Ms than to write down that you ate five… FIVE???) Don’t count calories. Don’t bother tracking how many grams of protein, carbs, or fats are tucked inside whatever you’re eating. Just write down everything you’ve consumed. At the end of the day, e-mail it to a friend (or a group of friends… or your enemies… or your friends’ enemies) willing to do the same.

An actual conversation with my mom

ME: Hey, Mom, how’s your food diary coming along?

MOM: It’s good. I wrote down what I ate for lunch yesterday and I guess I didn’t need the two cookies I had afterwards.

ME: See? That’s how it works! You hold yourself accountable and you—

MOM: And those Wise potato chips.

ME: OK, well yeah, those aren’t great. But again, that’s how it works. When you write—

MOM: Your father had a slice of frozen cheesecake for dessert.

The only way any of this is going to work—the only way every Change in this book will eventually become a part of your lifestyle—is if you hold yourself accountable. And the best way to do that is by literally watching, and eventually controlling, what you eat.

Let’s face it: If you never answer for the things you do, it’s easy to cheat, skip steps, avoid what you hate doing, and do whatever you want, whenever you want. What you’re left with is square one, and haven’t we all ended up there far too often? In order to curb what you’re eating, you have to first know what you’re eating. And in order to know what you’re eating, you have to log it.

Plain and simply, this is how I lost the bulk of my weight after I had my first baby. No crazy diets or crash cleanses or five-hour workout sessions. I started a food diary and every night, I e-mailed it to my three best buds at the Today show (Lester Holt, Erica Hill, and Dylan Dreyer). They in turn sent me theirs, and what ensued was a three-month stretch of self-monitoring everything we ate and making appropriate healthy changes.

We all lost weight, despite a somewhat stubborn start by our dear pal Lester, who held on tight to his favorite dessert of crème brûlée until he surrendered to the power of the diary a week in and switched over to fruit. That’s when he was hooked. My aha moment came by Week Three, when I was eating salads for breakfast as a chest-pounding, competitively strategic move. It didn’t exactly catch on, but for that special week my fiber intake was through the roof.

Keeping a food diary is the ultimate accountable step. Quite honestly, monitoring what goes into your body is one of the single most important things you can do for yourself, one that asks so little effort in return. And before you complain that it’s no fun jotting every single thing down, ask yourself this: Is it any less fun than trying to squeeze into the jeans that no longer fit you or the sweater you used to live in because it was so loose and cozy? (BTW, my post-baby body tried on that same sweater and wondered when it had turned into spandex.) Within two weeks of keeping a food log after my first baby, I not only got into a food-logging groove, I was starting to make wiser food choices without so much as a word of guidance from anyone or having to make a conscious effort to do so.

DON’T STOP THERE…

Look, I’m not asking you to draw a diagram, add up calories, or scribble down any of the information from the back label of whatever you’ve inhaled. What you choose to eat and drink isn’t important. To be truthful, none of that matters to me right now. This is just about writing down everything you’re eating and drinking all day long. That’s all. The change—your adjustment—will come on its own.

Just write down every little speck of food and drink from sunup until bedtime. I don’t care if it’s the three raisins you picked off your kid’s plate. I don’t care if it’s half a bite of half a pizza crust. All I can say is: If you found the need to put that half a bite in your mouth, then you need to write it down and hold yourself accountable for it.

Now, you can use what I’m asking of you in a couple of different ways. You can jot down everything you eat and drink, stare at the list at the end of the day, and sit with the choices you’ve made on your own. That’s not a bad plan. In fact, research has shown that dieters who keep a food diary tend to do better when it comes to meeting and beating their weight-loss goals compared to those who can’t be bothered.

But what I like to do is bring others onboard for the ride.

Everyone has friends in the same boat. They either need to lose weight, want to get healthy, or sit somewhere in between. (I should really be calling it a cruise ship, given the number of friends aboard who want to join in on my next food diary.) And when you’re sharing that list with a group or even on social media, you’ll start making smarter choices a lot faster without trying that hard. It all comes down to the fact that when you know other people will be looking at what and how you’re eating, you’ll be less inclined to fill your list with junk.

It also brings out your competitive spirit, no matter who you are. You may not care who’s eating what in the beginning. But mark my words: If one friend sends back a food diary with a huge salad on it, and you’re staring down an endless bowl of mac ’n’ cheese, I can guarantee you won’t be dining with Ms. Mary Mac (and cheese) tonight.

As the days go by, you’ll slowly start making wiser choices, cleaner choices, and better choices. You’ll automatically start making dietary decisions based on what other people are reading about you and what they’re sending you. After all, nobody wants to be the loser in the group who caved and had two Pop-Tarts at three in the afternoon (even if they’re Frosted Strawberry).

That said, the rules are painless enough:

1. Find someone who (or a group of people that) will do this with you for the long haul, not anyone that could really care less and may be doing it just to help you out. Preferably, find people with the same goals as you (to become healthier, to get in great shape, and if needed, lose a little weight).

2. Be honest. If you cheat, I swear you’re only cheating yourself. Those jeans will never fit you unless you actually eat the salads and don’t just lie about eating the salads.

3. Finally, be consistent. That means starting on the exact same day and e-mailing your friend or friends as soon as you finish your last bite for the night, no matter if it’s six p.m. or midnight—you’ll find yourself wanting to finish first just to beat out your friend who somehow finds a way every night to get her diary in by six p.m. even though she has two hungry kids and a husband and an amazing pantry of snacks and… Sorry, I digress.

Tips and Tricks

You’ll be amazed how something as simple and effortless as seeing words on a page will affect you. But if you need help staying the course—or want to turn your food diary into something even more meaningful—here are just a few easy ways to do exactly that.

Snap a pic and send it. In addition to writing down every detail, grab your phone, then take a picture of your meals and snacks and immediately send it to your friends. Revealing what you’re eating in the moment (and seeing what they’re eating as well) may fire up your competitive spirit even more.

Choose what works best for you. Don’t feel like lugging around a journal? Then text yourself. Can’t type 911 without misspelling it? Then carry scrap paper in your pocket. The point: just use whatever’s easiest for you. I don’t care if it’s a Post-it note or the back of your hand—just so long as you write down every crumb, you’re fine.

Give yourself a break one week a month. If you want to see how powerful a tool a food diary is, write everything down for three weeks, then take one week off. You’ll immediately notice that during your time off, you’ll end up eating and drinking so much more compared to the weeks prior that you’ll eventually want to track what you ingest all the time.

Don’t be selective about your days. If you have some big occasion where eating mass quantities of food is unfortunately unavoidable, that’s no time to take off. These are the crucial days when holding yourself liable matters most—so double down.

Write down what you eat before you eat it. Seeing certain foods in print before you pound them back may help you eat less of the bad stuff and more of the good. Why? It gives you time to reflect and ask yourself, “Do I really want to commit to this? Am I proud of what’s on this paper?” When the answer’s no, you may find yourself dialing back on what makes you feel guilty.

Don’t be afraid to fire your friends. If you ever start to feel like your diary buddies are cutting you way too much slack, or they’ve lost their motivation to stick things out, confide in someone new.

Blame it on your health. If you’re too self-conscious about what others may think and don’t want to come off seeming weight-obsessed, tell them you’re doing this to get healthy. You’ll be surprised how fast the gossip stops when people think you’re watching what you eat to lower your cholesterol or have more energy to play with your kids.

Don’t ignore the extras. Coming clean with every scrap of food also means being accountable for whatever you’ve smeared, squirted, or shaken on top of it. So don’t ignore recording any sauces, spreads, condiments, sugar, or sugar substitutes—even if you don’t think it has a single calorie in it, own up to it.

If you can handle the details, then do it. Writing down the names of what you’re eating is all I expect from you. But for some, going beyond the bare minimum can help explore triggers that could be behind some of your food choices and habits. Just a few things you may want to track before and after every meal could include

• Your energy levels

• Your mood

• The time of day (and how much time you’ve waited between meals)

• Your location

• Your level of hunger