MIND-BODY JOURNAL

WHEN YOU’RE LOSING weight or trying to maintain your weight loss, you can’t beat a little journaling to help you get a handle on the way you eat. A food diary is a powerful ally in your war on weight.

 

Studies demonstrate that the food diary is a very consistent and reliable contributor to weight loss. As it turns out, the simple act of writing down what you ate will make you more conscious of your intake and help you avoid overeating. Do it for the first four weeks of the diet and you’ll naturally become more conscious of your eating habits and choices.

Keeping a food diary can serve another purpose: divining how much of your eating may be driven by your emotions. That’s why there are entries for your mood on the diary pages that follow. Tracking when and why you eat may be as important to weight loss as tracking what you put on your plate. By cooking more and keeping gluten-free food and snacks around the house you can be sure that, when you eat, you’ll choose food that will satisfy you and support your efforts to lose. But you’ll also need to rein in urges to eat that are driven by stress, anger, loneliness, and other emotions.

For the next several weeks, keep a food diary with you. When you go to grab an unplanned bite to eat, record your emotional state. Are you bored? Are you upset about something that just happened? Are you mulling over a slight from earlier in the day? Then go ahead and eat, but halfway through, stop and make a note of how you’re feeling after you’ve had some food. Try to include the date, time of day, and meal along with what you’re eating, how hungry you are, where you are, and how you’re feeling.

After a week, flip back through the journal and zero in on the times you saw a distinct improvement in your mood once you began eating. You’ve identified your emotional eating triggers, and now you can look for ways to replace the urge to eat with a healthier outlet for your feelings. A brisk walk, a phone call to a friend or loved one, taking time for some deep breathing, or simply chewing gum could make a big dent in your calorie intake.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of keeping a food journal while on a gluten-free plan is that you’ll find that you’re thinking about eating much less than you once did. After a week or two, flip back through your journal and note how your eating habits have changed!