Imagine you get “paid” a certain amount of calories every day. Those calories are your account balance. As you eat during the day, deduct from your balance the calorie count of everything you eat to monitor your “spending” habits.
Where to Record It
Any old spiral-ring notebook will work as a food journal, but finding a method that’s convenient and well-suited to your personality might mean the difference between being a faithful journaler or a sporadic one. Look in bookstores for blank notebooks. A book with heavy, white paper and a beautiful jacket might draw you to it throughout the day. Indulge in a special pen, too.
If you want more guidance than a blank piece of paper gives, try one of these guides:
My Diet Journal: 182-Day Food and Exercise Diary by Sallie Stone (2005, Lulu.com). Provides more than 200 pages to record your daily exercise and how many calories and grams of fat you consume. There are also weekly progress sheets for you to chart body measurements, average calorie intake and expenditure. ($25)
The Corinne T. Netzer Low-Fat Diary by Corinne T. Netzer (1995, Dell Publishing). An oldie-but-goodie, this popular spiral food journal provides a maximum daily fat intake chart, goals for the week and space to total up fat grams, as well as daily exercise and comments. The back of the book lists a fat gram counter for foods. ($11)
If you prefer to make your entries at your computer, here are some online options worth checking out:
MyFoodDiary.com For $9 per month, you get tools to help you maintain a food and exercise diary, chart your weight and keep track of your changing shape with a log of body measurements. It boasts a calorie and nutritional listing for more than 30,000 foods.
FatSecret.com This free site offers charts to record your daily food intake, activities and weight loss, and a special section to create or join other people's weight-loss, diet and fitness challenges to help achieve your goals.
FitDay.com A free site that helps you organize your eating and exercise information, count calories and track weight loss. It also provides fitness and nutrition facts that can be personalized for your needs. Just enter your data and the site does the work.
