Keeping a Food Journal

I've started writing down everything I eat...again. There are times I do this and times I don't.  What I have found is when I do take the time to jot down what I eat, I definitely make better choices.  I find myself doing it when the jeans won't button or I start developing the muffin-top and dressing to hide it.

Something very interesting happened at lunch today. I had a small amount of lean green beef, about a cup of broccoli and a few bites of my husband's salad. He eats his salad with full-fat ranch dressing and croutons, etc. That may not sound like much, but remember I eat six small meals a day. Well, I snitched about 5 croutons and would dip them into his dressing. When it came time to record what I had for lunch, a funny thing happened, I literally had to force myself to write down the croutons and the dressing. What was up with that? No one sees my food journal but me, why did I feel so guilty about writing that down? I really felt an internal struggle to put on paper the fact that I went against what I had planned for myself that day. Now, a few croutons and little full-fat dressing isn't anything to stress about, but when you start tallying it up at the end of the day, how many times did we eat that extra 100 calories? That is where the problem lies. Even 100 calories too much a day would account for about 10 pounds a year.

An example of 100 calories: 5 vanilla wafers...Yikes, I can eat a whole lot more than 5 vanilla wafers!

I remember my daughter telling me one time, "Mom, you've lost that same five pounds twenty times"! Then I thought about that a bit and realized that if I hadn't lost that same five pounds twenty times, I would be one hundred pounds overweight.

In my line of work I see people every single day that could lose 100 pounds, do I judge them?  Of course not, because I know how easily it can happen.

Is this where people say, "I just give up"! No, education is the key, the more you keep the journal and are honest about what goes in there, you can see trends and places where you can cut back fairly painlessly and meet your health gooals and yes, even fit into your skinny jeans!

So this week, why don't you try and keep a  food journal to review at the end of the week and see if you can find places where you may have been able to make better food choices. Feel free to call me for any help!

Lynda Waldron

Certified Health Coach 239-691-7960

Good Health to You!

I was looking over my other blogs and got to thinking about how much my life has changed since I became a health coach. I thought I knew a lot about nutrition and exercise. I felt like I 'knew' how to eat right. But a funny thing happened the other day. I was cleaning out some papers and came across an old food journal from one of the countless times I had tried to lose weight. Some of the entries made me laugh.

It seems that the more you learn about nutrition, the more you learn that you had no clue as to what was proper nutrition. I was obviously trying to live my life on on all the "diet" foods, the low-fat frozen entrees, the low-fat cookies, mini-cakes, brownies, etc. What was I thinking? Now that I've learned about the dangers of sodium, I was aghast to see the sodium levels of these so called "healthy alternatives"! You may be asking yourselves why is salt such a problem? The bad news is that high sodium is silently damaging your insides, namely your heart and your kidneys. I don't know about you, but I want my heart and kidneys to function and function well for a good long time to come. So, educate yourselves, read the labels, and try for about 1500 mgs. of sodium a day. The easiest way to do this is by eating fresh, whole foods that are not processed.

Where did I learn all of this? As a health coach for a nationwide weight-loss company that uses portion-controlled meal replacements, how can I sit here and tell you to eat all fresh, unprocessed foods? The portion-controlled meal replacements that my company offers are the best that can be purchased. If you follow the 5 and 1 plan from my program, you will only be getting 1200 mgs. of sodium a day. And our whole program is about education, education, education, so that after you have reached your initial health goals, you will be able to maintain that good health for the rest of your life!

Good Intentions!

Last time we spoke about how to eat right while traveling. How does that work? Do we start out with the best of intentions and then totally fall off the wagon once the vacation starts? What then? Give up and figure we just don't have enough willpower?
No! Keep on trying! Buy a book about nutrition and start educating yourself about the ins and outs of proper nutrition. I have one I highly recommend that is comprehensive, you can contact me for details.

Good nutrition really is more about giving our bodies the proper fuel so it can do all its mysterious processes that we hardly give a thought to until something goes wrong. Did you know that if you don't eat enough protein during the day, your body will "steal" it from your muscles at night to feed your body? Or if you don't get the proper calcium your body will take it out of your bones and teeth to get what it needs? Do we drink enough water so our kidneys can get rid of waste or do we want it riding around inside of us? Yuk! No wonder people are tired, worn-out and stressed! Give your body what it needs so you can have the energy to go out and build a huge business!

Good intentions will only take you so far. Educating yourself will help you have the motivation to do the actions required to nourish your body. Take a few hours each week to make that list, go to the store, prepare a few good meals and freeze them so that on those busy week-nights, there is something healthy in the house to eat. Hire a friend who loves to cook to prepare and freeze a few meals for you. If nothing else, contact me for some healthy meal-replacements, at least you can get some good nutrition while you are on the run!