Weight Loss Journals: Hands- On Inspiration. Visual images can be powerful tools in helping you reach your goals. There are lots of creative ways to use this motivation technique, such as posting an image of your goal where you’ll see it most—in your car, on a bathroom mirror, or on the refrigerator. Visual images can also help you reach your weight loss goals. Create a chart to measure your progress, display before and after pictures, or get a brochure of the vacation destination you’ll visit after you reach your goal. These are all good ways to constantly remind yourself of the commitment you’ve made. One of our most loyal Spark. People members, EMMYOS, decided to create a journal to document her weight loss journey. Emmy was kind enough to share pictures from her journal, as well as talk about how the journal has been so helpful in her progress. Benefits Of Food Journaling Weight LossJEN: Where did you get the idea to create a weight loss journal? EMMY: I love to scrapbook, and one day I started thinking that I wanted to document my journey to health—the same way I document trips and events that happen in our family life. I’ve learned that scrap- booking isn’t just pretty and fun. You do it to document your life and to give a piece of yourself to the people you leave behind. Losing weight is a struggle, but in the end it will be a success that I want to share with my family. If someone reads it and gets encouragement, or if someone I share my book with gets a “spark” from it and decides to change their own life, I will have filled a book with more then just a memory for someone to read. It will be now someone else’s attempt at a dream and success. JEN: How has the journal helped your weight loss progress? EMMY: When I am feeling unmotivated or down, I open up the book and read my original entry about why I started my journey. I go through old journal notes that I wrote and they strike a cord that gives me the boost I need to get off my butt and move. Sometimes it reminds me of the hard effort I have put into this. When I go through my journal, it gives me the encouragement all over again. I write my deepest feelings in it—the embarrassment of having to ask for an extender belt on the airplane, not being able to go on a ride at an amusement park, being called fat as a kid, being teased non- stop—those are all things that remind me why I am doing this. When you write down both the good and the bad, you can't take them away. It's there black and white. JEN: Is there any advice you would give to someone just starting a weight loss journal? EMMY: Think hard about what you want out of your book, what you want to document, and what you want to show in it. I knew I was going to document the tools I am using on Spark. People and TOPS, awards, and successes.
I kept letters and cards that people from my support groups have sent me, messages on the boards, etc. I also journal in my book as I go along. Food Journal: Write It Down, Shed More Pounds. Food Journals Help Dieters Lose Weight, Study Shows. Journaling Weight Loss SuccessDiet-to-Go takes healthy living a step further. Get everything you need to lose weight: including tips, recipes, ideas, information & much, much more. Bullet journaling could be the secret to keeping your workouts and eating. How a Bullet Journal Can Help You Reach Your Goals. Weight Loss; Lifestyle; Celebrities. Get a good book, something you can keep adding to, because it is a work of art in progress. I started my journal 8 months after I began Spark. People, and then put it away. I brought it out recently to motivate myself again, and now keep it on my desk and look at it more often to remind myself of my goals! The Secrets to Weight Loss: Keep a Food Journal, Don’t Skip Meals, Eat Innoa images / Getty Images. A new yearlong study of weight loss in overweight or obese women identified three key strategies for taking off unwanted pounds. Writing down everything you eat or drink in a food journal. Also: don’t skip meals and avoid eating out at restaurants too often. Underlying all three strategies is a sense of mindfulness, the authors say . The women filled out a series of questionnaires detailing their dietary intake, any eating- related weight- loss strategies they used, meal patterns and other behaviors like eating out or food journaling. They also filled out a 1. On average, women in both groups lost weight, about 1. But Mc. Tiernan and her colleagues noticed that certain strategies the women used were associated with more weight loss.(MORE: Boot Camp: Do Food Diaries Really Work?)Women who kept food journals consistently lost about 6 lbs. Food journaling isn’t easy or convenient, but done consistently, it can help steer dieters to more healthful choices since it allows people not only to keep track of calories, but also to gauge the overall quality of their diet. The authors advise dieters to write down absolutely everything in their food journals, including condiments, toppings and sauces, and always to keep track of portions. Women in the study were given printed booklets to use as their food journals, but people can use anything they like, from low- tech notebook and pen to ready- made apps on their i. Phone or tablet. Women who reported skipping meals lost nearly 8 lbs. The authors think that when people skip meals, they’re more likely to binge eat or eat fattening foods later on, causing them to eat more calories overall. Habitual meal- skipping or fasting could also affect the body’s metabolism, discouraging weight loss. For instance, the lack of time and effort spent on planning and preparing meals may lead a person to skip meals and/or eat out more,” said Mc. Tiernan. Indeed, women who ate out more lost less weight, especially those who frequently ate out for lunch. Women who had lunch out at least once a week lost about 5 lbs. Again, the problem is lack of awareness and control over what you’re eating, the authors said: you can’t control what goes into restaurant dishes or how they’re cooked, and you also have no say over portion size.(MORE: Calorie vs. Calorie: Study Evaluates Three Diets for Staying Slim)For anyone thinking of starting a food journal, the authors have some helpful tips: Be honest: record everything you eat. Be accurate: measure portions, read labels. Be complete: include details such as how the food was prepared, and the addition of any toppings or condiments. Be consistent: always carry your food diary with you or use a diet- tracking application on your smartphone“We think our findings are promising because it shows that basic strategies such as maintaining food journals, eating out less often and eating at regular intervals are simple tools that postmenopausal women.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
July 2017
Categories |