Many studies point to the weight loss success of people who create a food diary. These are the people who take off weight and keep it off. The keeping it off part is where many people fall off the wagon. After going through the initial determination to lose the weight, the weight slowly creeps back on due to attrition. This means mainly from neglect. When someone is focusing much of their attention on their goal of losing weight, they pay attention to what they eat.

However, as soon as the goal is attained, their attention wanes and they slowly fall back into old familiar eating routines. But this doesn't have to happen. One way to ensure that you will maintain your desired weight is through keeping a food journal. Keep it in a handy spot and write down everything you eat including snacks and drinks. Now this may not be easy at first, but when you discipline yourself to record your food intake, after about 21 days, it will become a habit. Then it's just another thing on your to do list like brushing your teeth, another activity that you do without thinking.

How many days do you skip brushing your teeth because you just forgot is keeping your desired weight as important as having fresh breath. Think about it. Okay, let's talk about what constitutes a balanced meal. The old food pyramid is history. And I always wondered how we could get away with so many grains. The new guidelines recommend that half of your plate be filled with fruits and vegetables.

The other half should consist of a protein and grains and your protein which is usually meat, fish or beans should be no larger than the palm of your hand. Now I realize this may look like the amazing shrinking protein. But these are the guidelines. And there's power in knowing the guidelines because you can always adjust your portion size accordingly. At least you're filling your plate as an informed consumer. So I have just three words for you in making these changes.

Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps. Okay, six words. So now you know the importance of keeping a daily food diary, as well as what a balanced meal looks like. The important thing from this point on is to make sure that half of your plate is fruit and vegetables, and the other half is a quarter protein and a quarter grains. You'll be allowed some fats, but we'll talk about that in the next lesson. The secret to making this work for you is planning.

It's a lot easier to have a healthy meal when you plan ahead. It's easier to plan ahead when you have your choices laid out before you. Remember, this is not a diet. This is a lifestyle change that involves eating in a healthy way so that you can follow this for the rest of your life. So here are your action steps. You'll find four columns at the top of your paper, each representing food groups.

Your job is to list all of your favorite foods under each group. For example, list all of your favorite veggies under the column vegetables. Then when you're planning your meals, pick one food from each group and there's your meal. Not only that, it's a meal that includes your favorite foods. deciding what to eat for a meal can be a daunting task at times. This takes the guesswork out of it.

Bone appetit. I'm going to go over some basics. Here's that you might want to change. And I'm going to ask you to think about committing to one of these, because these are all very, very helpful in helping you lose weight. The first one is this, I will eat breakfast. And why is that so important?

Well, it's important because when you've been sleeping all night, your metabolism slows down. And when you decide to eat breakfast, then you're breaking the fast. And when you break the fast, your metabolism speeds up. And this is a good thing because that's what you want. It's an easy way to speed up your metabolism for the rest of the day. The second one, I will drink at least six glasses of water per day.

Now this is important because a lot of times it's hard to tell whether you're actually thirsty or hungry. And a lot of times you may be in the kitchen looking for something to eat, when actually you're just mildly the hydrated. So by drinking six glasses of water a day, you're going to keep yourself from becoming dehydrated and you might not have those urges to run into the kitchen. I will drink a glass of water 30 minutes before lunch and dinner. Well this is important because a lot of times it takes 20 minutes for your body to figure out that you're full. So if you start 30 minutes ahead and are you're taking up some of the room in your stomach with with water, then you're going to feel fuller faster, and that's the idea.

I will give up all cola drinks, including diet drinks. Did you know that like one cola drink can have 10 teaspoons of sugar, and that's a lot of sugar. Do you really want to get that much sugar in one drink and diet drinks have actually been tied to weight gain. So That's really defeating the purpose. I will drink no more than one cola drink per day. So let's just say that you don't want to give up all your cola drinks.

It See if you can limit it to one. I will exercise for 20 minutes three times a week. Now, if you're taking this program because you're trying to reverse your pre diabetes, then you need to be exercising 150 minutes per week. And this is just one way to get that in. I will drop at least one processed food from my diet. You know, the processed foods are the ones in the middle of the store.

They are the ones that are in boxes. And the processed foods are not in their natural form and they're the ones that contain the most sugar, fat and salt. So if you can manage to drop one, that's a great, great idea in the right direction. I will eat an apple each day. You remember the old saying An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Well, the more I read the more I really believe that.

So find an apple that you like. I happen to like Fuji and Gala. And I like I put my apples in the refrigerator because I like them to be really cold and crisp. But if you could find an apple that you enjoy, what a great thing that to do for your health. I will eat blueberries. You know now they're saying that blueberries prevent a lot of diseases and macular degeneration being one of them.

So blueberries you can't lose eating blueberries. I will eat only one fast food meal per week. Fast Food meals are convenient, but they also contain the most fat, salt and sugar. So you We want to keep that to a minimum. I will give up fast food meals. If you are able to give up fast food meals, all the better.

I will not drink my calories. You know, a lot of times people feel like just because it's a drink, that it's more healthful or not as fattening. And a lot of times your drinks have more more calories than what you're eating. So you have to decide, do I want to eat my calories or do I want to drink them, and for a lot of people, it's a lot more fun to eat them. I will limit fruit drinks. You know, it's better to eat the real fruit because then you get the fiber.

And in this program, we're going to talk about all the benefits of fiber. I will go to bed earlier. Another thing we're going to talk about in the program is how getting enough sleep can actually benefit your weight. I will take each time I will take time each day for my own relaxation ritual. Whether your ritual is meditation, which we're going to learn in the program, or whether you take a brief nap or whether you just sit down and read or whatever it is, it's really important. And don't think that taking time out for relaxation is a waste of time.

It might be one of the most important things you do because stress puts weight on you. I will make snack packs for myself. This is a really proactive move, because people when they're hungry, usually run into the kitchen and grab the first thing they see. And usually it's a packaged food, processed food. If you can be proactive and make a snack pack for yourself then you've already got something when that urge hits you and the last I will keep a daily food diary. Do you know that they've done research that shown that women who keep a food journal not only take off the weight, but they keep the weight off over the long term.

So this is a really good habit to get into. If you can make a commitment to one or even maybe more than one of these things, sometimes that's all it takes.