Weekly Food Log

Tuesday's Tip

Do you think you are eating healthy but still are having trouble losing weight? Have you incorporated exercise into your weekly routine and are even more confused as to why the pounds aren't shedding off? Your office and pantry just might be the ones to blame. Snacking on something, even if it's healthy, when you're bored rather than hungry accounts for lots of added calories that people seem to forget about. Chips and other snacky items that have little to no nutritional value make it easy to eat handfuls and handfuls of them because they don't leave you feeling full, so you keep eating while watching your favorite TV show making you unaware of how many you have eaten. Having a few brownies that someone brought to work or a couple of pieces of candy from the jar on your desk increase your caloric intake more than people think. Why? These times of careless eating when we are not actually hungry make us not think about portion control as it is more of an act of boredom than satisfying hunger.

Take a small notebook or use note-taking app on your smartphone and record every single item of food you eat during a 1-week time period. Have it with you at all times so you remember to record even those times that you weren't thinking that you would be eating. You might find, by the end of the week, that you have eaten a lot more than you wanted to and actually needed. This is also a good tool for anyone to use so that they can see if they are getting the recommended amounts of all of food groups. It's amazing how good you feel mentally and physically when you give your body what it needs!

*Snacking is not bad! Just remember to keep snacks to under 200 calories and place them in between meals.