Food Diaries
Why keep a food diary?
A food diary is a tool to enable you to become more aware of your current eating behaviour. Reviewing yours with your "Howard's Way" Locum can give you valuable insights into what changes you would be best to make and what is actually 'working' for you long term.
Most patients on the "Howard’s Way" programme, soon recognise that the weight loss is the easiest part of the programme. However, all too often on other weight loss programmes, the shedding of pounds is given the central focus. This then inevitably becomes followed by a steady regain. Most other diets are unsuccessful in the long run because they fail to address the multifaceted nature of what is entailed in successful, permanent weight loss.
Our research over 15 years has revealed many invaluable strategies which can help increase your success of maintaining permanent weight loss. While no single article can possibly cover this vast subject, we believe that there are some techniques that are more successful and valuable than others.
Information gathered while keeping a "Howard's Way" food diary will allow both you and your "Howard's Way" Locum to understand more about current eating habits and developing the practice of recording food intake is invaluable. It is useful to record foods eaten (including snacks and beverages) on a weekly basis as you can also determine calorific intake and circumstances of eating too much of the wrong type.
Other useful information to record, is how you feel (and look in the mirror) the morning after eating certain foods like refined carbohydrates/high G.I foods, so as to get a better understanding of how feeling groggy/having low energy/bad concentration can be, more often than not, a result of having 'bad reactions' to certain food types.
Keeping a food diary can also be of great help in ascertaining which foods trigger any allergies you may have! Determining which foods trigger your 'allergy' symptoms will take very little detective work as, whilst on the "Howard's Way" formula food, most patients find they have NO symptoms of past intolerances or allergies.
When eating more regular food, keeping your food diary will soon expose the offending foods.