I sprawl along the couch.
Breathing heavily and with no thought of exerting energy.
The pants feel a bit tighter and I feel no sense of “tone” along my waistline.
It’s that time. The food journal must be brought back into action.
What’s a Food Journal
Recently, I have had the food journal slap me in the face and bring back a harsh sense of reality. No, it wasn’t my own actual one, but one mentioned by a few online buds that you probably know.
Joel Runyon, who is soon to launch ImpossibleAbs, recently got an amazing set of abs by tracking what he put into his body. He may not have busted out the journal, but I am fairly confident he had a list of 10 foods and didnt vary too much from there.
Vic Magary, another ultimate warrior, discussed how his unsuccessful clients tended to be the ones without a food journal.
Look, this is nothing new to me, but it may be to you, so let me explain.
Whether coherently or not, those who track what they are eating in something like a food journal often succeeded at a much higher rate than those that don’t. I don’t have any scientific analysis behind that statement. However, my fit friends track what they eat and my “unfit” friends don’t. Every. Single Time.
So, what is a food journal? A food journal is where you keep track of anything calorically you put into your body.
Handful of M&M’s. Chicken and veggie dish. 3 slices of pizza. 1 can of soda. With each of these items, you jot down detail as you so please. I often just track calories because they typically are the easiest to obtain, but hardcore kids like Joel and Vic can be found jotting down grams of fat, amount of specific types of fat, sugar grams, and on and on.
What journaling does is make the individual tracking the foods they intake aware of what and how much they intake. If I put a platter of mac & cheese in front of you and hand you a spoon, you might just gorge yourself. Whereas, if I do the same, but I ask you to keep track of how many calories you consume, you might slow your roll on downing the goods. This isn’t for sure, but it has worked for many.
How to Manage a Food Journal
Everywhere you go, your food journal goes.
Every time you put a morsel of food in your mouth, you write it down immediately thereafter.
Every ounce of fluid beside water that passes your lips, you check the can or bottle and jot it down.
In other words, you become a slave to your food journal and your food journal, often, will take care of you.
The toughest part about managing a food journal is being accurate. Phrases like, “I think it’s this much…,” or, “It probably only has…,” rarely leads to success. What leads to success is looking on your smartphone or computer, determining what one banana has calorically, then jotting it down. Guessing breeds failure.
If you want to take a food journal seriously, you manage it and it will manage you. It sounds completely lame that we can’t control our intake, but it is how it is.
Back on the Food Journal Train
There are two reasons I bring up the food journal today. One is because I feel a lot of people don’t take it seriously. Two is I am jumping back on the food journal bandwagon.
Many folks who ask my advice get lazy and/or don’t even attempt a food journal. Stop bothering me with your fad diet if you aren’t willing to even know what you put in your body. That’s why I am sharing this today. We all need help and guidance and a food journal does just that.
Recently, I have fallen off my own preachings. By know means am I overweight, but I am not where I want to be. If I look in the mirror and am not satisfied, I need to change things. The food journal is a great first step and a step I am taking starting today.
I won’t be using the food journal a month from now. I just use it to get back on track and my body and mind back in focus. It’s a tool. A tool that is good for a time that is useful and at others, a tool that sits waiting for me to bring it back into action.
My Challenge to You
Try a food journal for one week. Give me one week. Then, come back to the comments and let me know how it goes. It won’t kill ya to drag around a journal for a week. Good luck!
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