Posted on
01 April 2010, under
Fitness / Sport; More Fitness / Sport articles...
Food journal
You know what’s weird?
Mayonnaise on hamburgers. Something about it seems sacrilegious.
You know what else is weird?
Deciding to lose weight, then trying to change every bad eating habit you have in one week. Okay, so that’s not so much weird as it is a sure-fire way for disaster. Why? Because it’s nearly impossible to change that much in such little time. It leads to frustration, anger and eventually despair and the thoughts of “I just can’t do it, so why try.”
What does work?
Laser-like focus on a few small areas at a time is the only thing that works. Let’s pose a hypothetical. After keeping a food and exercise journal for a couple weeks, you realize you’re a horrible night eater. Eating at night is not bad; it’s what you eat.
Maybe you like a bowl (or 2) of cereal while watching 24. You’ve got some other bad habits as well like your daily Pepsi fix, chowing down on any junk food presented to you (even if it is “just a couple”), not to mention the 3ish beers on Friday and Saturday nights.
What do you think you should do?
Should you try to change all of those things at once in an effort to drop a few pounds? Nope. You should instead focus on the late-night eating for 2 or 3 weeks until you have transformed that bad habit into a good habit. As I said earlier, eating at night isn’t a bad thing; it’s what you eat.
If you’re hungry, eat. But you should first take a step back and think about WHY you’re hungry. Are you bored? Are you stressed out from the day and food helps you unwind? Once you figure out the “why”, you can figure out what you’re going to replace that bad habit with.
If you’re eating because you’re bored; find something else to fill the time. If you’re eating because you’re stressed; figure out another way to unwind like reading, meditating, exercising or grab a healthy food that will fill the same role like a serving of all-natural yogurt or a glass of milk and some nuts.
If you just like a biscuit (or 3!) with your TV, sorry but you have to ditch it or relegate it to just 1 or 2 nights per week. After a couple weeks of focusing solely on that habit, it shouldn’t be an issue anymore. Then, move on to the next issue.
If you continue on this pattern, transforming bad habits into good ones one-by-one, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve accomplished over the course of a couple months.You won’t feel like you’ve deprived yourself.
You won’t fall off the wagon like you would if you tried to stick to a diet or make big, sweeping changes. I won’t lie; it will be tough at times. All change is tough, but it will get easier. What I want you to do right now is keep a food and exercise journal for two weeks. Then sit down and analyse it, or have a professional do it for you, and figure out what 1 thing you can focus on right now.
Then get to work.
Ed Scow is a fitness expert, husband and very proud daddy who runs a private personal training studio from smack-dab in the middle of the United States. He’s been helping folks get in better shape, lose weight and get stronger for the past 10 years. Over the past couple years he has branched out and started helping busy moms and dads from all over the world get their superhero bodies with his 10-minute workout program, Fat Loss To Go. His primary goal is to get parents moving and working and get the superhero body they deserve. He believes all parents are superheroes, unfortunately too many of them have gotten fat and out of shape and they’re passing those bad habits on to their kids.
He’s also known as “The Fit Dad”…his superhero alter-ego that strikes out whenever the evil forces of Fatty try to convince you it’s okay to be lazy or eat that last piece of cake. To learn more about The Fit Dad you can check out his blog at www.TheFitDadSays.com and to learn more about his 10-minute fat loss program, head to www.FatLossToGo.com
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