A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a leadership class at work. One of my classmates had seen me on the news and wanted to have lunch with me and pick my brain about weight loss. She was stuck. She'd lost a little, but she'd plateaued and didn't know how to move forward. I asked her if she was journaling and she looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I found it amusing, as earlier in the day she had been complaining about how people need to document processes in order to make sure the company is compliant with regulatory requirements. It's the same thing, only on a personal level. How can you tell if you are on track with exercise and calorie intake if you fail to document? It's well known in the dieting biz that people tend to over report how much they've exercised and under report how much they've eaten. Keeping an honest and accurate (as possible) food and exercise journal is, in my experience, the only way to go. Most for-profit diet programs make this a bit mysterious, but there are free tools out there that can help you keep a journal. The one I use is Calorie Count at about.com. SparkPeople is also free and very good. I've joined both, but I prefer the Calorie Count interface, and they send me less SPAM (the e-kind... not the processed "meat" product... another good idea to avoid, whether weight loss is your goal or not :-\ ) If you are web-savvy enough to be reading this, you are more than web-savvy enough to use these tools.
Do you need to do this forever? Results may vary, but I don't use it all the time. I kept a faithful food/exercise journal for four months. Every day I logged every bite of food and drink (and don't forget the "just a taste"s... sorry, they have calories too!) I logged every minute of exercise... purposefully under-estimating the perceived exertion scale by one or two intensity levels. Sure you could cheat and say you ate less than you did, or worked out more... but what's the point in that?
After about four months I felt like I "got" it, so I stopped logging everything, and just ate mindfully and kept up with/jacked up my exercise regimen. It has worked for me. If I start to plateau, I spend a few weeks journaling to get back on track.
The most valuable part of Calorie Count has been the food look up and new recipe nutritional information generator. It has really helped us to figure out which of our recipes are fine "anytime" meals for this lifestyle, which recipes could be fine with a few tweaks, and which recipes should be saved for special occasions (and which recipes, like "Heart attack mashed potatoes" should be avoided.)
It's harder in restaurants, which is why if you are really serious about weight loss, you need to learn to love cooking. That said, it's still possible to make smart choices when eating out with a little prep work. Most restaurants have websites that list nutritional information(especially chains, local places sometimes do, but it's rare). It has all taken some effort of will power, but I can't honestly say I miss heavy cream sauces or excessive applications of cheese. I can still have those things, it's just not usually my first choice. Just think about what's important, meeting your goals... or a very temporary food high, that probably isn't as tasty as you're imagining. I've gone off on a tangent... I want to talk about goals, but that may be another post.
*Title quote from Dick Brandon
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