by Katie Lane

Created on: October 04, 2008   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

For many on a diet, food journals are one step of a successful turn-around to a healthy life style. For some, it's a schedule keeper, something that keeps them on track of what they eat and how much of it. For others, it's a reminder and motivator of how well they are doing. No matter what you use it for, however, it is an effective tool to help ensure a good and manageable lifestyle.

Food journals, or diet journals, allow people to keep track of what they eat and when. It is a helpful way to keep track of what goes in one's body, and how much at one time. For example, a writer of a food journal might say, "BREAKFAST: Two doughnuts." Later on in the day, or even the week, they can note what they had to eat and think of what they can do to improve on their habits. This sort of reflective process puts a habit into the dieter of continually trying to do better and better.

If you're being kept on watch by a doctor, a food journal is also a good way over presenting specific facts to the doctor of what you've been eating instead of rough estimates that can lead to a misdiagnosis. Food journals also help the writer know how many calories to burn off if they want to exercise, and can help plan ahead for the next meal if they want to eat healthier than the previous one.

There are many ways to start a food journal. The first step isn't needed, but is often helpful- make sure your food journal is something vibrant and unique, something that you want to write in. Also, you must always keep your food journal handy. If you're offered something at a party, you would want to write it down, and if your food journal is not there, you might forget it later on. Always keep a couple of pens or pencils on hand, just in case you lose some.

Organise your food journal into specific categories. One category should be for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for dinner, and then another should be for snacks. Organise your journal in a two-column fashion- one column for the categories, the other column for the time you ate them. This way you can see exactly when and what you ate.

Another good thing to put in your food journal is exercise. This doesn't have to have anything to do with food, but it can help keep your progress of your diet. Writing down what exercises you did and for how long can help you keep track of how many calories you burned.

Finally, a great thing to put in your food journal is a list of goals that you can check off. There should be a set of weekly, monthly, and long-term goals. For example, your weekly goal might be: "eat a healthier breakfast". If you can check off that goal at the end of the week, you will not only feel better about yourself, but want to continue on checking off that goal for weeks to come. And, once you can check off a long-term goal, you'll feel even better and more motivated.

Food journals are a great way to keep progress of a diet and stay on track, because often one can slip up. These journals are being used every day to help people on diets, and are a great tool for achieving a better, healthier lifestyle.

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