Your diet and exercise journal……
It is your accountability system!! Without it, you have no idea what you eat. Sure you will say, Yes I do, I eat healthy, I never eat over my calories, I can tell you everything I ate today. Maybe you can but what about yesterday, the day before that, the weekend, last week? Yeah exactly it all becomes a blur at some point and you can’t see your habits based on a single day. This is the same with your exercise. It’s simple; really, write it down when it happens. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad, just write it down. You have to be honest with yourself. You’re not hurting anyone but yourself if you don’t write it down. Like say you ate a bunch of cookies and chips. Or you Loooove Chocolate and yet don’t write it in your journal. Even just one bite. How can you look back and see the pattern and the habit if it is incomplete? You can’t.
I have had clients over the years tell me “I can tell you what I eat.” No….No you can’t! This leaves too much room for convenient forgetfulness. You tend to “forget” those cookies or maybe you tell about them but you don’t say it was 6 but only 2-3. Folks you are only hurting you when you are not honest to yourself. So why do you “forget” and not be honest to yourself? I think it has to do with fear. Fear of change. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of facing reality. I like the acronym F.E.A.R: Face Everything And Rise!! Remember this. It will help you overcome a lot of fears. Always Face it. Don’t let it hold you down. Then Rise and be above it. When you look down on your fear then you can see how small a matter it really is. So back to the journal, IT’S OK TO HAVE A CHEAT DAY!!! Here is the catch though make sure it’s not a cheat week. Be spot on your diet 90% of the time so if a cheat day comes up it’s not that big of a deal. If you are 2 days good 2 bad 1 good 1.5 bad and .5 ok back to good again this is just all over the place. 90% spot on!! Do it! Ok so does this mean you need to log every single meal you ever eat every single day? YES if that’s what it takes, but no you don’t. You need to log a few weekdays and weekends in a row. If you want a good idea do it for a week. Eventually you will become more aware of what you put on your plate. THAT, my friends, is the GOAL!!! Become aware and be accountable for what you do, everyday.
You KNOW how to eat healthy. You KNOW that a ton of carbs is not good for you. You KNOW you need to eat more veggies. You KNOW that more veggies are not going to kill you. You KNOW all this. We learned it in elementary school, it’s plastered all over the news and in Dr’s offices and gyms and grocery stores and TV shows. There are diet ads everywhere that talk about what to eat. Yet still there is a refusal to act. This baffles me. I have had people refuse to get weighed because they don’t want to see their weight. Yet they want to lose weight but refuse to change their diet because “my diet is good”. It is confusing to me because here they are PAYING to get information and guidance on how to lose weight yet won’t do what is asked of them. The simple steps, like just write down EVERYTHING you eat for a week. I don’t care HOW bad your diet is, JUST WRITE IT DOWN!!! Until YOU own up and face yourself head on, you will not see any changes. Albert Einstein once said INSANITY is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Simply put, if you want results, be willing to change. Guys, you HAVE to allow CHANGE for change to happen!! If you really want it then let it happen don’t fight against it. Writing down what you eat not only helps you get a picture of your diet, it helps those trying to help you, to see patterns and habits that you don’t see that might need to be adjusted. Un-till you write it down you have NO idea what you eat from day to day. I will BET you are eating more calories than you think you are.
So I challenge all of you to be HONEST with yourself for ONE week and write down everything you eat, when, how much, what kind, how much sugar, and all the things you drink. As well as how much time you spend sitting, watching TV, on the internet, at a computer, car, dining table, even the toilet. Then also include the time spent being active.
This will give you an HONEST snap shot of what to do next! There is absolutely no way you can out train a poor diet. If you are at the gym 7 days a week and you aren’t seeing changes then look in the kitchen. It is likely where you’ll find your answer. Good luck and remember; your body keeps an accurate log even if you don’t.
To keep it simple, if you bite it, write it!!
It is your accountability system!! Without it, you have no idea what you eat. Sure you will say, Yes I do, I eat healthy, I never eat over my calories, I can tell you everything I ate today. Maybe you can but what about yesterday, the day before that, the weekend, last week? Yeah exactly it all becomes a blur at some point and you can’t see your habits based on a single day. This is the same with your exercise. It’s simple; really, write it down when it happens. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad, just write it down. You have to be honest with yourself. You’re not hurting anyone but yourself if you don’t write it down. Like say you ate a bunch of cookies and chips. Or you Loooove Chocolate and yet don’t write it in your journal. Even just one bite. How can you look back and see the pattern and the habit if it is incomplete? You can’t.
I have had clients over the years tell me “I can tell you what I eat.” No….No you can’t! This leaves too much room for convenient forgetfulness. You tend to “forget” those cookies or maybe you tell about them but you don’t say it was 6 but only 2-3. Folks you are only hurting you when you are not honest to yourself. So why do you “forget” and not be honest to yourself? I think it has to do with fear. Fear of change. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of facing reality. I like the acronym F.E.A.R: Face Everything And Rise!! Remember this. It will help you overcome a lot of fears. Always Face it. Don’t let it hold you down. Then Rise and be above it. When you look down on your fear then you can see how small a matter it really is. So back to the journal, IT’S OK TO HAVE A CHEAT DAY!!! Here is the catch though make sure it’s not a cheat week. Be spot on your diet 90% of the time so if a cheat day comes up it’s not that big of a deal. If you are 2 days good 2 bad 1 good 1.5 bad and .5 ok back to good again this is just all over the place. 90% spot on!! Do it! Ok so does this mean you need to log every single meal you ever eat every single day? YES if that’s what it takes, but no you don’t. You need to log a few weekdays and weekends in a row. If you want a good idea do it for a week. Eventually you will become more aware of what you put on your plate. THAT, my friends, is the GOAL!!! Become aware and be accountable for what you do, everyday.
You KNOW how to eat healthy. You KNOW that a ton of carbs is not good for you. You KNOW you need to eat more veggies. You KNOW that more veggies are not going to kill you. You KNOW all this. We learned it in elementary school, it’s plastered all over the news and in Dr’s offices and gyms and grocery stores and TV shows. There are diet ads everywhere that talk about what to eat. Yet still there is a refusal to act. This baffles me. I have had people refuse to get weighed because they don’t want to see their weight. Yet they want to lose weight but refuse to change their diet because “my diet is good”. It is confusing to me because here they are PAYING to get information and guidance on how to lose weight yet won’t do what is asked of them. The simple steps, like just write down EVERYTHING you eat for a week. I don’t care HOW bad your diet is, JUST WRITE IT DOWN!!! Until YOU own up and face yourself head on, you will not see any changes. Albert Einstein once said INSANITY is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Simply put, if you want results, be willing to change. Guys, you HAVE to allow CHANGE for change to happen!! If you really want it then let it happen don’t fight against it. Writing down what you eat not only helps you get a picture of your diet, it helps those trying to help you, to see patterns and habits that you don’t see that might need to be adjusted. Un-till you write it down you have NO idea what you eat from day to day. I will BET you are eating more calories than you think you are.
So I challenge all of you to be HONEST with yourself for ONE week and write down everything you eat, when, how much, what kind, how much sugar, and all the things you drink. As well as how much time you spend sitting, watching TV, on the internet, at a computer, car, dining table, even the toilet. Then also include the time spent being active.
This will give you an HONEST snap shot of what to do next! There is absolutely no way you can out train a poor diet. If you are at the gym 7 days a week and you aren’t seeing changes then look in the kitchen. It is likely where you’ll find your answer. Good luck and remember; your body keeps an accurate log even if you don’t.
To keep it simple, if you bite it, write it!!
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