Yes, yes I do. The best diet for me is to simply keep a Daily Food Journal. It might work for you, too.
Why Do I Need a Food Journal?
Now that it’s January, you may be getting ready to buckle down and eat better. Don and I often eat a few too many goodies over the holidays and the pounds start to add up. We usually do the South Beach Diet for a couple weeks every January. We drop a few pounds and get back in the habit of eating better.
Diets work, don’t they? Yes, they do. Over and over. But you can find the one that’s perfect for you…the one that helps you keep the weight off.
What’s the Best Diet?
According to “The Man Who Tried Every Diet,” an article by Barry Estabrook in the January/February 2021 issue of Eating Well magazine, people do lose weight on diets. And they often regain the weight they lost. But is that the fault of the diet? He concludes that the best diet for you is the one that works. He calls it the “Frank Sinatra Diet” because the one that works is the one where “I did it my way.” And everyone has a diet that works best for them.
For me, what works the best is to simply keep a Daily Food Journal. I have food sensitivities and intolerances, and one food allergy, so I keep track of everything I eat and how I feel. It not only helps me stay on track for eating healthfully, but it helps me understand where my mood swings, physical symptoms, and inflammation are coming from. I believe I healed myself with food using this method. And while doing so, I lost more than 40 pounds without actually dieting.
Maybe it’s because I pay more attention to what I put in my mouth. Sometimes just writing down what you eat can make a huge difference in the amount of food you pop in your mouth. But, for me, keeping a food journal also helped me identify foods that were causing negative reactions so that I could eliminate them. And I think that had a whole lot to do with why I lost the weight.
IT AIN’T JUST THE DIET: LEARN MORE
I’m here to tell you it ain’t just the diet that is making you hold onto all those extra pounds. At least, it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t keep weight off for love nor money. It took me a long time to figure out which foods were causing my problems. By keeping a food journal and writing absolutely everything down, I eventually realized the connection to various symptoms.
I tell you my story, explain exactly how to test yourself for food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances, and give you the tools to do it in my new book, It Ain’t Just the Diet™ Food Journal | A Daily Guide to Finding & Managing Your Food Allergies, soon to be published.
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Why do I need a food journal? Because…this! This food journal is the best I have found.
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This post was originally posted on Recipe Idea Shop on January 19, 2021.
Affiliate Disclosure: This website may contain affiliate marketing links, which means we may get paid commission on sales of those products or services we write about, including Amazon. Editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Disclaimer: The author is not a health professional or nutritionist. She is offering her research and personal reflections about her health journey and is not providing any type of medical or nutritional advice. This post is for informational purposes only. It is offered as a tool for people to discover their own suspected food allergies, intolerances and sensitivities. Readers are highly encouraged to read, write, and reflect on the ideas presented. Consult your healthcare professional before initiating any dietary or exercise program.
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