Dear (Food) Diary and my amnesia problem
Sanjay Gupta (CNN) knows he had seven peanut M&Ms on July 22nd. Like me, he suffers from food amnesia if he doesn’t write down what he eats. (Remind me sometime to tell you about the study I signed up for in college that was designed to test a new type of anesthetic designed to cause amnesia. I think the name of that post will be “What was I thinking!?!” Hey, I was broke! 
)
Anyway, in his article, Gupta refers to a paper published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that showed that dieters who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t.
I don’t particular like writing down what I eat. In fact, I HATE doing it. But I do better when I do it. So I try to make it as painless as possible.
My three goals:
- Stay aware
- Be able to go back and troubleshoot
- Reaffirm my commitment daily
My key criteria are:
- Easy
- Fast
- No additional record keeping tools needed
- Not too anal-retentive/OCD
I use my planner, not a separate notebook or Web site. (I will write a separate post about the no-nonsense-yet-brilliant planner that finally broke up my 20-year relationship with FranklinCovey, though FC’s Julie Morgenstern line is on the right track. I’m still conflicted over the breakup!) I use my planner differently than most — it’s more for big picture thinking and planning and strategizing and a diary of what I did rather than for straight scheduling. I do my scheduling online and otherwise spend plenty of time online, but food diaries online have never worked for me. I need it to be right there, visible, immediate, concrete.
And, of course, writing it down keeps me honest. I will think twice about eating something if I know I will have a written record. My dignity kicks in, you see. (Part of my motivation behind blogging this journey, too!)
So, that’s it — simple. I jot down what I eat through the day. At week’s end, I scan and see where I need to make adjustments the next week. Were there times I grabbed something unhealthy because I was rushed? Are there times I got really hungry? Are there times things were effortless and worked well? I can troubleshoot if I gain when I expect to lose. Or, oh happy day, figure out what went well if I lost when I expected to gain.
Really, this is the same way I run my business side of life. Measure and adjust, measure and adjust. It works.
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