Food Diaries, Exercise and Weight Loss

I’ve been keeping a food diary for the last couple of months now and it is depressing. I’m good as far as the fat content goes. I’m even keeping under my upper limit of two thousand calories a day. Sometimes, I’m below my lower limit of sixteen calories a day. I have two limits because I planned for failure. I know that I am not good at following through on things, but I’m doing rather well on this one. My diet has improved as far as calories are concerned. So why am I not losing weight? Because I’m not as active as I should be. The food diary is only half the battle.

My original plan was to walk daily along with keeping the diet. I’m learning how to use the diary to plan for food that I love. I haven’t quite got there yet, but I’m slowly getting to the point where I know how to plan my caloric intake to allow me to eat what I want to eat. The problem came up after I determined that I would walk every day in that the weather didn’t cooperate. With temperatures in the single digits, I didn’t want to risk frostbite for my health. That’s passing off a bit now. If it’s twenty degrees or higher, I’m going out for a walk.

The food diary limits my calorie intake; the walking uses the calories that I have stored up. I need to get some distance and time in on that walk. So I walk a little every day. It’s not much, but over time, it will increase and that’s the important thing. By summer, I could even make it to the far end of the street or even to the park. Taking it a little at a time ensures that I won’t get discouraged and stop. That’s why I have intermediate goals.

They let me feel good about reaching them. I haven’t reached the real goal of the total weight that I want to lose, but I am making progress. I don’t expect overnight success. That is impossible. I weigh myself every week and that can be depressing, but I know that the weight I am losing so slowly is not likely to come back bringing friends with them. Losing weight slowly is the better way to do it.

A Food diary lets you see where your calories are coming from. It helps you to make dietary decisions that will benefit your goal of weight loss. There’s no need to starve, there are so-called free food out there, mostly leafy green vegetables. You need those anyway. I’m going to see about taking a nutrition class and see what I need to learn about how to take care of myself. Our bodies don’t come with owner’s manuals so we have to make those up for ourselves. Everyone is different so our ‘owner’s manuals’ will all be different, too. There are similarities, don’t get me wrong, but we are each responsible for our own care and feeding – once we reach a certain age that is. Before that age, we depend on our parents, or caregivers. If you have little ones, train them to eat right from the start and they have half the battle licked. Just make sure that you don’t deny them everything that is not good for them, that will only make them want it more. Moderation is the key. Teach them that and learn it for yourself, and everything will work out fine in the end.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!