You and Your Food Diary

Excerpted from
The Business Plan for the Body: Crunch the Numbers for Successful Weight Loss, Manage Your Metabolism by Eating the Right Way, Invest in the Only Workout You'll Ever Need
By Jim Karas

How you elect to spend your money. Some people spend more on eating out, others on movies, electronic equipment, sports, clothes, or a new car. Others just spend money constantly, which I definitely equate to overeating. As a nation, Americans overeat, without considering the consequences, and just carry the excess food as body fat; similarly, they overspend, and just carry huge credit card balances. This is a major problem, and both are an example of an allocation out of whack. A weekly, monthly, or yearly spending budget is an allocation plan. You actually sit down, either alone or with your partner or spouse, and determine a comprehensive plan for spending and saving money. In my opinion, intelligent individuals budget, even if they are wealthy.

I am asking you to consider your eating plan as you would a monetary and time allocation. You will learn how to satisfy your body's needs, both physically and emotionally, and lose weight. We established early in this hook that you know how to successfully establish an allocation to gain weight. Now you are going to develop and implement an eating allocation to Jose weight.

Once again your goal is the opposite of most traditional businesses, which are attempting to earn profits. You are in the weight loss business. You want to produce losses, perhaps big losses. Remember, in your plan losses equate to profits. So you want to have low revenue, or calories in. and high expenses, or calories out, to achieve that loss. That is why you have to allocate calories. I know I am repeating myself, but you have to determine a personal caloric allocation that satisfies you both physically and mentally and leads you to success in the weight-loss business.

To determine the proper allocation, we will begin by examining your current eating habits. I do not believe one eating program fits all. A program must be customized to each palate and to each lifestyle. When I do my intensive $10,000-a-week plan, I always ask the client to begin a food diary one week prior to my arrival. I request that he or she write everything down, so that I will immediately know when I lay eyes on them if they have been lying. With the diary, I have hard data on their current eating habits and how those habits will need to be modified to fit their new weight-loss plan.

In my thirteen years of experience, very, very few people have lost weight without the food diary. The diary is essential to your success with weight loss. Here is what the Tufts University Health a Nutrition Letter says about writing your food down: "Call it obsessive-compulsive. (The researchers themselves do.) Call it tedious. (It certainly can be.) Even call it a little weird. (It is.) But above all, call it successful. That's because writing down every single thing you eat, along with how many calories it contains, can help you stick to a weight-loss regimen."

Daniel Kirschenbaum, Ph.D., of Chicago's Center for Behavioral Medicine and Sport Psychology, says keeping a food journal can help people see patterns in their eating. Research shows that those who consistently monitor their food consumption lose weight more steadily and keep it off more successfully than those who don't. That's because the journal keepers can identify the sources of empty calories and know when they resort to overeating.

Interestingly, I have encountered tremendous opposition when I mention the need for a food diary. One woman actually said to me when I suggested a diary, "No way. That is putting way too much emphasis on food." I politely said. "Well, Mrs. X, the choice is yours." What I wanted to say was, "Well, Mrs. X, since you are seventy-five pounds overweight, it would appear that you place a tremendous emphasis on food," but of course I didn't want to risk offending or losing a potential client.

The diary is reality. The diary doesn't lie. The diary contains the data. The diary creates intake awareness. Interestingly, this is a device used by those individuals who want to stop smoking. Smokers are encouraged to write down when they are smoking. This helps to record established patterns and assist smokers in understanding why and when they are smoking. Understanding this is the same as understanding why and when you are eating. Once you get past those psychological hurdles, you can then delve into the contents of what you are eating. If you are truly committed to your mission statement, you must employ a food diary and record your eating. This is an essential tool to your success.

Reflect on how often in life we are asked for data. Let's say your division at work misses its quarterly numbers. Your boss calls you in and says, "What was the problem? Show me your numbers." You say, "Oh. I didn't record any numbers. I just thought it would all work out." How long do you think you would be employed?

Or consider the following: Your child's teacher calls your home and tells you that your son or daughter does not take notes in class. You broach the subject, and your child says, "I don't want to take notes. I'll keep all the information [data] in my head. I'll do well on the test." Would you be pleased?

A food diary provides three essential functions. First, as stated in the previous chapter, the diary gives us the "financials" necessary to till in the first part of our equation, the calories in. Countless people over the years tell me how "good" they have been on their program until I see their diary. The moment I see the data, I can instantly ascertain why they have not lost weight. Once again, this is all about numbers, numbers, numbers.

Here is a great illustration. Many of my clients go out to dinner, frequently to an Italian restaurant, and have two pieces of bread; Caesar salad; pasta with tomato, basil, and olive oil; two glasses of wine; and a few bites of dessert. They smile when they tell me what they ate and look for praise. I look at them and say, "Do you know that was a disaster?"

"What?" they say. "That's my 'healthy' meal. I passed up the lasagna, my favorite!"

Let's examine this "healthy" meal and approximate calories.