Change What You Eat

To change what you eat, start in a positive direction, keep a food journal and cut one unhealthy habit from your diet.

First...

What are you eating? Keep a food journal. A food journal is where one writes down everything they are consuming from food, drinks and vitamins. You may find something that you can cut from your diet and/or you may find that you are lacking in essential nutrients. A food journal will open your eyes and reveal the mystery of your daily consumption.

Next...

Cut one nasty habit and replace the nasty habit with a healthy habit.

Do you drink soda? Drink coconut water instead. (Read older post on coconut water in Beverages.)
Do you love energy drinks? Drink Coconut water or eat an apple.
Do you love bread and pasta? Switch to gluten free bread and use rice instead of pasta.
Do you drink cow’s milk daily? Switch to low sugar almond milk or hemp milk.
Huge cheese lover? Choose sheep’s or goat’s milk like Manchego, Feta and Goat Cheese.
Consuming more than 2-3 alcohol units per day? Cut beer unless it's Guinness, which has many nutrients believe it or not. Drink Wine or Tequila, both have many health benefits. No more than 2-3 alcohol units per day. (See older post on Wine in Beverages.)


Losing weight is not rocket science, there’s a proven method. All you need to do is pay attention to your diet and exercise on a daily basis. To lose weight, it boils down to calories in verses calories out. If you consume more calories than you burn, guess what, you’re going to gain weight. To lose a pound a week, you will need to burn 3500 calories, which is 500 calories per day. The best way to achieve this, is a combination of exercising and your diet. An example being, burn 300 calories by taking a dance class and cut 200 calories by cutting out bread with dinner. This will help shed one pound per week.

I have one client that was frustrated in their progress. They were putting in the work but there was a lack of weight loss. This client was actually gaining weight. It felt like they were shoveling sand against the tide. I had asked them when we started working together to keep a food journal. Food journals are crucial in taking a look into our daily food world. What are you eating? Are you getting enough to eat? Are you eating too much? Are you consuming all the nutrients you need? Writing down what you are eating holds you accountable for what you are consuming. A food journal can also curb someone from consuming an item of food that may derail them from eating healthy. Who wants to write down that they ate the whole wheel of cheese or polished off a tub of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby?

Immediately after reading my client's food journal I came upon the answer to their weight gain. The client was consuming on a daily basis, granola with yogurt. Now this may not seem like something that would cause weight gain but there are many seemingly healthy food items that can be detrimental to your weight-loss progress. Granola alone, without the yogurt, is roughly 600 calories and it’s high in fat and sugar. It’s a popular misconception that granola is healthy. Most store bought granola can easily rack up the calories. After this discovery my client cut the granola and witnessed the weight pour off almost immediately.

So what can you change?

What do you think about keeping a food journal?

Any other helpful suggestions?