Journal Questions

I posted some questions a couple of weeks ago that you could begin to ask yourself when looking at your journals. Here are some more questions to ask yourself. If you are not journaling about what and why you eat, I would encourage you to try to journal at least a couple of times per week for awareness purposes. Your observations can give you areas to work on to change rather than dieting!

Did you try to decrease portions a little bit?
Did you observe the 20 minute rule or eat a few nuts or soup before your dinner?
Did you try to increase fruits and veggies and observe the half plate rule?
Did you eat breakfast daily, add a protein source, healthy grain or a fruit?
Did you try to cook healthy meals rather than grab and go?
Did you eat healthy pre-plated snacks rather than grazing?
Did you clean out your cupboards of all junk food?
Did you try to eat your meals on smaller dishes and bowls?
Did you try to come up with any strategies to help with emotional eating?
Did you notice the times during the week where you ate when you were not hungry?
Did you try to eat 100% whole grain bread and healthy cereals or try any new grains like quinoa or couscous?
Did you try to increase fiber in your diet?
Did you try any new salads or stir fry your veggies with fresh herbs?
Did you find that your cravings were improving?
Did you notice any new food triggers?
Did you notice any situations that were difficult food wise?
Did you try to address your feelings in a manner that did not involve food?
Did you look for lower calorie versions or recipes for foods that you love to keep them in your life?

There are tons of questions that you can ask yourselves when you journal. Your journal provides a road map that shows where there are detours. If you can learn the detours, you can devise strategies to avoid the detours. We are all different and there is not one set plan that will work for each of us but great strategies will trump willpower every time.

Journaling is the best predictor of weight loss! As you ask yourselves these questions, you can begin to understand yourself and develop a personal plan!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

Week 5 of Simple Lifestyle Changes

Another Happy Monday Everyone,
The goal of this 6 week mini tutorial is to help you make some simple lifestyle changes and to help you to see that a total diet redo might not be necessary. It is all about keeping the really great foods in your life that you love on a limited basis and looking for those triggers in your life that cause you to look to food. Keep working on being aware of what triggers you to eat. Develop some great strategies to use when you are in a situation that triggers are bombarding you!
Some other Diet Advice would be:

• Add more fish into your diet and lower-fat protein sources.
• Limit fat to between 20% to 30% of your foods. (Basically cut way down on the processed foods and add more veggies. We eat by volume which is great because veggie dishes and salads take up a lot of room on your plate. Your visual brain will be happy!)
• Continue to decrease eating fried foods. Never a good idea!
• Do not fall prey to deceptive advertising. Remember that low fat does not mean low calorie. A bag of fat free licorice is very pricey calorie wise and will start the cravings. Skip entire aisles of the market and shop the outer edge where the healthy foods are placed. 
• Continue to work on seeing processed foods as poison. They literally poison your body and cause you to experience severe cravings for sugar.
• Eat smaller meals to keep your blood sugar under control. This will keep you full longer and help with cravings.
• Continue to experiment with meatless meals, soups, healthy bean chilies, and new veggie type salads or Mediterranean dishes.
• Choose low or non fat milk, yogurts and cheeses. Non fat cheese is not great but the lower fat versions are fairly good. Watch yogurts. Some are very caloric. There are some great Greek yogurts with 100 calories a serving. Many of the yogurts are very high sugar. Try other milk sources also. The Soy light Milks and Almond Milks are great choices.
• Buy ready made or prepared fruits and veggies rather than junk food or chips. Many people tell me eating healthy is too pricey. But have you priced out some of the specialty chips per pound that we all load up on. You could be eating steak!
• Review previous weeks as a reminder and make sure you are incorporating some of these changes into your life.

If you have any questions, contact me through facebook and I will be happy to answer them. 

http://www.facebook.com/lifestylesoln

Have a great week everyone! Kerry