The Food Audit: A Three-Day Challenge
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The Food Audit: A Three-Day Challenge
Simply by eating one extra tablespoon of mayonnaise each day you will end up gaining about 10 pounds in a year— and the reverse is also true. Just by cutting out one tablespoon of mayonnaise, you can lose 10 pounds in a year.
Even your smallest food choices matter more than you might ever have thought.
Therefore, the first thing you need to do to create a livable diet is to accept my Three-Day Food Challenge. I challenge you to take a good hard look at what you eat every day for three full days. The goal: to audit your food choices by keeping track of what you normally eat. Doing that is how you will discover the clues that will allow you to start creating a diet that works. I highly recommend that you write everything down in the notebook I’ve asked you to get, but if you’re not willing to do that (or you don’t have your notebook with you) just write on a scrap of paper, or even on the palm of your hand if you have to. Just write it down. I suspect you’ve probably been asked to keep a food diary before, and the very idea of it may be a real turn-off, but this is just for three days, and the pay-off will be worth any inconvenience, I assure you.
I realize, however, that not everyone will be willing to do that. So if you’re really opposed to doing my Three-Day Challenge, writing everything down, either because you want to start implementing changes right now, or because you simply don’t think you need to, well that’s okay (at least for now). In that case, do the Alternative Three-Day Challenge: Try writing down everything you ate in the past three days from memory. (Keep in mind, however, that people typically underreport what they eat by about 50%, so overestimate your portions sizes by about that amount; more on this later.) Either way, you can use the sample food diary and instructions in Appendix A to help you get started.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The New York Times has reported that a writer named Tucker Shaw has been photographing every single thing that he eats. He labels the photos with the date, time, place, and food. He’s doing it to create an historical record, but what a great idea as a way to keep a three-day food diary. If you don’t want to write it down, use a small digital camera (or even a disposable camera) to take photos of every single thing you eat for three days. Make sure to put down the date, time, place, food, and mood.
The problem with trying to keep a mental list is that your mind can play tricks on you, and you might just “forget” the little snacks you grabbed on the run, the candy you took off your office mate’s desk, or whatever else it might be that you really didn’t want to remember. And writing things down will also give you a permanent record to consult when you begin the negotiating process.
Also, keep in mind that while you’re taking either Challenge, you don’t change your eating habits just yet; all you should be doing is becoming aware and keeping track of them. If you start to change what you eat just because you’re “noticing” it, you won’t be creating a realistic starting point.
Simply by eating one extra tablespoon of mayonnaise each day you will end up gaining about 10 pounds in a year— and the reverse is also true. Just by cutting out one tablespoon of mayonnaise, you can lose 10 pounds in a year.
Even your smallest food choices matter more than you might ever have thought.
Therefore, the first thing you need to do to create a livable diet is to accept my Three-Day Food Challenge. I challenge you to take a good hard look at what you eat every day for three full days. The goal: to audit your food choices by keeping track of what you normally eat. Doing that is how you will discover the clues that will allow you to start creating a diet that works. I highly recommend that you write everything down in the notebook I’ve asked you to get, but if you’re not willing to do that (or you don’t have your notebook with you) just write on a scrap of paper, or even on the palm of your hand if you have to. Just write it down. I suspect you’ve probably been asked to keep a food diary before, and the very idea of it may be a real turn-off, but this is just for three days, and the pay-off will be worth any inconvenience, I assure you.
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| The Food Audit A Three-Day Challenge |
I realize, however, that not everyone will be willing to do that. So if you’re really opposed to doing my Three-Day Challenge, writing everything down, either because you want to start implementing changes right now, or because you simply don’t think you need to, well that’s okay (at least for now). In that case, do the Alternative Three-Day Challenge: Try writing down everything you ate in the past three days from memory. (Keep in mind, however, that people typically underreport what they eat by about 50%, so overestimate your portions sizes by about that amount; more on this later.) Either way, you can use the sample food diary and instructions in Appendix A to help you get started.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The New York Times has reported that a writer named Tucker Shaw has been photographing every single thing that he eats. He labels the photos with the date, time, place, and food. He’s doing it to create an historical record, but what a great idea as a way to keep a three-day food diary. If you don’t want to write it down, use a small digital camera (or even a disposable camera) to take photos of every single thing you eat for three days. Make sure to put down the date, time, place, food, and mood.
The problem with trying to keep a mental list is that your mind can play tricks on you, and you might just “forget” the little snacks you grabbed on the run, the candy you took off your office mate’s desk, or whatever else it might be that you really didn’t want to remember. And writing things down will also give you a permanent record to consult when you begin the negotiating process.
Also, keep in mind that while you’re taking either Challenge, you don’t change your eating habits just yet; all you should be doing is becoming aware and keeping track of them. If you start to change what you eat just because you’re “noticing” it, you won’t be creating a realistic starting point.
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