Weight Loss Strategy: Keep a food diary

When I am serious about weight loss, the first thing I do is pull out my food diary. In it I track calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein. It's boring, tedious and not much fun.

But it works.

In a U.S. study that followed 1,700 overweight men and women over a 6 month period, people who kept a food journal lost twice as much weight as those who did not.

This time around I've created a little spreadsheet to do the math for me, which is a time-saver and makes it a little more bearable.

Among other things, keeping a food diary forces me to read labels. I made a little bargain with myself--I can eat whatever I want--as long as I read the label first. This means downloading nutrition information from restaurants or looking up the comparable information in a calorie counter if I've made something at home.

There are also websites that will do the calculations for you, so long as you're willing to enter all the ingredients. (Here's an example.) This was a very sobering exercise when I once calculated the calorie, fat and carb content of my Caramel Cookie Oatmeal Bars.

Keeping a food diary works best in conjunction with regular exercise, another thing I sometimes find to be boring, tedious, and not much fun. However, when I think of the alternative: obesity, chronic health problems and pain...exercise becomes the lesser of the evils.

Here's a simple and good recipe:

Chicken Wraps (Makes 2)

Combine

• 3 ounces white meat chicken, steamed and shredded
• 1 tablespoon avocado, finely chopped
• Sprinkle of low-fat cheese, shredded
• Salsa to taste
• Cilantro!

and spread on 2 small Mission Carb Balance tortillas.

Nutrition info (doesn't include salsa):
Calories: 307
Carbs: 26
Fat: 6.5 g
Protein: 35 g.