Losing Weight - First steps

I've talked this week with three friends who are on a weight loss journey and having success. So naturally I asked each of them "how are you doing it? What are you doing different that is working?"

All three of them said that the most important change they made was to keep track of what they eat and write it down.

Now as a someone who wants to lose, you may be groaning, "I don't want to count calories! I don't want to write things down!"

But as a wellness educator, this is good news to me: because it confirms what I read in health promotion literature, have been taught and what our registered dietitian Jim Severino says too:  the most successful "losers" know what they are eating because they track it.

One of my friends who in just one week has lost five pounds, says that writing down her food choices has helped her stay away from soda and sweets because she doesn't want to write down the treats and their high calories. This technique can really help you budget your daily calorie allotment toward healthy choices.

I've recommended http://www.calorieking.com/ before as a website that lists the nutritional content of every food you can imagine, but there are fantastic websites that do even more  - like help you choose an eating plan and set up a food journal for you on-line, for free! You just type in the food you ate, and the website does all the calculations for you - even tells you how many calories you have left to spend during the day.

Check out http://www.fitclick.com/, http://www.livestrong.com/ and web.md for free interactive weight loss plans that include food trackers! And yes, there is an app for that! Iphone has many free ones, but you also may want to invest in an inexpensive paid app like that from Livestrong that has a few more bells and whistles....so whether you go online or keep track the old-fashioned way: with a pencil and little notebook - do write down what you eat. It can become the new habit that makes the difference in your weight, too!