Dear diary,

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hello and how are you all?  Due to your mixed response I'm going to say most of you are doing ok, some of you are tired, some are bored and wish this article was more entertaining, and some of you didn't respond.  You know who you are. 

write down everything you consume in me!

Now I know some of you have stepped up to my challenge of sticking with your New Year's resolution and have been doing a great job, and to you I say.... NICE WORK! keep it up.  On the other hand some of you are trying to stick to your guns but are having a hard time seeing the gains. 

Well I am here to give you a tip.  Keep a food journal.  Thats it. very simple very easy.  I often times ask people who aren't having the sucess they are looking for what they are eating.  The most typical response is this "I've been eating really well.  Hardly any junk food, minimal bread and pasta, lots of salads.  Oh and I've been trying to cut down on alcohol as well."  Well guess what!? This is a very unspecific response, your idea and my idea of eating "really well lately" might be very different things.  There is no reason to lie to me.  I'm not grading you or throwing you in jail depending on what you eat.  I am trying to get to the bottom of why every time you step on the scale it looks up and laughs at you pointing out the extra 2 lbs that are on there since last time you got on that thing. 

Keep a food journal and write down EVERYTHING you eat in it.  EVERYTHING if you walk by a bowl of M&m's and grab a handfull write in your journal "about 12 M&M's" these are the types of things that you would forget about or neglect to tell me/yourself if you didnt have a journal.  Make sure to write down all bevarege consumption.  Sodas, coffee with milk and sugar, sodas, lemonade, alcohol, odwallas, love potion #9, special elixers, and whatever else you are drinking these days.  At the end of the week go back through your journal.  You'll be surprised at just how much is in there.  Probably a lot of unecessary things.  Then try to tally up your daily caloric intake.  You can find calorie counts for just about anything on any number of calorie tracking websites.  You will know exactly why your weight loss progress has calm to a screeching halt. 

Now that you've done all this you can disect your diet and get rid of the unneeded and unwanted, left to focus on the good and necessary.  Before you know it you will be sliding into those skinny jeans no problem.  You'll be excited to tell me about it, I'll be excited to hear about it.  Everyone will be happier. 

Let's review

- get a food log

-track everything you eat in it

-find out what you are eating that is keeping you grom your goals
-eliminate those things

-arrive at goal

-celebrate by eating and drinking (but just for one night so we dont end up right back where we started!)

Until next time people... Embrace the burn!!!