Relook at your Daily Food Habits to know the Cause of your Weight Gain

There was a time when I was gaining weight constantly and often thought of going on diet. And as it is to everyone, going on diet to me also meant staying hungry. Yes, I wanted to lose weight, but not at the cost of starving myself or torturing myself by eating less or worse, not eating at all.

All the time my mind was full of questions like, How will I survive if I eat less than what I already do? What if dieting makes me feel forever hungry? And if I stay hungry all the time, won’t I have low energy or headaches, which will affect my work. 

The other way was to join a gym or exercise and I neither has the time nor the inclination to exercise. If you read my weight loss story, you’ll know what I mean. I also knew that even if I started to diet or even join a gym, I won’t be able to continue with it and my weight would come back.

If you also have the same dilemma, I don’t blame you. There are many like us who feel the same due to which they end up living the way they are and do nothing about losing weight, which makes them gain weight and more prone to the various diseases that are caused due to overweight.

But what if I tell you that you can lose weight without exercises or dieting.

A  Quick Recap

Before we go further, let us recap our previous posts, which ideally you should have read before coming to this step. 

• 5 Traits to Adopt for Fast & Effective Weight Loss
• Define your Reason to Lose Weight
• Prepare Your Weight Loss Confidants

The Next Step…

Today we will relook at our food habits. It is time to comprehend what we eat and which one of our many food habits is the reason why you are not losing weight.

Before I undertook this activity during my weight loss journey, I used to wonder what could I possibly reduce in my food intake. To me, I was eating proper food and never overeating. And after I did it, I knew the cause.

Well, let’s start with yours. Here is what you need to do to find out:

1. Make a Journal for your Food Intake

For the next 3 days, write down all that you eat in your Weight Loss Journal. Anything and everything that goes inside your mouth, from the time you wake up till the time you sleep. Just write down. Even if it is a small bite of bread or some mixture, anything, just write it down.

I suggest that you open a Free account with Evernote, and download its desktop and phone app so that you always have access to your journal and can never miss writing down what you are eating.

When I performed this activity myself, I was in for a shock. It made me realize that even if I was eating my two rotis (flatbread) – healthy, I was eating too much sabzi (Indian Curry) with it, mostly to avoid leftovers – not healthy.

Or I was munching too many snacks while watching television after dinner time – not healthy. Also, I was gobbling down lots of fruits, thinking what harm can the nutritious fruits do. They are supposed to be healthy, right?

Well, apparently I was wrong. These things, even though seem very mundane and so innocent that we hardly give any thought while eating them, are the culprits that cause weight gain.

So to start eating right, you need to first reflect upon your daily food menu. You can start by making the list and be honest. 😵🤔

Don’t make the list to make yourself look good. You wouldn’t have been overweight if you were that innocent. 😜

2. Find out the habits you need to change or control

Once your list is ready and you are recovered from the shock of your disastrous food habits, its time to make amends. 🙂

From the list, you prepared, highlight your most shocking habits. Those habits you found unhealthy, which you yourself feel that you need to do something about.

Now against these unhealthy habits, write down what can do to improve these habits or how you would replace them with healthier habits.

Further from my example above,  when I realized that I was eating too much sabzi, I stopped taking more, once my rotis finished. And now even if one spoon sabzi remains, I store it in the fridge for eating later.

If I feel like eating fruits, I put a particular quantity in the bowl and eat only that much, and not gobble down the whole in one sitting, which I am quite capable of doing (I love fruits!)

That is about it! Take up this activity and next, we will look at how we are gonna start eating the right way.

Let’s do a small activity here

If you can already think of any habit of yours that you think is unhealthy, write down in the comment block below and then against it, write down what healthy habit you shall adopt in order to replace it. If you cannot think of any such habit now, then you can come back later and write down after you finish the activity I described above.  I would love to hear from you.