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I'm a nutritionist so I ought to know what food to eat, and yes I certainly do know quite a bit about what foods are good for me and what foods I should limit (like that chocolate gelato cone I scoffed down last weekend). But 'knowing' and 'doing' are two completely different things. In-between the wonderful theory of nutrition and the dirty, difficult reality of trying to eat healthily, lies a whole lot of other stuff that we don't talk about much - the real world!
Convert Nutrition Ideals Into Your Reality
And that's where so-called 'behavioural strategies' come into practise, these are strategies we develop to help to reinforce changes in our behaviours, such as our dietary behaviour, physical activity or other lifestyle behaviours (e.g. giving up smoking). Using behavioural strategies to reinforce dietary and physical activity changes can increase our success. According to scientists they can increase weight loss by between 2-8kg after a year. Which begs the question - what is a 'behavioural strategy' and how do we get started?
Dietary behavioural strategies involve:
a. Identifying problem dietary behaviours;
b. Working out what circumstances they occur in;
c. Developing a plan to change those behaviours with a specific, measurable modest goal in mind and then trialling the strategy;
d. Learning from your mistakes and refining your strategy until you are successful.
Your FREE Food Diary To Track What You Eat - Get Started Now!
You need to know what to improve in order to get started and that's where a food diary comes in. You can use a food diary to record all the food you eat and all the drinks you consume. But to be really successful a food diary needs to record what time you eat (e.g. time of day), where you eat (e.g. at your desk, on the couch, at the dining table), who you were with (e.g. with friend, alone), how you felt (e.g. tired, bored, sad, happy, anxious) and what activities you were doing while eating (e.g. reading, watching TV, working, on computer, talking with friends).
Thinking Nutrition's Food Diary is a great template that provides columns for you to record all of this information and enables you to really develop an increased awareness about your eating patterns. This will allow you to identify problems and then you can go on to develop strategies to fix them.
Download Now: Thinking Nutrition's FREE Food Diary
In my blog posting next week I'll talk more about how you can use your food diaries to make positive changes to your diet, and how we can use problem solving techniques to improve our diet. In the meantime print out your free food diary and get started today - there's no time like the present!
Improve Your Eating Habits Now
 Get individualised nutrition advice from qualified nutritionist Jennifer Bowden with an Individual Consultation.
Read Client Testimonials about how they improved their diet and health through nutrition consultations with Jennifer.
Phone or Email Jennifer today to discuss your needs and book your first appointment.
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