Sticking to your diet

Happy Hump Day America! He, he, he that was fun. I do not discriminate, so anyone who is not living in the U.S. and reads my blog happy hump day to you as well. I hope everyone had an aMAEzing day. I spent half of my day at work and the other half at the doctors office... Yay! Why yes that was sarcasm.

Today's blog is about how to keep your weight loss goal aka majority of Americans New Years Resolutions. I have one advice that I think will come pretty handy. Keep a food journal. Like I mentioned in an earlier blog I was recently diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis. I have been struggling with this condition since late September and one thing that has helped me lessen my symptoms and feel like I'm on the fast track to feeling normal is by keeping a food journal.

These 3 items helped me stay on track and stick to my IC diet. The IC Survival Gudie, My food journal and a binder of the Interstitial Cystitis Network Diet.

The great thing about a food journal is that it can work for everyone. Whether you are trying to loose weight or if you are trying to stick to a challenging diet for health reasons a food journal works! I used the food journal to help me figure out what foods trigger my symptoms and what foods I was able to eat without feeling any pain. During this process I ended up loosing ten pounds without even really trying to loose weight. I would eat a lot of organic food and foods without artificial flavoring and foods that are listed as bladder friendly and food worth trying within the Interstitial Cystitis Network diet (this link will direct you to the interstitial cystitis network diet list)    

http://www.ic-network.com/diet/2012icnfoodlist.pdf. I would make two different categories for each day one category was called How I'm Feeling and the second was called the Foods I Ate. 

How I'm Feeling:

Every morning I would write down how I slept the night before and whether or not I had any symptoms that night. I would also write down how I felt that morning and I would jot down if I had any symptoms come up through out the day. I would also keep track of what medicine I took and if I had any urgency or frequency. I think that this category could also work for someone who wants to loose weight. Eating healthy and being more active can lesson stress and can help you get a better nights rest. You could keep track of how you slept what kind of mood your in that day and what food you might be craving and having difficulty staying away from. As the weeks go by you will notice that the amount of fattening foods you crave will lesson the longer you give the process time to work.

What I ate:

I would write down everything I ate and drank all day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Having to jot everything I ate down helped me stay honest and stick to my diet. The last thing I would want to do is write down all the bladder friendly foods I ate and all of a sudden there's a dark chocolate chip cookie written in my journal staring back at me and making me feel so guilty. Writing down what I ate also helped me figure out what foods upset me even if they were on the food you should try list within the Interstitial Cystitis Network diet. I would write down the food that caused my symptoms and I would also write down how it made me feel. 

Hopefully this will help you guys stick to your weight loss goals. For those of you who are needing to stick to a strict diet for health reasons trust me if I can do it so can you. I was a chocolate, spicy food and coffee junky and I stuck to my diet. Best of luck and have a wonderful night.