Weight loss journals are an easy and effective way to control your weight.  By writing everything that you eat during the day, you keep track of calories and the foods that you consume.  It is a tool to keep you in check.

Not only will a journal help you keep track of meals, but it will also help you deal with the emotional side of eating.  You can make notations on how you felt when you devoured the 2 chocolate donuts at 1:00 am.  Later this can prove to be valuable information – in establishing new eating patterns.  But what if you can’t be bothered with a written journal?

Then a picture or photo diet journal will do.  Every time you are about to consume a meal, take a picture of it, with your phone or a small camera.  At the end of the day, download them into your computer.  Your computer becomes your food diary.  Make any notations, or if you prefer, you can print them in paper and cut and paste in a regular journal.  The visual tool may be a good way to help you stick with your diet efforts.  When you take a look at the huge greasy burger that you had for lunch, you will probably run to the treadmill.

The pictures will help you see the amounts of food that you are consuming.  Portion control is necessary to lose weight.  The adage “a picture is worth many words” and the phrase “picture perfect” says it all.  It is easier to conjure an image in your mind, than words.

If you have a Diet Pal you can trade pictures with him/her, and feel proud of how good you did today.  Trading pictures of the foods you ate will make you think twice before having that giant piece of chocolate cake – “exposure.”

Knowing that you are doing well in your weight loss efforts is great, but seeing how great you are doing is better.  That extra gratification may be what you need to keep watching what you eat, at least until you make it a habit, and later a lifestyle.  Once you have reached that level, don’t forget to take pictures of yourself in that superb outfit.  Pretty soon you will be posting those in your profile at your favorite social networking site.

So, take advantage of keeping a diet journal, and picture yourself healthy.

In these tough economic days, long gone are the days when you got a gym membership and let it sit.  People have become more careful with their money, and more selective.  The good news is that you don’t need a lot of money to get fit.  Unfortunately, most inexpensive foods are also unhealthy foods; and with a low budget, come the unwelcomed pounds, sometimes.  We are cutting our budgets, many times in half, but that is not happening to our waistlines.

You can eat healthy (still on a budget) if you chose foods in their natural state, such as beans in bags, raw veggies, and eggs from the farm instead of the supermarket.  The downside is that you will have to spend some time preparing these meals since they are not conveniently pre-cooked, frozen or in a can, or served to you at a restaurant.  Also, you will have to schedule your trips to the farm market, and come up with a system to save on gas.  But it can be done, and it will be better for you in the end.

Utilize the internet or the library to learn about healthy and low budget recipes to prepare for you and your family.  This information is free.  Learn about websites such as Angel Food Ministries, available to any person in the United States, where you can get a healthy selection of foods to feed a family of four for a week and it costs you $30.00.  Education is your best friend.

As far as exercise goes, you don’t have to purchase expensive equipment or spend tons of money on programs.  All you need is to be a bit creative.  Your home has everything you need in it.  Utilize the stairs at home (your step climber) to exercise, or a can of beans as weights.  Walk around your neighborhood (there’s your treadmill) or jump ropes.  Play an exercise video (there’s your gym class), and if you got it at the library is free.  Your household chores can become valuable exercise time when you do them vigorously.  And if you have a radio, you can dance to music and burn tons of calories (there’s your samba class membership).  At work, be creative too.  Park far, use the stairs … you get the idea.  If you think about it you will come up with many ways to lose weight that you will enjoy.  It is all about the choices that you make now.  None of these ideas cost you a lot of money, some of them are free.  You can be in a low budget and lose weight.

The worst thing that you can do to approach your weight loss is to approach it with feelings of guilt and reproach.  These feelings creep at the end of the year and resurface at the beginning of the New Year because the word “failed” comes to mind when the weight loss goal was not achieved.   These negative feelings will sabotage your weight loss goals, despite your best intentions.  By focusing on past negative results, you are programming your brain to expect the same results.  It is like giving yourself permission (and reinforcing it) to not achieve your goal.

The first step is to forgive yourself for past transgressions.  Acknowledge the fact that you did not lose the weight, and move on.  You are here in the now, and this is what counts.  The past is gone; you can only take charge of your present, and your future.  But the future is not here yet, so you are only responsible for the present moment.  That makes it easier to grasp.  Just think of the now.  What you do in the now, is what matters to reach your desire weight.  Replace the word “failed” with the word “Now.” Stand in front of the mirror, eye to eye, look at your body, and forgive yourself.  This is your first step.  Getting rid of the negative emotions first is necessary to be able to continue.

Before starting your weight loss program, take a look at the past year(s), and honestly try to understand what prevented you from reaching your objective.  Do you see a pattern?  Did you suffer any illnesses that prevented you from working out?  Depression?  An overworked schedule?  Whatever reasons you honestly come across with, you must deal with them in order to make this year, the one to reach your weight loss goal.

This is not an easy thing to do.  Honesty with your Self is required, and sometimes, looking at your Self is not something that you may want to do.  If you are serious about losing the weight, then you have to make the effort worth it.  How?  – By visualizing the feeling that you will have when you achieve the weight that you desire.  By doing this, you are letting positive feelings enter your brain.  You are replacing the old messages with new ones.  Think of it as reprogramming your weight loss Self.  By having a clear picture in your mind of what you want, you are helping the next step – setting real and concrete weight loss goals.

Going back to the clear picture in your mind, don’t use the body of a Hollywood star or a cutout from a magazine.  Why?  – Because that is not you.  That will be like feeding wrong or false information to your brain, and then, you will be back to step number one.  Admire the beautiful figures of Hollywood stars, acknowledge their beauty, and believe that you too, will look your best.  And with that attitude you can start writing down your weight loss goals.

Emotions can be your best or worst enemy when approaching a weight loss program.  But ultimately, you own your emotions, and the power to use them to your advantage.