by Kelly McPherson CPT, CFT, CES

I always ask my clients to keep a log of their food and their workouts.  Invariably when I ask them to do this, my request is received with a groan or a whine that would rival that of the average 4 year old's.   I know that it is a pain.  I know that we really don't want to go through the exercise of actually writing it all down.  We know what we ate.  Rigth?  We are the ones who put it into our mouths.  We know how much we exercised.  Rigth?  We were the ones who were doing the sweating.  So, why write it all down?  It must be for the trainer, right?  He/She needs to know about everything, right?

As much as I want my clients to write things down for me to look at, it is actually rather time consuming to keep after my clients trying to get them to write things down and then taking the time during our sessions to actually look at it and analyze what I see.  Yes.  It would be much easier for me if everyone that I trained would simply do exactly what I ask them to do.  Then I wouldn't have to follow up, right?

So, if it is such a pain.  Why log?  It is for your benefit.  It is completely for your benefit.  Study after study has shown that those who log their food and their workouts get better results much more quickly than those who don't.  In fact one of the studies that I saw showed that men who logged their food and workouts lost TWICE as much as those who didn't in the same amount of time.  Wow!  Twice as much!

Why does it work?  Well, there are probably many reasons, but the one that I see the most is that we are more aware of what we are doing when we log.  If at the end of the day, you look at your log and you see that you haven't eaten anything green, you don't need a doctor to tell you that you need more vegetables in your diet.  If you get to the end of the week and your grand plan of working out 6 hours a week has resulted in a total of 2 hours, you don't need a trainer to tell you that you need to spend more time moving.  Sometimes, we feel like we are doing better than we are.  Having what we did down in black and white results in an awareness that is the beginning of change.

How does one log?  There are many ways and you will need to find what works for you.  The most basic and simple way is to just have a little notepad and pen with you in your purse, briefcase, or car.  Just write down what you are doing as you do it.  Then you don't have to remember.  Then you won't "accidentally" forget to log that handful of peanut M&M's you grabbed off of a coworkers desk.  Yes, those "accidental" calories do count!  There are much more high tech ways to log as well.  Personally, I love to log my workouts on a website that will track my total miles, time and history over the past year.  It is fun for me to see those colorful graphs grow as my workouts increase as I train for a major event. 

The point is.  Find a way to log.  Find a way that works for you.  Just make sure that it is accurate, that you are consistent in doing it and above all that you are completely honest with what you log.

Happy logging!