Close Monitoring May Increase Chances for Sustained Weight Loss (Dr. Jonathan Myers)

Most people who tried to monitor their activities by keeping an accurate journal for example, had a surprise when evaluating results. When events are not recorded in some way, they tend to blur, to mix or disappear completely from one's memory. Time becomes a truly relative dimension of life. On the contrary, when written down, figures add up and the passing of precious time becomes a reality. Maybe you have planned to spend only 10 dollars a week on sweets and you are convinced that you succeeded with your plan, but when you check your expenses diary and sum up apparently insignificant amounts spent during the course of week, you learn that you have actually eaten sweets worth of 25 dollars!

A Diary as a Weight Loss Tool

There are not many better ways to keep you to commitments, than recording progress and incidental failure in a diary. If you shiver at the thought of having to write something down each day, start small and only use post-it notes that you can later stick into a notebook. Use short codes for the aspects you wish to track. This approach will have you writing down a day's worth of activity in a matter of minutes. Try to record and track:

Food intake. Having exact records of the food you consume, can help you not only by giving a clear picture of the amounts that enter your stomach on a daily basis, but also on other characteristics of your diet, such as variety, balance, and the ability to provide for all needs. Diaries of any type are usually neglected during holidays, but this is a luxury bariatric patients should not treat themselves to. Holidays are specifically dangerous for your diet, seeing your sins written down might save you from repeating them in the future.Drinks. Drinks might seem inoffensive, but they are far from that. Many of them are packed with calories, high in acid content and sugar, and can really jeopardize your effort to reach your desired weight. Make your diary the all-seeing witness of everything you drink during the day. Check your diary for entries of an entire week on weekends and you will be able to draw your own conclusions.Physical activity. Monitoring exercise might come with both types of surprises, good and bad too. When you run your circles during a busy day you might feel like you have been exercising all day, but your diary will be honest and show you that you have not done much for your body's strength and tone. Just the same, if you use short idle time to do some squats, or other no time-demanding exercises, you might find at the end of the day, that you have completed your planned portion of exercise.

In addition to the above, your diary could log all emotional phases you are going through, your weight loss, lessons learned at support groups, etc. Keeping an eye on everyday habits and routines can be helpful in many, unexpected ways.

Dr. Jonathan Myers is a bariatric surgeon at Chicago's weight loss clinic DAyOne Health. He specializes in performing adjustable gastric banding otherwise known as lap band.