As a child, you may have kept a diary to record your daily activities, your hopes, and your fears. If you wrote in the diary each day, it might have seemed as if the diary itself had become one of your best friends. As you grew older, the diary might have become a record of your job search, love life, or wedding plans. Psychologists, in fact, tell us that writing down your goals can be the first step to achieving them. It has been demonstrated that individuals who kept a written record of their hunt for employment were more likely to find the job they wanted than those who did not.

It’s not surprising, then, that some dieticians recommend keeping a food diary or journal if you’re hoping to lose weight. If you’re not accustomed to writing, the idea can seem a bit daunting at first. After all, if you don’t seem to have the time to record all of your baby’s “firsts”—the first words, the first steps, the first day of reciting the alphabet—how can you be expected to find the time to write down everything that passes through your lips? It’s a valid question; however, if you stop to consider just how much time you spend eating, surely you can find the time to write down what you eat. (more…)

You see the razor-thin models gracing the covers of magazines…you watch actors and actresses on the big screen who seem to never gain a pound. And you wonder: How do I differ from them? You may be surprised to learn that a number of famous people at one time had difficulty maintaining a healthy weight. But they were able to conquer their problem, thanks to a new-and-improved, healthy view of eating.

You may not realize it, but there is a certain psychology at work in successful weight loss. It is no surprise, then, that the magazine Psychology Today has explored the issue in-depth. In October of 2004, the magazine posted an article on its website detailing the experiences of Diane Berry, a nurse practitioner who studied women who had shed at least 15 pounds and had maintained their weight loss for an average of seven years. (more…)