1. The first thing you need to do, is to simply pick up a bound lined journal, maybe note book. With this and a pencil, you are ready to start your food journal. First of all write down what kind of food you eat and drink. This is important because most of us consume a lot of calories by coffee and soft drinks. Also try to write down the size of the portions, you could use an easy system like fallowing:

Small
Small +
Medium
Medium +
Large
Large +

The pluses indicate that you had some kind of soft drink or coffee combined with the meal. And when keeping your food diary, you are going to write everything that goes in to your mouth, even the smallest sample taste of the food you are cooking. You need to write it all down in your journal.

2. Correct size, is important. Right now you are just eye-balling the food to estimate the size. It is highly recommended to either find a website/program that can calculate amount of calories and nutrient on the food you are eating, or buy a book if you rather do this offline method. Also, it is much easier to wait until the end of the day to write down all of your intake rather then to sit down and write what you have been eating meal after meal (Just imagine sitting at lunch with your friends doing this).

3. Time lapse. When eating, try to remember when you started eating, and when you finished eating. One of the most common problem is people eating to fast. You will also recognize if you are eating to often, or if you eat full size meals. If eating to often, you are unbalanced. Eating with about 4 hours between, will automatically give you a good digestive balance.

4. Location. Writing down where you eat, and also with who you eat, may help you find out where you’re little extra snacks or meals enters. So you can avoid it. Things like, were you eating in front of the television, who did you eat with when you ate to much? Do you eat even more when socializing? All of these factors play a roll in your eating habits. You might find that you eat a lot lesser, when having time to set the table, and eat slowly while doing nothing else.

5. Hunger level. Rating your hunger level in a scale from 1 to 5 before you eat might be a good idea. 1 being not that hungry and 5 feeling starving. Put that scale in front of every meal when writing down in your journal. That way you will detect if you eat when you don’t really need to, just eating cause you feel like it. This can be very helpful.

6. Emotions. If you find yourself eating because of your emotions, that will also help you detect and get a little bit deeper in your food habits. Write down your emotions before and after the meal, so you know what effect eating has on your emotions. Also, write down details on your mode. Like, if you feel angry or sad, write down “Me and my partner got in to a fight about the kids” or whatever might have happened. This will help you detect to WHAT drives you to emotional eating.