You can’t change what you don’t measure
Doesn’t seem like that big of a secret but I guess it is. Whenever I talk to someone who’s on a diet and asked Mr. keeping track of what they’re actually eating the answer is almost always know. If they are keeping track of what they’re reading, my next question is “do you know how many calories and what kinds of calories you’re taking it?”.
I’ve never gotten anything but a note to that second question. And sadly enough those are simply precursors to the real question. The one that will determine whether or not you’re going to be successful in burn off your stomach fat:
- Do you have goals for daily intake recorded?
Without goals, in other words a plan for your daily intake you will fail. If you don’t know where you’re trying to go how can you possibly expect to get their. So let’s get started.
Step number one is to start a food log. I know, I can hear you cringing now. If in fact, you can actually hear a cringe I guess. But it’s not really that bad. And you don’t have to go crazy with it. You can either get a nice professional food logs like the one that I use, or you can use a simple notebook and a pencil.
Here’s what you’re going to need to record:
- Total calories eaten per day
- Total fat calories eaten per day
- total protein calories eaten per day
- total carbohydrate calories eaten per day
It’s not so bad is it? It’s only four numbers and it seems so simple. But without these numbers your likelihood of success is small. The other thing that you’re going to need to do this properly is some sort of a calorie guide. Again there’s no need to really spend money on this unless you want to. They’re a number of high-quality calorie guides available on Amazon.com and at your local bookstore. But, you can also simply download one from the Internet or use one of the many interactive calorie guides available on the net.
For the sake of this article we’re going to assume that you’ve been checked out by a doctor and that you are not morbidly obese. By this I mean that you’ve been given the go-ahead to manipulate or manipulate your diet within reasonable limits, and you have less than 75 pounds to lose. I’m also going to assume that you’re capable of at least moderate exercise.
Once you have your food log decided upon any other format set up in your log that you’re comfortable with I want you to spend a few days writing down whatever you eat. I’m not saying to diet here. I’m just saying to get used to keeping track of what goes in your mouth. It needs to become almost automatic. A lot of people will take a small spiral notebook and a pen with them when they go out. Usually they pick something small enough to fit in a hip pocket or purse. If someone asks you what you’re doing when they see you writing down your Caesar salad in a notebook simply tell them that you’re recording stupid questions and you’re hoping for even more material from them.
Okay that’s it secret one keep track. Again if you don’t know where you are, and you’re not sure you’re where you want to be, it’s impossible to get anywhere at all. We need a starting point. That’s where you are now. We need a destination. That is where you need to be. As we move through the seven steps I will give you all the information you need to determine how many calories you should be taking in one you should take them in and what kinds of foods they should be made up to ensure that you burn off your belly fat as quickly as possible.
