Lately, I experienced that bad situation known as “attack of the too-tight jeans.” To investigate the cause, I decided to try recording everything I ate for a week, even though I did not think I’d been eating more.

Wrong. My diary revealed that every time I passed the desk clerk, I helped myself to a handful of sugarcoat. Add those to the pretzels on a colleague’s table, every week ice cream social at work, and extra slice of pizza that I enjoyed as a midnight snack. I did it once again.

“A food journal can be very helpful for tracking daily eating patterns,” says Laura Ellick, a clinical psychologist. “People tend to underestimate the amount of food they eat during the day or forget to count extras, such as the cream in their daily coffee. A journal can help you to figure out where you can make adjustments in your diet to reach your health and fitness goals.” And, as Laura points out, once it’s written, “it is very hard to stay in denial about poor eating habits,” such as a lack of calcium in your diet.

Tracking your eating also “can aid in increasing awareness about emotional eating patterns. Many people use food for emotional reasons, such as loneliness.” By keeping a food journal, you can discover such patterns.

How to make the food diary

1.  Enjoy the experience of keeping a journal.

Buy yourself a pretty journal that you can use for jotting down your goals

2.  Be consistent.

Write what you eat, how you feel, and the time as soon as possible after eating.

        3. Keep your journal for about a month.

        Then "identify the areas you need to change," Laura says, "and create a goals list in your jornal of how you can progress toward those changes." For example, your goal might be to substitute a walk around the block for that 3 p.m. candy bar. And if you're concerned about the lack of calcium or other nutrients in your diet, you might decide to see a nutritionist for guidance.

         4. Devote the next few weeks.

         to tracking your progress toward your goals in your journal, with a non-food reward at the end of that peroid, such as a new scarf or a massage.