There’s one simple thing you can do that will, according to statistics from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, help you lose twice as much weight. What is this magical action? Relocate to a deserted island with nothing but banana leaves for sustenance? Hire a professional seamstress to sew your lips shut?

Uh, no. Neither one of those guesses is very close. It’s much easier than that. Here it is. Are you ready?

Keep a food diary!

You can do that, can’t you? Give it a shot. Losing twice as much weight is pretty impressive, I don’t care who you are. Get into the habit of recording everything you eat daily, as well as the type and duration of exercise you do. Change nothing else in your life but this and reap the benefits.

The secret lies in the personal accountability this behavior enforces. The truth is many times we aren’t even aware of half the things (food only!) that we put into our mouths. Write it all down and you begin to notice every little item that has gone into making you heavier than you want. Without even trying you begin to make corrections almost subconsciously.

Try also jotting a few notes about your feelings and moods and the way they affect your food choices. It’s not hard to get started. All you need is a pen and paper and basic knowledge of your language of choice. Keep it with you and get into the habit of taking a minute any time you eat to write it all down.

If you’re a techie, log it into your computer and all the information will be at your fingertips to review in an instant, assuming you back up your data regularly! Do this or be very, very sad some day.

A food diary can:

Discourage mindless eating

Keep you from skipping workouts.

Motivation.

Provide incontrovertible evidence of how many calories are going in.

Help your trainer, dietician, or other professional quickly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.

Make it a goal to start your food diary at your very next meal. For now, don’t beat yourself up over what you eat – just get used to writing it down.

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