Change the Way You Eat
by Susan Bernstein
excerpted from the Arthritis Foundation book Change Your Life!

If You Eat It, Write It Down
The best way to grasp how many calories per day you eat now, and how many you may be accustomed to eating, is to keep a food diary. Try this exercise for a week. Simply write down the foods you eat, including portion size. Try to estimate the caloric content of each of these foods using a calorie counter book or by looking at the nutrition  label on the packaging of the food. You may be surprised how easily calories add up!

Here are a few examples of common foods, a typical portion size and their approximate caloric values. (These caloric values are measurements for a basic serving size. Check the nutrition information on the labels of our foods, or measure your servings, to determine caloric value.)

As you can see, the caloric value of different foods varies tremendously! And the amount of the food you can eat as a normal "portion" also varies quite a bit. It's important to rethink how you may look at what foods are "healthy," "nutritious" or "diet."

For instance, a Caesar salad, which is often coated with very highly caloric dressing, grated cheese and buttery croutons, can take up a large portion of your daily calorie budget. Does this mean you have to give up Caesar salads? Maybe not. You could budget the rest of your day's calories with low-calorie foods so you have room to indulge in your favorite salad. You could eat a much smaller portion of the salad to cut the calories you are eating. Or, you could make your own Caesar salad, with lower calorie dressing, adding low-calorie fresh vegetables for crunch rather than buttery croutons.

Whatever you choose to eat, do your best to estimate the caloric value of the foods you consume and note them in your food diary. It wont be possible to know the exact caloric value of everything you eat, particularly when you eat in restaurants. But if you can estimate the calories you are eating, that will be a big help for  you as you learn to budget calories wisely.

You can keep your food diary in a spiral notebook, a bound journal on your home or work computer, or any way you choose. It's important you find a method that is easy for you to use. Try not to keep a mental record of what you ate and then write it down later - it's easy to block out a few chips here or a banana there.