Home About Paula Talks and Workshops Your Health Food Industry What's New Contact Links Sitemap   Eating Well      Your Children      Health Issues      Exercise for Health      Recipes                 Good Food, Great Life        About the book: Good Food, Great Life is a Lifestyle and Food Journal, which includes an any-year diary and plenty of helpful information on diet and fitness from nutritionist Paula Mee. Many people spend a lot of time looking at the negatives in their lives, focusing on how they hate being overweight or unfit. However, by taking control and conditioning yourself to concentrate on what you really want – to be back at your old comfortable weight or to feel fit for the first time ever – positive results can be achieved.          What you’ll discover when you start using your Lifestyle and Food Journal is that you’ll begin to feel in charge of your eating and exercise habits. You’ll feel empowered to take control and be in command of your health and nutrition. What you focus on grows and practice makes permanent when it comes to establishing new habits. Give yourself time and take the first step now to better health!        Where to buy the book:          - All Veritas shops - Dubray Books – Kilkenny, Dunlaoghaire & Blackrock - Book Centre – Waterford, Wexford, Naas & Kilkenny - Easons – Galway - Hughes & Hughes – Galway & Dunlaoghaire - Bridge Street Books- Wicklow - Book Worm – Thurles - Hodges & Figgis – Dawson Street - The Wise Owl – Drogheda & Ballinteer - Knock Shire Book Shop - Abbey Book Shop in Limerick        Self monitoring in a diary is a key indicator of motivation & engagement in managing one’s health.        “Individuals who manage to self-monitor in some way are more likely to be successful with weight loss and weight maintenance.”* *O’Neill (2001). Obesity Research 5, 361S-366S. Wing & Hill (2001). Ann Rev Nutr 21, 323-341.        What Paula says: "As a dietitian I see many people in my clinics who, because of the hectic pace of life, eat unconsciously and are unaware of where the excess calories are coming from, so they continue in their ways and continue to gradually gain weight. It’s easy to convince ourselves that we eat well all the time. Some people are convinced that they have a pretty good diet, until they actually start to record what, when and how much they eat! Others think they are exercising three times a week but when they actually track their efforts over the course of 6 weeks, the average number of gym visits or walks is closer to 1.5. It can be difficult to know where we’re going wrong sometimes and that’s where a food and lifestyle journal can be invaluable. We’ve designed Good Food Great Life to be a useful tool, to help people to focus on their habits by recording and monitoring them. There are sections on food and fluid, exercise and emotional triggers, where you plan and track as you go along. The whole idea is that you can (perhaps with the help of a dietitian or practice nurse or personal trainer) evaluate your habits, identify the ones that are not serving you in your quest for a slimmer waist line or a lower cholesterol or a more comfortable bowel and take the first steps to change. Many of us know what we should do and what we should eat and that we need to take more exercise. But we don’t tend to do what we know, we tend to do what we have learned. Change takes time and practice. Practice a habit enough and it becomes permanent.        The Good Food Great Life journal is designed to integrate your personal life – that is, how you shop, what you eat and how you exercise with your weekly working dairy. These aspects of our lives need to be more integrated in order to find balance. I’ve see many successful business people who have a well constructed working week, but no idea what’s in the fridge or when they will stop work for their next meal. By integrating the journal I hope that people can really see how their habits are helping or hindering their health or their waistline. Are they having regular meals or meal skipping and then overcompensating by eating too much later on ? How does this affect their digestion? What are their portion sizes like, could they leave the table with less and still be satisfied? Self awareness is empowering. Focusing on how you live is not designed to make you feel negative. The journal will simply give you an accurate reflection of how you live and allow you to feel more in charge and change if you want to. When you decide you are ready to track and monitor your eating or exercise habits, write the date on the top of the page.        Ø Ensure you keep a detailed record of everything you eat and drink. Keep note of the amount eaten, type of food, cooking method, time of day, and the circumstances of eating. Ø Ask yourself are you having three regular meals each day or meal skipping and then over compensating by eating too large a meal. How does that affect your digestion? Ø Do you recognise hunger? Remember we often mistake thirst for hunger Ø Record your feelings around food if you feel you are an emotional eater. Remind yourself that eating in response to an emotional need is never going to satisfy that need or make it go away. But it will lead to an expanding waistline. Ø Look carefully at the size of your food portions, especially when you are eating out? Could you eat less and still be satisfied? Ø Identify your danger zones e.g. mid afternoon or late at night when you’re bored and start nibbling? Ø Pinpoint lapses and learn from them. What happened, what could you do differently the next time? Ø Assess your reasons for eating (aside from true hunger) Ø Gauge your appetite and/or cravings Ø Be honest! Tracking what you eat and how you exercise or feel is only a valuable tool if it’s a true reflection of YOU .        The lifestyle and food journal can also be used to identify lifestyle issues that may need to be addressed e.g. how much time you spend watching television, how much activity you partake in. Recent research suggests that once the television is on in the room even if you are not actively watching it, it’s considered television exposure. You need to ask yourself - 1. How much time do I spend sitting in front of a television or computer screen? 2. Do I eat in front of the television? 3. Could I be physically active whilst watching the television? 4. Can I be selective and cut out some television programmes?        Your journal may also identify stressful times of the day and more importantly how you cope with them. Use the diary to help you identify stress triggers and record how you react to these stresses. Think out possible solutions to alleviating these stresses whether it involves delegating work to someone else, talking to someone or taking time out. Simple actions like breathing exercises, walking, swimming or a bath can help reduce stresses. Do try to keep filling in your lifestyle and food journal throughout your change plan or weight loss programme. It will help you identify food and lifestyle issues which will enable you to re-evaluate your goals and objectives in your current life that can lead to a more relaxed healthier lifestyle. Remember - What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing. By conditioning ourselves to concentrate on what we really want – to be back at our old comfortable weight or fit for the first time ever- positive results can be achieved by taking control."                        Keep in mind that research on these matters is on-going and is subject to change. The information presented is not intended as a substitute for medical treatment. It is intended to provide ongoing support of your healthy lifestyle practices.                   © Paula Mee 2010 Privacy Statement        Home page                Powered by go2web