Natalie's eating plan (2)

Week TWO: Two weeks into Natalie's new lifestyle change. She walks confidently into my office with her food diary in hand. Before even sitting down she is anxious to be weighed. She throws off her sneakers and jumps on the scale.

New Stats

Weight: 173lb (down 3lb)

Body fat: 31.4 per cent (down 0.3 per cent)

BMI: 26.3 (down 0.5)

Waistline: 36.5 inches (down 1 inch)

Food diary is helpful

Natalie's numbers are going down. While checking through her food diary, it is evident that Natalie has been eating on schedule. She tries to eat breakfast within the first hour of getting up and finishes eating dinner no later than 8 p.m. In-between, she has a fruit as a snack or a granola bar to help keep her full and satisfied throughout the day.

Natalie has gradually changed her way of eating and has fitted exercise into her daily routine. She has only made a few simple modifications but this has led to significant results. She now plans her meals ahead of time and has learnt to overcome temptations. She has also invested in some tools like measuring cups and has built a healthy relationship with food by portioning.

The simple act of writing down behaviour, in fact, is the key component of successful weight control. Having the evidence directly in front of her makes her accountable and helps her to make changes.

Eat more breakfast

The only change I made with Natalie's food log was to increase her breakfast intake because a nutritional boost first thing in the morning will help energise her for the entire day. So I substituted the protein shake at breakfast for eggs, fruits, vegetables and ground provisions or sardines/salt fish. We moved her protein shake to the evening to try to prevent her 2 a.m. snacking.

She is trying to outsmart a snack attack. So we devised a plan! If she has to have a late-night or early-morning snack, her maximum intake should never be more than 150 calories (not a meal). "Stop the mindless nibbling! You're stronger than a craving, more complicated than a habit, more thoughtful than mindless eating," I tell her.

Although Natalie is taking baby steps, she is content with the progress. I'm here to keep her motivated in her battle against baby-weight gain.

Frances Mahfood is a nutritionist at the Heart Foundation of Jamaica; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.