Healthy eating requires planning, purpose and an effort to include a variety of foods in all meals.

If you look closely at how you eat, you might find you aren’t getting enough nutrients because you don’t get the recommended number of servings from each food group.

Not only is it important to pay attention to what you eat, but also to what food groups you may not eat enough of. To accomplish this, keep a food journal of everything you eat and drink for one week. This will help you to find trends – both good and bad.

The National Network News ran a story in July of last year about a study published by Kaiser Permanente on 1500 subjects regarding food behaviors and weight loss. Those who kept a food journal lost twice the weight of their non-journaling counter parts.

There are two theories that come to mind on this topic:

If we have to write it down, we are less likely to consume it.

If we don’t write it down, we can’t remember what we ate, or its caloric content.

What did you have for lunch yesterday? How about two days ago?

Journaling is a good tool to help you stay the course and make more conscientious choices about what and why you’re eating.

Paying attention to serving sizes is also important.

You may not know that a serving size of cereal is only 1 ounce, which is 1/4 to 1/2 cup for most cereals. That means a typical bowl of cereal is usually far more than a serving.

Instead of a big bowl of cereal and milk for breakfast, have one or two servings (1 to 2 ounces) of cereal with a sliced banana and a small glass (1 cup) of juice. To reduce the amount of fat calories, try low-fat, nonfat or soy milk instead of whole milk on your cereal.

Eating out: When you eat out, you relinquish control over how your meal is prepared. You really don’t know what hidden calories or fat are in the meal you are consuming. Most dine out meals are super-sized, compounded by sodium loading to enhance the flavor. Both are generally bad for consumers. Skip the condiments, sauces and dressings, or at least have them served “on the side” so you can control the portions.

Water with lemon anyone? How about sorbet or fruit for dessert?

Sharing a meal, or eating half, and taking the other half home, is always a great way to keep your caloric intake down. It also helps spread out the economic impact of dining out. You’ll find once you get home, half was plenty, as it takes about 20 minutes for our brains to register the “I’m full” notion.

On the go: Fresh fruit, baby carrots, low-fat cheese sticks, almonds, trail mix, meal replacement shakes are the way to go. Try to limit processed foods and watch for high-sodium content, as our first reaction to thirst is hunger. Also, too much sodium makes you retain water and then bloat.

Grocery store: Make a list and don’t go grocery shopping hungry! Whole, natural foods are almost always located at the perimeter of the store, so most of your time shopping should be done there.

Many of us were raised being required to eat all the food on our plates before we could leave the dinner table – or have dessert! The key to this is what is really on that plate?

Eat smart, journal, win!