An easy and simple tool to help keep you on track for losing weight is to keep a food diary. The food diary is an easy and simple way to see if you are keeping on track with your weight-loss plan. It enables you to identify if you are developing any habits, such as compulsive eating or skipping your meals.

An important tip for filling out a daily food diary is to be honest with yourself. A study showed that women tend to underestimate their calories by 1000 when giving out a diet history. Remember to write down everything, what emotion you were feeling, who you were with, and what you were doing.

If you are unsure about portion sizes, use household measures. For example: 1 cup cereal, a tablespoon of peanut butter etc. If you do not have a food diary template, Google 'food diary' and you will see that there are plenty excel templates that you can download. Start today to get your weight-loss plans back on track by keeping a food diary.