Dear diary: ready to reach your goals once and for all? This proven method for weight-loss success will get you there

If you're a fitness-magazine junkie as I am, you may have followed the saga of Courtney Rubin's "Weight Loss Diary" throughout the 2001 issues of SHAPE magazine. With a team of weight-loss professionals supporting her, Courtney made incredible accomplishments, including finishing a marathon (that she ran all the way). The pure numbers of her weight loss, however, paled in comparison to the expectations many held. Even with access to some of the world's best experts, her progress on the scale stalled.

For me, Courtney's experience reiterates that absolutely no program, potion or pill can counterbalance behaviors that are not conducive to weight loss. It is truly the person who determines his or her own outcome, not the diet program, personal trainer, physician or nutritionist involved.

The real work of weight loss begins on the inside, with all the attitudes, beliefs and self-talk that determine any given behavior. As such, one of the few truly successful techniques in weight loss is self-monitoring, in which a person tracks and analyzes his or her behaviors in a journal. Logically, then, nearly every non-clinical and clinical diet program uses food journals, including Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.

If attaining your fitness goal requires a change in eating behavior, keeping a food diary is probably the most important step you can take toward success. If you've been turned off before by the thought of the "J" word, let's clear up a few misconceptions about keeping a food journal. It shouldn't be a punishment or a chore; neither should it be a testament to your willpower nor a tool of self-loathing. Keeping a food diary is a research-backed method of monitoring your food intake if eating is a behavior you want to change. It's personalized, adaptable and as detailed as you want to make it.

To make your life easier, we've divided the process of keeping a food diary into six stages, which gradually increase in expression and explanation. Here's how this tool can be your opportunity to succeed at weight loss and nutritional well-being from the inside, out.

STAGE GET EQUIPPED

You might not think the type of journal you choose would impact your results, but personalizing your food diary is actually a great way to improve your odds of success, says Gail Frank, DrPH, MPH, PD, a professor of nutrition at California State University, Long Beach, and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "There's a way to personalize it, anywhere from creating your own pages to notebook paper to a small book that you can carry," she explains. "I think that's where it begins to become personal and a part of you."

We could literally devote five pages to the many types of food diaries available. Lucky for you, I have a limit on word count. The short list is paper, PDA (personal digital assistant) or personal computer Read on for the pros and cons of each.

PAPER JOURNALS

Advantages:

* Easy to use and small enough to fit in your purse. You could go with a little spiral notebook, an artsy cloth-covered journal book or even a pocket calendar.

* You can make it as detailed or as abbreviated as you wish. You can easily flip through pages to identify patterns and troubleshoot.

Disadvantages:

* You'll need to consult a nutrition book for the calories and grams of carbs/protein/fat/fiber for the foods you've logged in.

* Daily totals aren't calculated automatically.

Try it: Memory Minder's Diet Minder (www.memoryminder.com), Better Body (www.better-body.com), Figure Facts (www.figurefacts.com; also offers online and PDA diaries).

FDA PROGRAMS FOR PALM OS

Advantages:

* Small enough to take with you.

* Calculates your daily totals automatically.

* Programs include calories and macronutrient information, so you don't have to look it up later.

* Many programs also include an exercise log.

Disadvantages:

* Takes forever to program new foods.

* Downloading the software can be a lengthy process, frustrating if you're not a tech-head.

* Not all foods are available in the software programs. (I added Calorie King's software -- which has a 10,000-food database I can use in conjunction with my BalanceLog -- to my handheld.)

Try it: HealtheTech's BalanceLog (www.healthetech.com), Vivonic (www.vivonic.com), Figure Facts (www.figurefacts.com).

INTERNET PROGRAMS

Advantages:

* Large database of foods to choose from.

* Many free programs are available that offer comprehensive tracking of diet and exercise.

* Some programs can also create customized diet plans for you (like fitnessonlinecom's Optimize program).

Disadvantages:

* You can't take it with you.

* If you don't have a computer at home and at work, you won't be able to make a complete record in the same day.

* If you log in everything at the end of the day, you're almost sure to omit something that you ate or drank since waking up.

* When your online connection is moving at a snail's pace, you must fight the sudden urge to chuck your computer out the window.