This step may seem out of place, but it can actually provide you with a lot of useful information about your dietary habits. Just by recording who you eat with and where you eat can make a world of difference to those who are having trouble dieting. Let's examine how.

We will start with who you eat with. For every meal, make a note in your food journal about who you have that meal with. Then, when you analyze your food journal each night, you should use these notes to determine two main things.

First, are you eating larger or smaller meals by yourself? And secondly, are you eating more meals by yourself than you are with other people? These two observations could be the key as to why you are having trouble losing weight.

The problem that many people have is that they tend to eat too many meals by themselves and not enough meals with other people around. When they start eating meals by themselves, it can lead to overeating because you have nothing to compare your portions with. After all, how often do you order a giant meal when the person sitting across the table from you is just having a small salad?

The other observation that you need to add to your food journal is where you eat your meals. As was the case with the second step's meal times, where you eat may mean that you have a problem with grazing, or eating food all day long. By focusing your efforts into eating at the table, you may find that you eat much less than you did at the couch, for example. Sometimes all it takes is a small change in venue for you to be able to eat much less and lose weight more rapidly than you thought possible.

Although they may seem like strange items to add to your food journal, both who you eat with and where you eat can provide you with valuable information that can help you succeed in your diet.