There is a scientifically proven tool, when used for five minutes a day, can improve your success by fifty percent. Have you been looking to lose some weight or start eating better in general? Here is a tip that may super charge your intended goal! I have used this power tool, both in my weight loss and in other areas of my life. Interesting, a tool that can help you lose weight as well as make money, be a better parent or co-worker and help you achieve a more fulfilled spiritual life?

As published in Reuters recently, there was a study completed involving 1,685 middle-aged men and women. Over a six month period, they found those who kept a diary just about every day showed a weight loss of about twice as much weight as those who did not.

I had a personal trainer a few years ago in Atlanta, Georgia. Steve was the owner and trainer at an upscale gym called Eclipse 1 on 1. Check it out on the web (http://www.eclipse1on1.com/). The gym is first class and so is Steve! We started by taking a baseline body fat percentage, weight, flexibility and other factors. We then set some goals together and discussed a plan of action. I worked out at the gym approximately four times a week with my husband, Kurt.

I decided that I would keep a food journal, even though it was not requested of me. It was the first program that my husband and I did together where I lost almost as much as he did. When we tried other weight loss programs, he was allowed to eat almost double the food as me and lost twice as much! How unfair!

"It (keeping a journal) helps the participants see where the extra calories are coming from, and then develop more specific plans to deal with those situations," said Stevens, who helped lead the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

I found this to be true. Keeping a journal helped me to find a couple of triggers that had me craving food or making my energy plunge. By going back and reading the journal. I was able to find trends. One trend I found was the nights I stayed up late working completely affected both my energy and my desire to eat chocolate. Pretty important information if you are trying to lose weight or eat healthier!

The other thing I found is that even though I was the only one reading the diary, unless I wanted to share it, it provided a level of accountability. I did not want to write certain eating "failures" down. May sound silly, but if that little game is what I have to play to create the success I was intending, then that is a game plan I can get behind!

I believe also, that the same philosophy of writing goals down applies here. The masters of financial manifesting continually speak about the power of writing your goals. There is thought that the act of writing that goal begins the manifestation process, making the thought a physical reality, a much quicker process. Writing it by long hand rather than typing it out seems to have better results as well. Writing your goals and keeping a journal in business I believe would yield the same fifty percent higher success rates that were found in the study of dieters that kept journals.

Powerful isn’t it? To think that such a simple tool, which does not take much time, can have such a dramatic effect on you success. For me, it is worth trying it!