There’s still a long way to go until New Year’s resolution time rolls around. But the start of a new school year is also a great time to take steps to improve your health. All it takes is a little extra homework, better known as a food diary.

“Keeping a food diary is a great way to stay on top of what a person has eaten throughout the day,” Melissa Southrey, a registered dietitian at Shore Memorial Hospital explains.

Keeping a food diary is simple: write down what you ate and how much of it you ate from meal to meal. Tracking what you’ve had for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks can help you analyze where your diet is taking a wrong turn.

“Humans are creatures of habit,” Southrey says. “We pretty much eat the same things over and over again.”

The diary also forces people to become more aware of serving sizes. According to Southrey, most obese people, women in particular, underestimate servings.

“If you are not honest with the amount that you are consuming, you will not be able to help yourself,” Southrey says. “Serving sizes at restaurants are enormous. Salt, sugar and fat are in the meals for taste so people have to be aware of what real serving sizes are.”

Hardly a daunting task, keeping a food diary has become easier than ever thanks to a few assists from new technologies.

“Right now there are about 70,000 different food diaries on iPhones, iPads, computers and smartphones,” Southrey explains. “Since we have access to all of this technology, using them to keep track of what we eat is a better way to go rather than just writing it down on paper.”

A tool that Southrey likes to emphasize when discussing food diaries is MyPyramid.gov, a government Web site that helps track serving sizes, daily food group intake recommendations, nutritious meal options and more.

“MyPyramid.gov is a tool to make weight control easy,” Southrey says. “It not only helps you keep track of what you are eating, but also what you should be eating.”

One difference between MyPyramid.gov and other diet plans is that MyPyramid is specifically unique to each individual.

The site has online tools such as “Inside the Pyramid,” which explains all of the sections of the food pyramid, and “MyPyramid tracker,” which assess a person’s food intake and physical activity.

“A very common misconception is how people define physical activity,” Southrey explains. “Using the stairs several times a day, for example, will burn some calories. However, in order to expend a significant amount of calories, you need to do physical activity that will get your heart rate up for specific amount of time.”

With all of these new technology tools at our disposal, Southrey says the only obstacle to achieving good health is getting started.

“People always say they will wait until the first of the month, Monday or after a person’s birthday,” Southrey says. “You do not have to wait. You can make your next meal the better meal.”