I really try and make an effort to eat healthy. But at the same time, I totally let myself eat just about whatever I want (within reason). And from that, I gained a lot of weight (surprise surprise). So I started keeping a food diary a couple years ago so I could see where all my calories were coming from. And it was pretty enlightening.
My food diary contains several factors:
1) Food intake
2) Daily exercise
3) How I felt that day (energized, sluggish, tired, etc.)
(sidenote: I should really also monitor my water intake)
Sometimes I would go through the day just feeling SO sluggish, and I wondered why. So I would look back in my food diary - sure enough, I would have eaten WAY too many carbs (like 4 meals of carbs - waffle in the morning, macaroni and cheese in the afternoon for lunch, pasta for dinner, and a cupcake for dessert) and fatty desserts (whoops; sorry only some of the time) just a few days before. And then other days I would be ready to run a marathon, and I would look back and see I had a ton of vegetables and fruits in my diet the day before. I started to equate how my body felt with certain food intake.
I don't really look back at my food diary that often unless my body is really unhappy. But when I do, it usually answers my question and I make a mental note to not eat that food again, or to seriously limit it next time! My diet has changed SO much since I have started my food journaling, and I tend to eat much healthier!
So far, I have gone through about 3.5 journals - I have a million journals laying around at home that I needed to use and a food diary was perfect. None of the journals have been particularly cute, or in any way formatted to be a food diary; but these below are just adorable and I might have to get one once I run out of journals!
Also, a great option is to get an app for food journals such as My Food Diary! My UP band app also has a function to input the food I ate that day, which is super helpful!
I always write down all that I have eaten that day right as I climb in bed - for me it's a great memory exercise (I forget just about everything), so I kill two birds with one stone! I highly suggest everyone start some sort of food diary, even if you just try it for a week :)
Labels: small talk
