Want a leg up on losing weight and keeping it off? Research shows that people who keep track of what they eat and weigh on a regular basis are more likely to not only succeed, but also to keep it off.
Food journal, log or diary all offer the same ideas, just different names. They all help you become more conscious of how, what, when and how much you eat. This can help you stay accountable when setting and working towards wellness goals.
How much you track is up to you, but the more you track the greater insight you’ll gain – keeping in mind it may take a little bit more effort as well. When I’m fully into it I’ve been known to track it all:
Food (type, amount, timing eaten and how I felt after), water intake, amount of sleep, supplements taken, mood, exercise, pain and even bowel movements!
This extended version isn’t for everyone, but it did help me when I was in the crux of my healing stages.
Keeping a record of {only} what you eat can actually help quite a bit:
- It keeps you accountable IF you’re honest with it
- are you skipping meals, running out of steam and then overindulging in the next
- eating meat, cheese or processed food at EVERY meal?
- too much snacking?
- It could uncover food intolerance’s or missing nutrition
- are you meal mostly made of simple carbs (bread, pasta & starches)
- lacking green vegetables?
- Bad habits become hard to miss
- too many alcoholic drinks?
- not enough water
- large portion sizes
How I Did It
I’ve tracked my food in a few different ways over the years from simply writing my food intake in my calendar to creating a spreadsheet on GoogleDocs. The key for me is to have access to it everywhere I am so when I reach for that ginormous tootsie roll I write it down and don’t subconsciously ‘forget’ later.
So did keeping a food journal work for me?
I’ve always considered myself to be a fairly healthy eater, but when I really got into the nitty gritty details, my image of my eating versus the true recorded details often told a much different tale!
The truth is, if things aren’t going great, if I’m not feeling well, if my digestion becomes stuck, my skin gets dull and dry or if I’m gaining weight, these are the times I fall back on the food journal. And it’s probably no surprise that my eating (and self care) is quite likely to be off during these times. Even as a health coach I’m typically aware of this deep down, but there’s nothing like seeing it writing to really bring it to focus.
Keeping some type of food diary from time to time definitely helps me focus by uncovering extra snacking, giant meals, special occasion-bites, excessive alcohol and missed workout days. When you go back and add up all the ‘handfuls’ of this and ‘bowls’ of that – it can be shocking at times. That shock value helps me to reconnect with mindful and intuitive eating. Ultimately, when I do that I ALWAYS feel better.