Food journaling is nothing more than writing down information about what you eat and when you eat. It can reveal a lot of information that might otherwise be missed. How often do you mindlessly eat something, barely being aware that you put it in your mouth or felt sick or bloated frequently? Food journaling can not only help you count calories, but also tell you when you eat the most and based on how you do it, the stimulus that made you overeat.
Recording as much information as possible will help you learn more about yourself and your eating habits.
Recording the time of day, the circumstances, what you ate and your location will give you insight later into a pattern of eating that you may have. If you have a habit of grabbing a few pieces of candy from the dish, either avoid that dish, find a substitute or replace that habit. Do you find yourself literally eating your emotions? Maybe it’s time to learn a better way to deal with them. Learning healthy habits includes learning more about yourself.
If you feel sick all the time, maybe it’s what you eat.
There are many reasons to keep a food diary, one of them is to help solve digestive problems. Keeping a food journal can help you do it. It should be used in conjunction with an elimination diet to help isolate the offending food. Sometimes, it’s easy, like dairy or gluten. Sometimes, its a little more difficult. Sometimes, this simple step can help you avoid many doctor’s visits and tons of unnecessary medication that also has side effects.
Before you start journaling, learn about portion size.
Portion control is probably one of the most elusive, yet necessary things you have to learn when you’re trying to eat healthier. We now have so many choices of food to consume. While you might think that just a few chips aren’t going to hurt, check the serving size and see if you can stop at the serving size, which varies by the chip, but is between 10 and 18 chips. You might not think you’re overeating, but often you are. One area where serving size often doesn’t count is vegetables. In the case of most vegetables, without added sauces, you can often liberally eat them.
- Food journaling can be even easier with SmartPhones. You can use a memo screen, take a video or voice recording at each meal and transfer the information later.
- Food journaling can help you be more mindful of what you eat and even whether you really like the food. It helps if you add a note whether it satisfied you or whether you enjoyed eating it.
- A study found that those who used journaling for three months, compared to those who didn’t, actually lost weight without dieting.
- You’ll not only learn the number of calories and servings you eat, but also the type of food you eat most often. Food journaling can also help identify places you need to increase nutritional intake.
For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness