Tips For Successfully Keeping A Food Journal
What is a food journal?
A food journal is exactly what it sounds like, a journal for the food you eat. However, what most probably don’t know is that it’s much more than a diary for your yogurt and fruit. It can help you understand your eating habits and patterns, and help you identify the foods you eat on a regular basis.
Keeping a food journal helps to make you more aware of your choices and can encourage you to be more mindful of not only what you are eating, but also how, why, and when you’re eating. Food journaling can often shed light on your patterns of eating as well. It can show you when you skip meals, if you’re overeating at night, or if you’re mindlessly snacking throughout the day.
Food journaling can also help identify certain triggers of unhealthy eating you might have. Are you grabbing that vending machine cookie or bag of chips when feeling stressed or bored at work? Do you eat a late night bowl of ice cream because you’re feeling lonely? You may even notice that you are eating more food than you need, but are not getting enough nutrition.
Positives of food journaling
Food journaling can be a positive experience that can help you to identify any negative eating habits that you might want to change. While some may find the task of keeping a food journal daunting, the benefits for most heavily out weigh keeping track of everything you eat.
The following are merely a handful of the positive aspects of food journaling:
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It can help you remember what you have eaten that day.
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You can see where you can improve if you are trying to achieve a goal.
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It will let you see if you are eating too much or not enough.
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It can help you realize if you are eating out of boredom rather than hunger.
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What to log into a food journal
Here’s what you should be writing down in your food journal:
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What you’re eating and drinking
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How you feel (happy, sad, lonely, stressed, busy…)
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Where you’re eating (home, work, while walking, in the car…)
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Who you’re eating with
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How you feel after you eat (What positive or negative effects do you notice? Do you feel energized? Tired? Bloated? Were you unable to sleep that night?)
All of this is important to log because, again, how you feel is about so much more than what’s on your plate. The circumstances surrounding when you eat matter greatly, too.
What do food journals keep track of?
The information you choose to keep track of in your journal depends on the challenge you are tackling. It can be trying to lose a few pounds, identifying potential food sensitivities, tracking adequate nutrition or even beginning to manage an eating disorder like emotional eating. Whatever the motivating factor, there are a few key areas to focus in order to get the most out of your food journaling experience.
FOOD
While this may seem like the most obvious, it is also the most important. The key is to be truly honest and not just record the healthy foods. Being honest helps makes journaling more effective as a learning tool to create healthier habits that will promote your overall health and well-being.
TIME
Time can help to identify your pattern of eating throughout the day. If you note that you’re skipping meals or going too long without eating, this may help you realize why you’ve been unhealthily eating later in the day or night. Noting the time of day can help you to establish more balanced eating strategies to improve your eating habits.
HUNGER LEVEL
This is a valuable factor that allows greater awareness of why you are eating and how much you are eating. Many people eat outside of true physical hunger and eat beyond feeling satiated. So this strategy can be especially useful to those who suffer from eating disorders like binge eating, emotional eating or compulsive eating.
4 benefits of keeping a food journal
1.It can help pinpoint what foods may be causing problematic health issues
If there’s anything physical you’re experiencing on a regular basis—including bloating, digestive distress, or rashes— a food journal may help you figure out what could possibly be causing it. So often we think we know what we eat, but we don’t realize the whole truth. A food journal is a mirror that really reflects what you put into your body.
Over time, you may notice certain patterns. For example, someone may realize that they always feel bloated after drinking kombucha, a sign that the carbonation may be too much for them. Or someone else may notice that their skin looks blotchy after eating gluten or dairy, indicating that they could have an intolerance. If you are experiencing any physical health problems, it’s still important to see a doctor, but your food journal can be a tool you bring to your appointment, which may help point to or rule out any potential culprits.
2. It shows how food may be impacting your mental health
It’s important to note that food can have a direct impact on mental health, including anxiety, depression, or energy levels. For example, if you notice that you have a spike in anxious feelings after your morning coffee, it could be a sign that you might need to switch up your a.m. beverage.
It’s also important to think about more than just the actual food. Where we eat, who we eat with, what we’re doing when we eat, and how we feel are all important to think about.
Always eating lunch at your desk while answering emails could make someone eat faster than they would away from their computer. This could impact your digestion or even how much you’re actually able to enjoy your meal.
3. Food journals paint a picture of what makes you feel good
Besides helping highlight ways what you eat could make you feel worse physically or mentally, food journals also show what makes you feel amazing. If you made a smoothie and it was the first one you ever made that actually didn’t leave you feeling hungry 20 minutes later, that’s definitely worth writing down so you remember what was in it and how it made you feel.
4. They’re a tool you can bring to health experts
It can be helpful to bring your food journal to doctor’s appointments as a way to point to or eliminate connections to foods that may be negatively impacting your health. Similarly, it can also be helpful to share your food journal with a registered dietitian, nutritionist, or health coach.
I have all my clients share their food journals with me and the discussions we have about them are different, depending on their health goals. For example, if one client’s food journal shows that they tend to overeat when they’re feeling stressed, I will talk about how getting to the root of the stressor is important. Someone else may be training for a marathon and a food journal can help a nutritionist or dietitian make sure they’re getting all the proper nutrients their body needs.
Top tips for keeping a food journal
Food journaling can be a really great tool to help you achieve your goals, and not be from a place of punishment or judgement. It helps to uproot and reflect back what you’re looking for in terms of accountability, responsibility, and even support. All it takes is viewing it the right way.
Keep your journal somewhere you’ll use it
Some people love habits and do the same thing every day while others go where the wind takes them. However one thing that everyone does everyday is sleep. So if you are worried that you won’t be able to keep track with your journal, try keeping it next to your bed. That way it will serve as a great daily reminder to write down what you ate that day. Bedtime is also your least distracted, least hectic time of day, which means you can't make the "I'm too busy right now" excuse and can instead reflect on your habits.
However if totaling up what you have eaten in a day seems like an overwhelming task, try doing it step by step. Quickly writing down what you ate right after a meal or snack is a more manageable way of writing your food journal. Plus, writing it in the moment allows you to more accurately portray exactly what you ate and how you felt about it.
Keep either a physical or digital copy
Whether you're a minute-by-minute or before-bed journaler, make sure you get a notebook that's portable. Having a journal that you can take to work or on vacation is essential since it allows you to stay consistent and prevents you from falling off the health wagon. Keep in mind that if you buy a big bulky journal it may be more difficult to carry around with you. A compact, lightweight journal is just as easy to keep in your bag as a wallet!
Additionally, these days there are tons of apps out there dedicated to helping you track with a food journal. They allow you to document exactly what you ate, when, and how much. While not everyone can or wants to carry a food journal with them everywhere, most do have access to smartphones 24/7, making this the most convenient way to dive into food journaling.
Be specific
Being specific is probably the most important aspect of keeping an effective food journal. It's easy to say "I had a sandwich for lunch," but if you want to get the most out of your words, write down word for word what you ate that day. After all, a small, whole wheat sandwich is totally different than a meatball sub, but both could be considered sandwiches.
When you're writing, focus on portion size, time of day, environment, and how you felt before, during, and after eating. This will give you insight into your eating patterns in the long run and can help you make small interventions for a big change over time. Also don't forget to list what you drank that day.
Allow yourself to be emotional
Part of being specific is being emotional. You don't want to simply write about what you ate, but also you want to write about how it made you feel. If you notice that you reach for a bar of chocolate every time you fight with your significant other because you feel sad and stressed, then perhaps next time you'll be more likely to go for a run when things get tense. It's not going to be a perfect science, but it will point you in the direction of healthy habits.
Be honest with yourself
You may feel guilty about the pizza you had today and you might not want to write about it, but that's the point. Being totally honest in your writing allows you to notice your eating trends and pick up on your feelings around food so that you can take actual steps toward tangible change. Allowing yourself to fully address those feelings of guilt - or anxiety or sadness or whatever you're feeling - could help you develop a better relationship with food over time. You will never reach your goals if you can't face the facts.
Try to make a draft of your next day
Once you're in the habit of jotting down everything you're eating and drinking, consider taking a moment at the end of the day to draft your next day’s journal outline. So that you don't get too confused with the order of things, put these drafts either on a new page of paper or in your notes app if you are using a digital journal. You may find that this small act of predicting and planning your meals will help you make better choices.
Set a date
Logging your food every day is great, but it won't actually do anything until you sit down and face the truth. Try to meet once a week with your journal and reread everything you have written. Notice patterns, notice emotions around food, notice cravings, and more. Try to find places where you can intervene to set yourself on track.
Lifestyles that would benefit from food journaling
While anyone can benefit from food journaling, there are certain lifestyles that should be food journaling daily. Once you recognize that you fall within one of these lifestyles, you can begin your food journaling experience and be one step closer to a healthy lifestyle. However if you don’t relate with one of these lifestyles, you might find that you could still benefit from keeping a food journal.
Fatigue prone
Those who are prone to fatigue, or who are constantly feeling foggy, typically find themselves feeling tired no matter what. They might be eating large meals throughout the day, and then soon after find themselves in a type of food coma which leads to them feeling fatigued. Those who are fatigue prone may also be eating too many processed foods too often, and not giving their body the fuel it needs to be energized.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
By writing down how you feel after you eat, you will be able to more closely identify which food cause you to feel more fatigued. You may find that having a green salad with quinoa and vegetables for lunch leaves you feeling energized, while heated up processed foods make you feel more sluggish. After enough entries, you’ll be able to tailor your meals to help you feel less fatigued.
Lack of nutrition
Those who lack proper nutrition are often eating too much of one food group, and not enough of the ones meant to give your body the vitamins and minerals it needs. They may not even realize they’re depriving their body. They may even just be eating too many processed foods, and not enough fruits and vegetables. Those who lack proper nutrition could also not be eating enough calories, which in turn could lead to a variety of other health and wellness issues.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
Keeping a food diary will allow you to analyze what foods you are not eating enough of, or which ones you’re eating too much. It can also show whether you are eating enough of each food group or not. If your food diary consists of mainly carbohydrates and proteins, then you’re not getting the vitamins you need from fruits and vegetables.
Mindless eaters
Those who mindlessly eat can often find themselves eating in the car commuting to work, at the desk in front of a computer screen, or on the couch watching TV. They typically eat by shoveling their food down regardless of whether they’re still hungry or not. Mindless eaters often eat for reasons other than hunger, like satisfying emotional needs, relieving stress, or coping with emotions such as sadness, anxiety, loneliness, or boredom.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
Try eating your meals with all your attention rather than on auto pilot. This means not eating while you’re reading, looking at your phone, watching TV, or planning what you’ll do later. Try practicing mindful eating for short, five-minute periods at first and gradually build up from there. You can also practice mindful eating when you’re making your shopping list too.
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Food journals can be essential if you are trying to track habits. Try keeping a food journal for a couple weeks and see what you learn. Using it as a learning tool to observe your portions, habits, and the types of foods you eat will help you cultivate more mindfulness.
Extra tips for keeping a food journal
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When you are logging your food, try asking yourself why you’re eating. If it’s anything other than you’re hungry, write it down.
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Make note of the time of day you are eating, and how many times a day you’re eating.
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It’s often best to keep your food thoughts short and sweet, unless you want to get more into the details of how you are feeling and why you chose the food you did for future reference.
