Anybody keep a food journal?

[Curtis2011]

Just yesterday I got a spiral notebook and began taking notes of every piece of food I eat and at what time I eat it. Also, I am recording glasses of water that I drink. I also decided that for at least the next week or more I will not be drinking anything other than water.


I am mainly doing this to help myself become more aware of what I am eating. So far, it seems to be working well, as every time I am hungry, I think of the "consequences" per se of me having to write down and record what I am eating.

I plan on keeping a record of my food for the next week and using it to examine my eating habits, then decide where to go from there. The ultimate goal is to adapt a healthier diet that will help me lose a bit of weight, as I am currently overweight and would like to change that.

Anyone else in here have any experience with a food journal or something similar? I would like to hear advice on how to best utilize my new-found scrupulosity of what I am eating, in order to eat healthier and lose weight.

[100wattjames]

I'd love some input from any experienced food journalers as well, I'm planning on starting soon too. In particular, has anyone tried out any of the android apps? I know it's not as relevant to the poster, but I'd like to have some charts and graphs in return for my troubles.

Good luck on your changes Curtis2011!

[curiouslyrandom]

I kept one while I was pregnant with my first kid because I was having trouble keeping anything down for very long, and was somewhat malnourished. Without it, I probably would have skipped meals and avoided certain foods I didn't feel like eating, even though they had the nutrients I needed. It helped keep me on track, and my daughter was born quite healthy.

Sounds like a great idea, Curtis. If I started one now, I'd probably throw it out in disgust over my current eating habits.

[russianrocket]

I have one on my iphone. Tho, technically it's just considered a calorie counter. I use it so that I don't eat too much or too little of anything. Works pretty good.

[butterflyeffect]

I've done alot of food journalling in the past. I still do it on and off and find it very helpful. I tend to use it as a tool to begin a new plan and once I'm settled in it and compliant I drop the journalling.

I create a table to fill out that reflects my ideal plan. So I then fill out the time, snack or meal and a column for notes. Then at the bottom of the page I have space to record my daily exersize done.

I like to break it down quite specifically for main meals:

Time: Meal/ Snack:

Noon Lunch Notes
Carbs - 2 serves of X Felt hungy by 11am.
Salad - 1 serve of Y
Protien -

Exersize:

Run around the block.

Then I review it at the end of the week and chart my weight on a weekly basis. So then I can see what I am meals and snacks I am compliant with and what I am struggling with. If for example I am struggling to follow the whole plan then I start with one snack and focus on getting it right for a week. Once I can comfortably do that snack, I move onto the next meal until I can do the whole thing. It takes time and I tweak as I go but the main thing I find it not to get angry if you mess up or obsessive. Celebrate your successes and learn from the rest.

[firenexx]

Shortly after I adopted a healthy diet last May, I realized I probably wasn't eating enough. Partially since the bulk of the foods I consumed before were processed or refined things that I no would no longer eat, so I had to rethink my entire "eating strategy" which was hard.
I started keeping track of how many servings of each type of food I consumed. It was good, because I found that I would be very likely to not eat enough legumes, for instance. I also kept track of other health factors I was paying attention to, like my weight, and the condition of my facial acne.

That lasted about a month. Since then, I have become more intuitive about food and find that I don't have to keep track to make sure that I'm getting enough of something. When I run out of nuts, I find myself craving nuts a few days later. When I have forgotten to include legumes in my diet for a few days, I find myself instinctively cooking beans for supper. The journal/chart definitely got me started, but because of my dysfunctional personality, I find it hard to stick to journals/charts for long periods of time and eventually I just wing it.

Most of the time, though, I write a weekly menu so that shopping and meal prep is a lot easier. This way, I know ahead of time whether I'm getting enough of everything, and I adjust each week if I'm lacking in certain areas.

[Lifeisamazing]

I've been keeping a food journal for a year or so, and I think I've benefitted a lot from it. I hope I won't ever stop tracking my food intake in my notebooks because it really is important and fun for me.

Improving your nutrition is a long process, it takes a lot of time. A good first step is to be reactive and write down all your energy intake for example for a week. The next step would be to become proactive and create a meal plan that you stick to based on your goals. Later you just add or remove items one at a time to really understand how each food item affects you, and adjust food intake in terms of calories.

I used to make a new meal plan for every single day. This was a pain in the ass because it took a lot of time. I was obsessed and anxious. Later I started creating a new meal plan each week. Now, I have one meal plan for every two weeks and even then a new meal plan usually constists only one different food item. Let's say that I don't drink milk, eat nuts nor fruits. Now if I include all of those in my plan and get gases, acne, energy reduction or whatever else, then I have a hard time figuring out which item of those three caused these symptoms. That's why I include only one new type of food in two weeks. It's important to add that my two week meal plan is very varied. All of my five meals per day are very different from each other.

You may have had a thought that food journaling must be a real struggle and a very annoying thing to do. I'd disagree because once you establish your almost perfect meal plan, then you've memorized your every meal. You don't even need to look at your meal plan but you have it in your notebook just in case. I don't use my notebook to know what to eat next, just to be able to look back and see what results I had with certain meal plans in the future.

One thing that I haven't done yet but which popped in my mind right now is recording your feelings after each meal. This should help to really understand how each meal affects you and if there are any changes to be made to make your meals better to improve your energy and well-being.

Good luck, Curtis2011, it's a great thing to do!

[Badar]

Never
Cause i never had any kind of weight trouble i have joined a gym to mainatin myself . So no worries on eating

[firenexx]

You can eat whatever you want as long as you exercise. After all, if you're skinny, it must mean that you're also healthy.

[openeyes]

I periodically use cron o meter (free) for a few days to a couple weeks to make sure I'm regularly getting enough nutrients. I look forward to there being a phone app nearly as comprehensive.

In Tim Ferris's Four Hour Body (pg 60) he recommends a photo diary of what you eat in order to remain conscious of intake even if you're not going to write it down.