Products
Products
Brands
Brands
Creating a Food Diary
Posted by
on
Creating a Food Diary
A big part of living a healthy lifestyle involves
eating a balanced diet filled with
good-for-you
foods!
Not only does a healthy diet contribute to weight loss, it also gives
you the energy you need to sustain your daily routine and the motivation
required each day to get your workout in. There’s nothing worse when trying to
get geared up for work, kid’s activities or to get a good workout in and all
you really want to do is sit on the couch and take a snooze. Choosing energy
building foods will help ensure you stay energized for any activity!
We are all painfully aware of the massive variety
of prepackaged foods that are on the majority of grocery store shelves these
days! Real, single ingredient, whole foods are not as commonly consumed as they
used to be, and we need to make sure they’re making an appearance on our plates
daily. Foods like fresh veggies, fruits, nuts, whole grains and most
importantly of all…LOTS OF WATER need to be a part of our everyday food intake.
Along with prepackaged food, there are about a
zillion different types of ‘diets’ out there today; it can be
overwhelming, confusing and frankly, a bit frustrating! Counting carbs,
watching sugar intake, getting too much of one thing and not enough of another
is always a gamble because unless you’re Oprah with a personal chef who can
prepare each meal for you based on the doctorate degree in nutrition they’ve
attained, it’s getting more and more difficult to get the right balance of
nutrients, minerals, protein, carbs, etc. in your diet.
When all else fails, common sense is really the
best route to take. One of the greatest tools to use when you’re trying to keep
it simple and stay accountable is using a
food diary. A food diary
can help you keep track of the foods you’re eating, vitamin and nutrient levels
along with calorie, carb and fat intake each day. This
helps keep you on track for the foods you should be putting into your body
every day. If you’re aware of each thing you put in your mouth and how it can
either help or hinder your goal(s), it keeps you in check for reaching that
goal more realistically.
Keeping a food diary isn’t difficult or
time-consuming, nor does it have to be a big, formal project! You can simply jot down what you are eating
and the estimated calorie content as you’re eating. And if you’re eating out,
write down what you ate when you get back to your desk or home. You can keep
track of your food intake on your planner, in a spiral notebook or on an Excel
spreadsheet if you wanna get fancy! As
long as you’re seeing what you’re eating and counting up the calories and
nutrients each day to make sure you’re where you need to be to either lose
weight or maintain your current weight, depending on your goals, that’s all
there is to it! It encourages you to
make sure you’re eating just one serving of a food, instead of two or three,
which happens much more often than you would think. It also helps guarantee you’re
staying within your daily allotted calorie intake.
Another nice thing about keeping a food diary is
that if you feel like having a ‘cheat’ meal, you can adjust the rest of your
day to accommodate for the extra fat, calorie or carb intake you’ll be having
during your
yum-fest. For
instance, some of us LOVE getting a good burrito, pizza or a slice of cake in our belly. Indulging in foods you dig that may not
necessarily be aligned to the health and weight loss goals you may have in
place is not a bad thing as long as it is in moderation. And if you’re feeling
like your snacking is getting a little out of hand, having a food diary can
help reduce your desire to pick up that bag of cheesy popcorn and substitute it
for a bowl of grapes.
Accountability is the key.
Keeping a food diary may not be something you
have to do long-term. Once you get used to keeping track of the food you eat
each day, it becomes automatic and you adjust your lifestyle to match your new ‘habit’.
You automatically check for the serving size and calories in a particular food
before you eat it, then add it up in the calculator in your head and by the end
of the day, BOOM, you’ve got your total calories and have made sure you’ve
gotten all the good stuff you need for the day automatically. It’s like your
Food Diary is in your head at all times. You’ve created a good habit!
If you have questions about how to best start
your food diary, let us know. We’ll be happy to pass on a sample diary!