I Kept a Food Diary for Two Weeks and Here’s What Happened
If you were to go to a nutritionist today, she would probably tell you to keep track of everything you put in your mouth, so she can assess your diet for recommendations. It’s called a food diary (or journal, if you grew up being made fun of for keeping a diary). The beautiful thing is that you can do a diet evaluation with a food diary yourself, no nutritionist required!
There are all sorts of food diary apps out there, or you can do it the old-fashioned way, with pen and notebook, which I recommend, because it’s the easiest way to scribble extra notes. The point of a food diary is to see what kinds of settings (kitchen, living room or restaurant) and moods (happy, sad or stressed) trigger your eating habits, assess your nutrient and caloric intake, help you prep food and keep yourself accountable.
I have never kept a food diary in real life, only for school projects, so I thought I would give it a shot. I’m already in tune with my eating habits, so I kept my guidelines loose. I required myself to write down what I ate, and I only made note of places that I ate and how I felt after I ate if I found it was relevant. However, if you have never assessed your dietary habits before, go all out for every meal, including time, location, type of food, mood, and who was present at the meal.
Day 1: Total bias.
In my mind, I was completely aware that I was keeping a food diary, so I was motivated to eat right. I stopped eating as soon as I felt full and even shared a meal with my boyfriend.
Day 2: The force is strong with this food diary.
At 2 a.m., I ate toast and jelly, so I had to add it to my diary. I told myself that it was a good time to stop eating, because I was tired of writing down every extra bite.
Day 5: I eat a ton of food.
Seeing all of the foods written down was like dang. I made a note that two pieces of toast (so much toast during finals week) was too much. Next time, I would keep it to one piece.
Day 6: So. Over. It.
I dreaded writing down everything I ate. I hated knowing that the sugary cup of coffee was going to be on my permanent record. But, I did start seeing some patterns in my eating habits.
Day 8: Free Bird! Well, sort of.
I didn’t keep the diary, because it was a vacation day. However, I was extra thoughtful. On a previous day, I ate way too much chocolate, and I knew I would regret it if I did it again, even on vacation. I felt so bad when I did it before, that I didn’t want to experience those feelings again. The extra step of writing down my feelings made me more inclined to prevent the issue from happening again.
Day 9: #NoRegrets
I completely screwed up my diet, guilt free. Bye, food diary!
Day 11: Back at it again with the food diary.
I kept writing down “That’s enough candy,” yet I think my obsession with the food diary actually made me think about the candy more, so I ate it even more.
Day 12: Score for the food diary.
I found a few triggers in my bad choices: Mindless eating at my mom’s house (it’s a junk food trap, so have sympathy), being in the kitchen all the time, and starting my day with bad choices all led me down the wrong path.
Day 13: Score 2 for the food diary.
After a morning of eating half a bag of chocolates, I would normally continue with an entire day of eating junk because of the guilt of eating junk. (Oh, the joys of emotional eating.) This time, though, I told myself to let it go, and I re-balanced my diet for the better. I ate cooked tons of veggies for dinner. I felt amazing.
Day 14: Burnt out.
Keeping a food diary was super useful; however, it can make being healthy feel like a job, and I’m not about making nutrition a chore.
I recommend everyone try a food diary, because, hey, it could be your breakthrough to good health, but only keep it 2 weeks maximum. Most people can get a feel for their triggers in a week. The key is to make sure that you keep track of your food diary through times of high stress and relaxation. Luckily for me, I endured final exams week, went on a mini-road trip, and had a somewhat normal week while I kept track, so I hit multiple variations of my eating habits. After the food diary, keeping note of what you learned, stay on track making mental notes, and your choices will turn into habits over time.
The bottom line for me is finding consistency: Eat the nutritious foods I know I enjoy if I will take the time to make them before I reach for the junk food. Being a future nutritionist, the food diary made me come face to face with problems I knew I had, which sounds counterintuitive, but it’s an important step in being accountable and consistent in your eating habits.