Many of us have probably not thought of having a diary since we were in fourth grade and writing secretively about our lives. But keeping a food diary or journal can be an important step in understanding your eating habits and what triggers excessive eating. The food diary is a way to have a tangible record that will show areas that need improvement.
A typical food diary has an entry for every time something is eaten. It may include the following:
■ time of day
■ time spent eating
■ place where eating took place
■ any other activities done while eating
■ your mood at the time of eating
■ the food and the amount eaten
■ the level of hunger at the time
A food diary also may include an estimate of the number of calories or other nutritional information on the food eaten. Food diaries serve two purposes. One is to shed light on what kinds of foods are being eaten, how much and the nutritional value of the food. And the other purpose is to help the eater understand more about his or her eating habits and the things that trigger eating in order to develop a strategy for changing those habits and avoiding the triggers.
Try keeping a food diary for a couple of weeks before making any changes in your diet, to get a realistic picture of your current eating habits. Recognizing eating triggers is an important first step in getting control of them. For instance, if a diary shows eating is triggered by boredom rather than hunger, it’s a signal to develop other ways of relieving boredom. If extreme hunger is the trigger, smaller, more frequent meals and light, high-fiber snacks might be the answer.
There are several online resources you can use as well, with added benefits of record keeping such as calorie counting and nutrient calculations. The new MyPyramid has been recently updated. Click here for the MyPyramid Plan. Get a quick estimate of what and how much you need to eat. Enter your age, gender, height, weight and level of physical activity to get a personal eating plan. Then click on the MyPyramid Tracker for an in-depth assessment of your diet quality and physical activity status, related nutrition messages and links to nutrient information. After providing a day’s worth of dietary information, you will receive an overall evaluation by comparing the amounts of food you ate to current nutritional guidance. To give you a better understanding of your diet over time, you can track what you eat up to a year. Though not a complete diary as such, it is a useful tool. Several other commercial sites are available on the Web that can be used for diet analysis and tracking. Many people simply design their own food diary in a notebook to meet their individual needs. Whatever form you choose, remember that those who keep one going regularly are the most successful in changing their lifestyle. It is worth the time and effort.
The only useful diary is an honest one. Portion sizes need to be measured. Having to write a food down can be a deterrent to eating it. In Smart Portions Healthy Weight Program classes offered by extension agents in the parishes, personal diaries are not discussed, though they are strongly encouraged.
The diaries from our youth had a lock on the side and a small key to open it. Life was serious in the fourth grade, and it was important to keep secrets personal, No one wanted the humiliation of any of the information coming out. The current food diary will not necessarily need protection because you are probably the only one who will want to read it. It’s just not as interesting as diaries from the youth. However, the information is very important in helping you make healthy lifestyle changes.