How to Keep a Food Diary

Keeping a food diary is an excellent first step in assessing how you eat now and why you eat the way you do. It will help you target your current problems and look into the root of them. In the end, it will also help you to design the eating plan that is best for you. So here is my "How to" keep a food diary. Enjoy!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Journal
• Pen
• Stick-to-it-ness!

1. Focus on the Fat and Calorie Numbers:
   Columns 1 and 2 should be fat and calories.
   Keep a nutrient guide book handy or use a food database online. Don't have a book you can take with you? Draw a chart in the front of your food diary notebook with the foods you eat most often and then refer to it each time you record those foods. Then at the end of the day, add up your totals. Your goal when first starting your food diary is to focus on what your doing NOW. You can focus on what you need to change later. Eat how and when you normally eat for the first week or two.
2. Focus on Portions:
   Column 3 should be portion size
   So your eating healthy and low fat and still can't figure out where the pounds are coming from? It might just be your portions! In addition to keeping track of fat and calories make a column for portion size. You may be surprised at just how much you eat!
3. Focus on Feelings
   Column 4 should focus on what you were feeling when you ate
   Why we eat is almost as important as when and what we eat. Are you sad? Bored? Are you eating because of stress? Figuring out what can trigger a binge is the first step to avoiding that binge! Writing down even a few descriptive words each time you eat can make all the difference in the world.

Tips & Warnings

• Maintain a food diary for 1-2 weeks before attempting to change your food habits.
• If you can't write down how you feel when you eat, write down what you are doing instead.
• After you have eaten, write down why you ate (hunger, boredom, etc.) and how you feel afterwards (guilty, deserving, etc.).
• Don't cheat yourself by not writing down everything including what you drink and snack food you may pick up without even thinking about it.