Logging Food - A Primer

People who log their food in some way, shape or form are more likely to be successful with their eating than those who don’t. This has been proven over and over through the years and it completely makes sense if you really think about it. Just the thought of having to write down that I ate a cookie is enough to make me only eat one instead of three or four! Fairly often, I have clients log their food so we can get an idea of whether they are eating too much or too little for their goals. It really helps when they have done a resting metabolic assessment so I don't have to guess!

There are a few ways to do log your food, and it can be as simple or as detailed as you like. The important thing is that you have a method that works for you. Here are a few ideas:

• Use a fitness tracker app like My Fitness Pal or Lose It.
• Write down what you eat in a notebook every day.
• Use a habit tracker app on your phone. You might not be tracking what you eat specifically, but maybe you’re tracking whether or not you got a certain number of servings of vegetables each day. 
• Hang a calendar on the wall and track daily habits on it. Don’t use your calendar for anything other than habit tracking.
• You can make a spreadsheet to track your habits. You can print it out and use it analog, or you can keep it on the computer and be fully digital.
• Take photos of the food you eat. You can keep them for personal accountability, but it’s usually helpful to have someone holding you accountable. This can be as big as putting it out on social media or as private as sharing with a friend.  Enter yet, hire a nutrition coach to help keep you on track.

Now let’s talk about how to actually make those methods work, because it’s one thing for me to just site here and tell you to do those things, and another thing to actually put them into practice. You can choose from these options, or if you think of something that might work even better for you, go ahead and use it.

• pre-plan and pre-log what you’ll have. This works really well if you have to eat out. It will help you stick to your plan, because you don’t want to have to re-log everything. 
• You can log food immediately after a meal. If we’ve already implemented mindful eating and have a good practice, taking an extra minute or two to record food intake should be no problem.
• Take your food journal with you everywhere. You can get a small memo notebook just about anywhere. If your journal is bigger, you can keep it in a bag or backpack. This is also where apps for your phone come in handy.

Try not to think of logging your food as a chore, but instead as a powerful tool that will help you stay committed and consistent!

Bonus: you can also log your exercise. People who log their exercise also increase their chances of success. When you record exercise, you can be as general or specific as you’d like. It could be “30 min cardio, 30 min weights,” or “2 sets of 15 goblet squats w/ a 25# dumbbell, 2 sets of 15 push-ups and 2 sets of 15 inverted rows.” You decide how detailed you’d like to make it.

Hope this helps. Happy logging! ;-)