How To Start Keeping A Food Journal
If you’re someone who struggles with eating or gut issues, you may benefit from keeping a food journal. Food journaling is a good practice that can help shed light on your food habits -- both good and bad. But sometimes it’s overwhelming to get started taking on such a large task, so we put together a few best practices to get you started.
When you first get started, you shouldn’t plan to change any habits. Just start writing down what you already do.
What To Track In A Food Journal
- What you eat
- When you eat
- How much you eat (measurements or calories)
- Where you eat
- What are you doing while you eat
- Who are you eating with
- How are you feeling while you eat
- How you feel after eating
- How long you ate for
- What supplements you are taking
Best Practices
- Take notes while you’re eating. It’s hard to remember everything at the end of the day!
- Be honest. If you ate 5 cookies, write it down! Include how you felt before and after.
- Be consistent. It’s hard to identify patterns when you’re not doing something everyday.
- Work with an expert if you can. Although it’s not always possible, try and find a Registered Dietitian or Nutritionist to help you on your journey.
- After one month of taking notes, reflect and make changes.
What Habits To Look For
- Are you only eating when you’re hungry or are you eating mindlessly?
- Does the person you’re eating have an impact on how you eat?
- Is there a type of food that makes you feel particularly bloated?
- Are you actually tasting your food or are you eating too fast?
- Are you feeling satisfied after you eat?
- Are you eating too much or too little?
- Do you find yourself binging at night?
- Have you started ordering food multiple nights a week?
- Are your meals healthy but your snacks not?
Remember that food journaling isn’t forever! It’s a temporary practice to help identify unhealthy eating habits. Once those are identified, you can start making changes and feeling like your best self!
Gut Garden’s GoodGut Program could be a good addition to your food tracking. Our program is based on the functional medicine approach to gut health and it is designed to rebuild and restore gut health long term. We offer a roadmap to relieving digestive symptoms and strengthening the gut against future invaders.
If you’re looking for a food journal to get you started, visit A Gutsy Girl’s website. Sarah created a comprehensive food journal to help those of you who struggle with eating and gut issues so you can heal too!
