Meet Your Health Goals with Food Journaling
Did you know that people who keep a food journal lose twice as likely to meet their health goals as those who don’t? They are also more successful at maintaining their goals long-term. Daily self monitoring of food and beverage intake is an important piece of successfully changing and maintaining healthy habits. I ask my clients to keep track of their intake mainly to build awareness of what they are eating day to day and how those foods make them feel. I don’t want anyone to worry about their daily calorie intake. I believe in choosing whole foods and listening to your body’s hunger and satiety cues, but a food journal is a great tool for those that are at the beginning of their healthy eating journey. Clients are often surprised by what they notice in their food journals. They use that knowledge to make different and better choices at meal times.
Keeping a food and exercise journal is one way that I maintain my own personal health and fitness goals. We all know how easy it is to get off track. It is important to take a look at how you are doing and assess your progress at least once per week to keep you on the right track. Entering a food log every week or so gives me a snapshot of my nutrient intake and helps me determine what new goals I may need to work on. I use an electronic food log to calculate my overall nutrient intake and see where I might be lacking certain nutrients.
Think you don’t have time to write everything down? There are many great apps available for your smartphone that make keeping a log easy. I use myfitnesspal for my own food logs and often monitor clients intake through this same app. Are you too busy to enter all foods and drinks as you consume them? Use your phone to snap pictures of your meals and drinks. At the end of the day it should take you only take a few minutes to enter everything.
As a personal dietitian, I offer weekly food journal monitoring to my clients. After your initial face to face nutrition assessment, I can monitor your journal and give you weekly feedback via e-mail or telephone on modifications you can make to meet your health or weight loss goals. Contact me to get started as soon as possible. $9 per week