Even if you aren’t on a “diet” you should keep a food and fitness journal. There are many good reasons to do this. Think of it as a health journal. You can use it to record your heart rate, how many calories you have taken in, and even your mood before and after your meal.
There are numerous things you can do with a diet journal. It’s a great place to learn what works for your health, what doesn’t keep you filled up, or what might make you not feel so well when you eat it. To get more to the point, here are some reasons to keep track of what you eat.
Tracking Calories
One of the biggest reasons that people keep food and diet journals is to keep track of their calorie intake. You may also want to keep track of the calories you are burning when you exercise, if you are trying to lose weight, or maybe even gain some.
Tracking calories and even tracking carbohydrates, if you have diabetes, can be a great way to keep track of your consumption. It’s just healthy.
Watching How Much You Drink
Don’t just track the calories in the food you eat, but also the drinks you are drinking. While your water is calorie free, everything else has calories. You may also find out that you have a slight drinking problem, and maybe you wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t kept track.
It can also help you make sure you are getting the right amount of water each day. That starts at eight eight-ounce glasses each day, and can be more depending on your size and how much physical activity you get.
Seeing Reactions To Foods
If you are one of the many that eats when you are depressed or anxious, it can be helpful to track what you eat each day, and to record how it makes you feel, including how you felt when you decided to eat it. Maybe you were stressed over a fight with your significant other, so you ate a whole box of brownies, and now you have an upset stomach. When you look back at this it may be the motivation you need to stop binge eating.
Food journals are also a great way to detect food allergies and intolerances. Track what you are eating, and if something gives you are rash or diarrhea, write it down. Then when you notice certain things always upset your stomach you can cut them out.
Being More Aware
Not only will you keep track of your health with your journal, but you will also learn to be more aware of what you are eating and how it makes you feel.
Originally posted on December 28, 2015 @ 9:12 pm