Keeping a Food Diary

So in the past few posts, I have gone on and on and on about the importance of keeping a food diary.  Keeping a food diary was imperative to my weight loss.  The key with keeping a food diary is to keep it simple, but use enough detail that it becomes useful.

It took me a while to find a system that worked for me.  A sample day of my food diary looks something like this:

3:45pm: woke up, weigh-in: ___lbs, 8 oz water
4pm: five strawberries, 1 apple, 1 hard-boiled egg, iced coffee
4:36pm: 24 oz water
5:30pm: 3 chicken tenders, honey mustard, 1c steamed broccoli
7:30pm: salad w/ greens, 1/2 can tuna, diced onion, banana pepper rings, 2 Tbsp vidalia onion dressing, 24 oz water
9:30pm: 24oz green smoothie w/ spinach, strawberries, blueberries, 1/2c greek yogurt
10pm: 24oz water
12am: 24oz water
2am: 1 1/2 c 3-bean salad, salad w/ greens, onions, cucumbers, pepproncinis, parmesan cheese, & 2 Tbsp caesar dressing, 1 oz bag of doritos, 2 oreos, 12 oz diet coke
3am: 24 oz water
5am: 24 oz water
7am: pedometer check: 12,743 steps
730am: 2 slices toast w/ nutella & blueberries, grapes, 10 oz earl grey tea

This is just a sample.  I don't eat like this every day. Some days I eat more at meals and less in-between, other days I eat smaller portions every 3 hours on the dot nearly.  I found that what worked well for me because my days and nights are backwards was to label with the date when I woke up, and to use what time I ate, rather than to label everything as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  Whatever works for you is what you should do!

Do you see what I meant by using enough detail to make a food diary useful, but not to get crazy?  I like to measure out things that are calorie-dense, such as condiments and junk foods.  If I'm going to eat chips, I like to get a pre-portioned bag or buy a big bag but separate them myself into 1-oz portions.  The tumbler I drink out of most often is 24 ounces, so everything I put in it I know is 24 ounces.  I tend not to measure out things like salad greens, how much diced onion I use, things that are better options. In the beginning, you may want to measure it out so that you know what 2 cups of salad mix looks like, but I don't personally stress over it.  When I make a salad, it's usually at least 2 servings of vegetables, and I can eyeball it pretty well by now.

One last thing you may want to write down: your exercise.  When I work (this was a sample from a night I worked), I consider working my exercise because I have a very active job.  As you can see, at 7am, I checked my pedometer and wrote down the steps.  After I leave work, by the time I get home, I've probably only gotten in another 100 steps or so, which is why I check it after work.  I don't stress over that extra 100 steps.  However, if I do an actual workout, I like to write it down before I do it, so I don't get started and not know what to do next.  When I have it written down, it's kind of like having my own personal trainer telling me what to do.

I hope this helps!  I cannot stress enough that keeping a food diary was what really kick-started my weight loss after a 3-month plateau.  I wish I had started it back in August!  Even if you're not trying to lose weight, it still is a good idea to keep yourself in check.  As Bethenny Frankel said (she wrote an entire book about weight loss, called Naturally Thin, which I highly recommend), your diet is a bank account.  If you splurge on a heavy meal out, you need to cut back somewhere else.  Just as if you would splurge on a $300 pair of pumps, you should try to save other places.

Do you keep a food diary? Are you going to start? Let me know down below!

xoxo,

Rachel