USING A FOOD JOURNAL: Why It's Fantastic but Why I Don't Use One

I highly recommend using a food/mood journal when aiming to make healthy dietary changes, especially if you are new to nutrition and want to establish a new health regimen. ​
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Why use a food/mood journal:

• ​It helps you understand your diet right now.  You can see how you have been eating and how it has had an impact on your present health.
• It helps keep you accountable.  Change is difficult & keeping a journal helps facilitate change.  You gain self awareness, plus greater awareness of your food choices and your health. Every bite you take gets you closer to health or disease.  
• You can track your moods.  Your feelings can influence what you eat.  What you eat can also make you happy or miserable. 
• You can detect trends in your diet.  For example, keeping a food journal is a great way to note added sugars creeping into your diet.
• You can detect patterns in your diet.  For example, you may recognize that you eat differently at certain times of the month, during times of stress, or when you are lacking sleep.
• Your improvements are documented.  You should feel proud of taking control of your health.  Looking back helps give you perspective.​ 

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​I highly recommend using a FITBIT Tracker.  It has a wonderful website and app to help track your food intake - basically an online food journal. You sync it to your phone. It also tracks your daily activity, heart rate, and even your sleep patterns.

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​One large caveat about making dietary changes and keeping a food journal: The changes you make are only as good as the information you possess about what is truly healthy.

As far as food goes, no single diet plan is right for everyone. But, everyone should eat nourishing whole foods. I encourage you to download my short e-book, Make a Fresh Start with Whole Foods, to get on the right track with good, reliable nutrition information. It's FREE!​

Download it here. FREE!

​PRINT this Food Journal Page:

PRINT: Journal page

​Why I don't use a Journal: I Eat Intuitively!

I have continuously  tinkered with my diet since I was a teenager. Keeping a food journal truly worked to help implement real changes. (I used a fitbit diet tracker for many years.) It was mostly done to manage my weight. Now, my food choices are about striving for optimal health. At present, I feel in a good place and that I can control my choices without a journal. Because I used a journal, I developed healthy habits and routines. Now, I'm able to eat intuitively. That is the end-goal in using a journal.  

​In fact, for someone like me who has a long history of diet-deprivation (either too low-calorie, low-fat, or low-carb) it's better if I make my food choices by my hunger cues and activity level versus by the numbers.  As someone who tends to go overboard counting, I actually make healthier choices when I don't use a journal. It took lots of time and trial & error to get to this point, however.  

Here's my story:
For 10 years (up to 2010) I kept a food journal to track my Weight Watchers points, which only took into account fat, calories, and fiber.  I had it down to a science and thought that because I was thin, I was healthy.  I had a self-imposed  limit of 23 points per day. I was not aware of what the macro or micro-nutrients were, but I thought that eating fat would make me fat.  My diet was composed of chemical-laden, low-fat, low-calorie, higher-carbohydrate junk food.  I did not monitor the amount of protein I consumed, nor my stress, moods, or sleep.   I was slim, but not healthy, and my health suffered; my hormones specifically.  My cholesterol levels were also extremely low.  I was hungry all the time, experienced bad acne, had levels of low energy, and my brain was not functioning well.    My diet was certainly a huge and unnecessary stress in my life.

After that, I heard about the satiety aspect of the low-carbohydrate, moderate-protein, higher-fat way of eating, so I changed my diet and radically changed its macronutrient ratios.  I kept a food diary to count the net grams of carbohydrates I ate (g carbohydrate minus g fiber).  I aimed to eat as few net carbs as possible. However, I was still eating junk food that was very low in nutrients.  My weight plummeted and my menstruation stopped.  I tracked every morsel, even down to counting the individual almonds I ate.  In retrospect, I went ridiculously overboard.  It was an extreme stress to my body, also.  

Thanks to information from nutrition websites like my own (and then earning a master's degree in Health and Nutrition), I slowly came to understand the value of eating a nutrient rich, whole food diet. Now, I value my health and my body composition MORE than the # on my scale or the #'s on paper.  

Eventually, I stopped using a food journal and trying to “eat-by-the-numbers” and I focused on nourishing my body.  Most whole foods do not come with labels with nutrition facts anyway.  This is when my passion for learning about health and nutrition began.    

Learning lessons from and recovering from my past dietary mistakes plays a big factor in my current dietary choices.  (This meant changing my values and finding good health information.)

Now, I eat what I call my Mediterranean-Paleo diet, which is a source of joy and nourishment.  Deprivation and hunger are no longer part of my lifestyle.  I don't count anything.  I listen to my biofeedback and eat according to my hunger, energy needs, and instincts. I also try to eat in accord with my Greek heritage.  The clock does not dictate when or how often I eat, and I simply eat until I feel full.  I do not believe all calories are created equal in their impact on my health, and I aim for a nutrient dense diet. I no longer feel that food is my enemy when it comes to my weight, but instead think of it as nourishment.  I eat to support my athletic lifestyle; I want to continue to build muscle and remain strong.  

Finally, after decades of basing my diet on BAD health information and caring too much about my looks, I feel enlightened about food choices and my health. Without using a journal, my weight is normal and stable, and I am very muscular, but with nice feminine curves, which I believe is evidence that my hormones are improving.  My lab panel tests are stellar and I feel fantastic, full of energy, have a sharp mind, feel strong, and wonderfully healthy.  My cholesterol is higher, and my heart scan showed zero plaque and the heart of a 30 year old (at age 41). This is all proof to me that I have finally found the diet that is healthy for my body at this stage in my life. 

I certainly may use a journal again in the future: Our bodies' needs change as we age and as we alter our activity levels.  I'm sure I will continue to tinker with my diet as I continue to learn more and more information about nutrition and recognize what feels right for me.  I always think I'm pretty wise, but as time goes by, I realize how much more I have to learn.  --Jenny

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