Day 2: Keep a diet diary for a week
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Today’s task in the 31 Days to a Better Diet is all about being aware of what you’re eating. If you’re following this group of posts, look out for the picture on the left.
Today’s task
Before changing your diet, it’s really important to know what you’re eating now.
So today’s task in the 31 Days to a Better Diet is to keep a diet diary for a week.
Why a diet diary?
As a nutritionist I use diet diaries all the time in practice. They’re a fundamental tool, enabling me to find out exactly what clients are eating and when.
However, it’s not just me that learns and benefits from the diary. Clients also gain insight, a better understanding of what they eat.
Seems like an obvious thing, to know what you’re eating. We all consume food each day and we all probably have an idea of what we eat. But if you look back over yesterday or the day before, can you actually remember everything you ate?
In a busy life, it’s easy to lose track. A handful of nuts at the pub; a biscuit while contemplating the email you’ve just received; a packet of lollies while running for the train; dinner in front of the TV. So often we eat without thinking about it. Almost absentmindedly.
The simple act of writing down every single bit of food that goes in your mouth creates an awareness. It highlights your patterns, the gaps between meals, your danger times of the day.
Today’s task: keep a diet diary for a week
So for the next week I want you to keep a diet diary.
Write down everything you eat, along with the time of the meal or snack.
Include soft drinks, coffee and alcohol, but don’t worry about water.
There are two fundamental rules to keeping a diet diary:
- Be truthful with yourself – write down every single piece of food that goes into your mouth. Don’t judge, just found out what you’re eating
- Try not to change your diet just because you’re doing a diary
At the end of the week ask yourself five questions:
- What are your patterns?
- Were you surprised by the diary?
- Do you eat what you think you eat?
- When are you most likely to over-eat
- When are you most hungry?
Are you going to keep a diet diary? Do you think you’ll be surprised by what you eat?
Notebook photograph by Goodonpaper.
Woman & lettuce photograph by Vika Valter.
02 August, 2008
Comments
I already do this – not all the time but certainly when I’m trying to lose weight.
I’ve never been surprised by it but the sheer fact of tracking what I eat can help me to choose to eat less or eat better.
I was going to say something similar. If i know i have to write it down, chances are I’ll think about it a little harder.
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Hi Kathryn,
Great opener to the series. I usually log my diet even though I don’t need to anymore, simply because I want to do what I advise others to do; so I know how it feels to do it and fit into life.
Logging behavior you want to change is a great tool for awareness.
A piece of paper and a little pencil in the pocket or a little notebook in the bag for the ladies is great if you’re out of the house a lot.
~Mike
This could be an interesting week for me to do this. Not only am I on holiday, we have a friend staying with us for the week. My diet AND lifestyle is usually appalling at these times (lots of eating out and too much alcohol).
Knowing that I’m keeping a diary is going to affect my choices, I suspect. In fact, it already has! I just resisted nibbling on a piece of D’s tablet.
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I’ve used The Daily Plate off and on for a few months to track my eating. My biggest challenge is not changing what I eaet just because I’m keeping a diary. I’m traveling this week, so maybe keeping a paper diary instead (and not seeing the calories pile up) will be a more accurate representation of what I REALLY eat. Also – I often conveniently forget to record what I eat on the weekends.
A diet diary does make you think about what you’re eating. Mike you’re right, it’s one of the best tools for awareness – makes you think about every mouthful.
I don’t keep a diary all the time but it’s something I’ve learnt to do intermittently, since the first days of my training. I’ve even tracked my food online in the what I eat series.
Zarah, for this exercise I’d recommend keeping your diary on paper. Carry a notebook, or a sheet of paper around with you and write down everything you eat, when you eat it. This should make sure you track the full seven days and also gives a more accurate picture. The Daily Plate is really useful, but it’s the second stage. Work out what you’re eating first and then do the analysis.
My blog entry on day two is the link for the website.
I used to use sites like Sparkpeople but would get discouraged because when I am cooking, a lot of what I am doing is estimates, and it can be very time consuming to enter each and every ingredient.
I keep a journal where I write down what I eat (yes, every bite) and I have been trying to modify my behaviour in small steps. I realise that I overeat in the evenings, which is partly because I hate snacking in the afternoon and also for emotional reasons (I am emigrating soon, slight stress factor there)
The great thing about journaling is that I have a very accurate picture of what I am putting in my mouth and I can see some success from previous behaviour modifications. My sugar intake is a lot less, my fibre intake has increased. Now I just need to work on those portions!
OK I am in – this is something I’ve been planning to do again for a while, so guess it’s time to get on with it!
Hi Kathryn,
Yesterday I decided to (loosely) follow the 12 week Action Plan from the ‘Low GI Diet’ and the first step is keeping a food diary for a week… so I’ve inadvertantly joined in with the ‘31 Days…’ challenge too!
The last month I created my own challenge, ‘Low GI in July’ and made some radical changes to my lifestyle. Reading your post today has made me think about some changes that I wasn’t actually aware that I had made – like the fact that we cooked 95% of our meals (including taking in lunch items to work) for the whole month of July. What a turnaround from a household where we were short of time and big on takeaway…
So consider me in on the challenge please!
(I shall update my blog in the coming days with a link to your posts… there may be a few more folk joining in!)
Thanks again, and love your website! Such a valuable resource.
Rozanne, Gwyneth & Jenaveve – lovely to see you all fired up, enthusiastic and ready to take part. Look forward to reading about your progress.
Sorry, I got really behind on the challenge. However, I’ve kept a food diary religiously for about 10 months now, so it looks like day 2 is easy enough :) On to day 3!
Remember to write down everything in your diet notebook. Even the small bites and “tastes”. These can add up quickly. When you make a rule to write down everything you tend not to eat things that are vague…things like “bites” and “tastes”. You pass them up rather than spend the time trying to figure out the calories.
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