Week #7 of the 21 Weeks to Intentional Health! If you love a good challenge and want to improve your health, join me and other like minded people! The next challenge is Food Journaling and Your Health.
This challenge is often overlooked, and for good reason. It takes time, reflection and can see like busy work. Keeping a food journal is also insightful and allows us to critique our own habits!
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Would you like to start at Challenge #1? The first of 21 challenges is the Health Starts in Your Gut Challenge.
Food Journaling and Your Health Challenge
- Importance of a food journal.
- How to keep a food journal.
- Challenge: Keep a food journal.
Importance of a Food Journal
Now, this is excitiing!
I remember keeping a food journal many years ago when I was trying to identify my daughters food allergies. It’s definitely a much overlooked practice when it comes to improving our health. I just love every one of the reasons for making the effort to keep a food journal.
5 reasons to keep a food journal.
Detecting Food Intolerances and Allergies. What a great tool at our fingertips in trying to do our own “detective” work. It’s amazing that we forget what we have consumed in one day. If this is your main reason for keeping a journal, I would recommend tracking ingredients as well.
Portion Control. This is an excellent way to manage our food portions. Our view of portions might be distorted due to eating out or even having family members that eat large portions. If you have a young teenager or athlete in your home, you know they will need more calories that you do. When we journal, we can see a direct relationship between the food we consume and our activity level for each day.
Weight Loss. You’ll be able to see the food and drink you consumed at the end of the day. You might be able to flag a few high calorie items. This is a fantastic way to see when we’re eating, what we’re eating, and why we’re eating. When trying to lose weight, you’ll be to track your drink consumption and if you’re eating enough food high in fiber.
Better Nutrition. On our journey to improve our health, we can see if we’re feeding our bodies nutrient dense food and drink. This is huge! Do you eat more fresh vegetables than pre-packaged food? We can track ourselves if we’re including a variety of nutrients, making our diet well balanced. The journal will track our sugar & protein consumption as well.
Aids in Identifying Triggers. We can identify why we eat certain unhealthy or healthy food. Do we eat more or less depending on what family or friends are in our company? Are certain moods or times of day triggers for eating specific foods?
How to Keep a Food Journal
Options: Download a FREE FOOD JOURNAL at the end of this post. Or you can grab a notebook and pencil.
Daily Record:
- Food consumed & quantities (1 c. of lettuce. 4 oz. of chicken)
- Drinks; including water
- Type of exercise
- Oil consumption
- Major events that day (presentations, family gatherings, etc.)
- Note your Mood (stressed out, happy, sullen, energetic)
Key to Successful Food Journaling: Keep it with you all day long. Record any food and drinks right after consuming. Please do not wait until the end of the day. If you’re like me, you’re likely to forget a cup of tea or snack item.
Amazon’s Choice: Daily Food Journal (with removable cover band)
Gratitude Journal Plus Food Journal: Food Journal & Fitness Diary with Daily Gratitude and Meal Planner for Healthy Living and Weight Loss Diet
Food Journaling for Your Health
I truly hope you enjoy this process. You’ll get into the groove the more consistently you journal. If you forget an entire day, no big deal, start the next day.
A Food Journal will keep you focused on a nutritious diet. It provides motivation and accountability.
Are you a goal setter? A food journal will help you reach your health goals and be successful!
Challenge:
Accept the challenge to keep a Food Journal for at least 2 weeks. Ideally, journaling for three months will aid in keeping track of your goals.
Share your challenge one of 4 ways; by commenting below, commenting on my Facebook page, Instagram page or email me your acceptance. Use #accept21weekhealthchallenge on your social media comments.
Together we’ll be on our way to tracking our food/drink/exercise in a Food Journal!
[…] Once we learn WHY our body needs a variety vegetables it encourages us to make efforts each and every day to eat healthier. Keep track of your progress with a FREE printable food journal. […]