For most of us our eating habits are not consistent and aren’t always that great. In fact, we don’t usually fully understand the quality of the foods we are putting in our body, how they affect us, and why we sometimes go on eating binges.
However, eating habits can soon change for the better if you keep a food journal. It can be an eye opening experience and can really help to improve your eating habits, quality of food and can help with weight loss and management.
Here are 6 reasons to keep a journal, even for only a couple days:
1. Learn how to control your calories.
The most important lesson is learning more about calories in foods eaten on a regular basis. For example, one tablespoon of olive oil has 110 calories, this could easily be added to your salad daily. And you may realise that on certain days or meals you’re eating far too few calories.
2. Understand your sources of calories.
Calories aren’t just about total calories, but about the breakdown of protein, carbohydrates, and fat, which are three nutrients that provide energy for your body. You’ll also keep track of alcohol consumed, which is another element that provides calories to your body, but is not a nutrient. You might realise you only have 10% of your calories from protein despite being an active individual. It is essential to get the right balance of all the food groups, and journaling will help you get it right.
3. Get a feel for portion control.
By learning more about calories, you also learn more about portion control and the types of foods you can eat in larger portions like lean meats, vegetables, and certain fruits, and the types of food you want to eat sparingly.
4. Identify situations where you binge.
Every once in a while you can find yourself eating really unhealthy food in large proportions. Why? Well, you don’t really know why until you start recognising the situations that set off an eating binge. There are a number of factors that could set off an eating binge, such as having a very small lunch, or light breakfast, which puts your hunger into overdrive later in the day. Sometimes eating can be more emotional. For example eating to celebrate, or when you are feeling down in the dumps. All these situations can be made aware of by tracking your food and emotions within a journal.
5. Provides a hard, objective record.
Our minds are good at tricking us into believing we haven’t eaten something, or that it wasn’t that unhealthy. When you have a written log, it takes the guesswork out of the equation. You will know exactly how you are eating and that objective feedback can help inspire change.
6. Identify if you have a calorie surplus, or deficit.
Not only does a food journal tell you the total calories you are eating, but you can also figure out how many more, or less calories you are eating relative to your calorie burn.
A lot of our habits are subconscious, so by making yourself conscious of how you eat by keeping a food journal, it makes changing your eating habits a whole lot easier. Visit www.goodhabitsuae.com.