Food Diary

Instructions

As with most food diaries there are columns for what you eat, drink and otherwise consume during your day. But unlike all the other diaries and apps I have seen mine has a column for how you feel about it.

Follow these instructions and you will begin to get a decent picture of what foods are your best buddy and which are somewhat less than friendly to you. And because you are an individual the likelihood is that your ‘right’ is different from other people’s.

Firstly, the diary itself is a simple chart. It is far from the only way to do it. If you would rather jot things down in a notebook or in a document on your favourite device then by all means do so. I won’t be upset if you don’t use my hand crafted sheets. You can download the image and print it out or you can make your own. There is a small psychological benefit to writing with pen and paper over typing it in but not enough to worry about right now.

The most important thing is that you can see things clearly when you look back over your records and that you have got the information you need.

Time

The time may be important, but then again it may not be. There are lots of ideas out there that suggest the time you eat things is vital. Concepts such as not eating after 7pm or having something to eat in the ‘window’ after exercise. There is valid research to support some of these time related things but it really isn’t as important for the majority of people as it’s made out to be.

Jot it down anyway in case it proves useful later but don’t get hung up about it. If you’re trying to remember exactly when in your morning you had biscuits with your coffee just don’t stress about it - pick a time that might be somewhere near right and that’ll do.

Amount

The quantity has a space but it isn’t as important as many coaches suggest. Your body is likely to process foods a bit different to the next person so the calories you get from the main food groups may well vary a lot.

Food packaging can also be a lot less accurate than you’d think. So pop in an amount but it can be a rough amount.

Be truthful (if you’ve had 10 squares of chocolate don’t list it as 2) but don’t be too stuck on measurements. A quantity of nuts equivalent to the size of your thumb or a piece of steak the size of your palm is as good a way to record it as the exact gram amount. Whatever is easy for you just go with that and aim for consistency of how you record things.

Food / Drink

This one is simply to state what the food or drink is. Don’t miss anything out here. If someone gave you a boiled sweet then jot it down.

Feelings

This one is the biggie. The most important information on your food diary is the feelings column. This is the one that’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t work for you.

Record the feelings you have before eating or drinking, during consuming and afterwards (it could be straight after or it could be a few hours later).

The feelings can be physical (ie hungry, bloated, energised), mental (focussed, lethargic, smarter, dumber) or emotional (grumpy, guilty, happy, calm).

Pay attention to medical conditions as well and record any differences relating to these. For instance if you have arthritis in your fingers then does a flare up occur soon after eating certain things or if you have IBS does that get better or worse. While we’re not treating disease you may find foods that help or foods that make things worse so you know to include or exclude them as well.

Over time you’ll start to notice trends. Some trends may be obvious right from the outset. Once you know what works for you you’ll become far more healthy.

Chances are that you’ll be able to use this diary to get to grips with your best diet all by yourself. If you need help then you can talk to your coach or trainer if you have one. If you don’t have one then by all means talk to me for help.