Food Record: How to Keep One

This is for those who may have gotten off track since the start of the program or as a reminder how useful this tool is for maintaining weight loss. Research shows keeping a food journal is the #1 most useful tool at keeping it off long-term.

It can help to break undesirable food-related behaviors. Identifying where problems in the diet lie are best tracked with a diligent account. Choose a diary or notebook that you like, one that fits your bag, purse, or backpack, and get started!

 

Tips for keeping a food record

·  Write down what you eat, when you eat it or as soon as you are finished

·  Include all snacks, beverages, and “bites”—even if you just grab a cracker on the way to the bathroom, write it down

·  You may want to include your mood, what is going on in your day, or where you are at the time you are eating

·  Remember to document vitamins and medications

·  Write down the time of day

·  Review your journal weekly to see where you can make more progress

Benefits of keeping a food record

·  Habits become clear—you can see that you tend to become hungry at a certain time, make poor choices in certain places, or drink more coffee than you thought you actually did

·  You gain control and perspective on how well you are really doing with your meal planning

·  You can see progress as time goes on—new behaviors are objectively viewed when days are compared from past to present

·  It becomes clearer where you need to do more work, and patterns and necessary changes become evident in the presence of the collected data

For the eating disordered patient

·  Match your food record to your meal plan—if you have exchanges set up, it may help to compare them

·  Consider having a two-sided food record, one for planning and one for actual intake

·  Keep your food record separate from personal journals, in case your health care provider would like to look at it

Example of a food record

Your food record should look something like this:

Day of the Week/Date:
Time	Foods Eaten	Location	Mood
Example:
8 am	1 cup fiber cereal 6 fluid ounces 1% milk One banana Tea with milk	Home	Tired and rushing to work for meeting