Are you someone that often questions why you feel the way you do? When you reflect on your day, do you ever wonder what triggered your discomfort at times? Many of us wonder about our bodily reactions, but how many of us actually act on them? When our bodies react poorly to foods that we consume, we rarely ever take the time to figure out just what is causing our discomfort. Rather than just being curious about these reactions, it’s time for you to discover the root of the issue and work towards a solution. Fortunately, there is an extremely organized and easy-to-use tool at your disposal: a food journal. What is a Food Journal? A food journal is an organized record of what you eat, including the amount consumed, the time consumed, and any following symptoms. Aside from revealing possible food sensitivities, it is also an effective and insightful tool for tracking how diet and eating habits affect your overall health. It is difficult to know what changes to make in our diets if we are not actively aware of what we consume. A food journal allows us to reflect on the nutritional factors influencing our everyday lives and recognize patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed. Before we delve into how keeping track of your meals can help you on your wellness journey, let’s discuss some possible symptoms that might encourage you to begin keeping a food journal. What is Food Sensitivity? Food sensitivity is an adverse reaction to a food or drink that does not involve the immune system. It's also referred to as food intolerance. The most common symptoms are bloating, abdominal discomfort, cramping, diarrhea, and constipation. Other reactions may include headaches, anxiety, depression, skin rashes, or hives. As these reactions often occur hours after consuming the food in question, it can be challenging to establish which foods are causing these reactions without proper tracking. How to Keep a Food Journal Keeping track of everything you eat, how much of it you eat and when you eat it can sound extremely overwhelming. With the right system, keeping a food journal can be simple and manageable. I would suggest creating a note in your notes app or a document on your phone/laptop to make tracking convenient wherever you are. By storing your data electronically, you can easily maintain the same format for your daily logs which will make patterns throughout your entries more apparent. With each snack or meal throughout the day, you should track what time the meal was consumed and the amount that you consumed in terms that you understand. To make tracking patterns easier, enter the different parts of your meal separately. For example, if you eat salmon with jasmine rice and green beans for dinner, enter each of these items separately. Another good practice is to note how you feel after each meal to identify patterns more quickly and easily. If uncomfortable symptoms arise, take note of the level at which you experience the discomfort by expanding on the location or type you are experiencing. At the end of the day, your food journal should chronologically represent what you ate and how you felt throughout the day, flipping between notes on consumption and reaction. Continue to track your behavior daily in the same format in order to make searching for patterns easier for yourself later. Consistency is key. How Keeping Track Helps Tracking what you eat can help uncover hidden sensitivities and more easily spot patterns in your diet that could contribute to poor health. Some people may unnecessarily struggle to reach their health goals simply because of the consumption of one ingredient. Tracking over several weeks can yield helpful information about exactly which foods are making it difficult for you to achieve your health goals. Making Changes
Once patterns have been established, small changes can also start being made and tracked, such as avoiding certain ingredients or adding new ones like prebiotics or probiotics for gut support. Removing certain ingredients from your diet may be needed if they are causing severe enough reactions such as migraines. If this is the case, speaking with your doctor would be recommended before making significant changes and adjustments to your diet plan. Using a food journal is an excellent way to uncover sensitivities and other diet patterns that may hinder your health goals, such as bloating, abdominal discomfort, and cramping. Keeping track of what you eat and how each food makes you feel afterward will help identify which foods are triggering these reactions so small changes in diet can begin taking place. Remember, you are the only one reading your food journal so it just has to make sense to you! Keeping a food journal should not feel obligatory or daunting, it should feel encouraging and freeing. At the end of each day, you will have intentionally taken time to learn more about your body and the proper way to care for it. As a result, you can implement unique changes in your own lifestyle to ensure that you thrive. Claudia is an NBC-HWC Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, the owner of Vibrant Health by Claudia LLC and Virtual Health Coaches LLC. She studied health and wellness coaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where she also completed courses in Gut Health, Hormone Health, and Advanced Coaching. She is a certified 21-Day Sugar Detox Coach as well as a co-author of the Amazon Bestseller “The Ultimate Guide to creating your soul aligned Business” To schedule a time for a free information call click here or join her Vibrant Health Power Community - a free Facebook Group - here.
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