I hate logging what I
eat. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only
one. It makes me feel like some
super-critical person is looking over my shoulder, questioning everything I do and
telling me I’m not doing it right. I am
working on a plan to exorcise that imaginary non-friend.
The thing is, food logs
help me (and pretty much everyone) stay on track. The research pretty much says that anyone who
wants to lose weight should do it. Some
of that result is doubtless because people don’t actually want to write down
that they ate a pint of Haagen Dazs and four cookies for dinner so they have a
salad instead. Some of it comes from
increased mindfulness: How much bread
did I eat? Was that about four ounces of
chicken? Six?
Technology can make it
easier. There are plenty of apps with
handy databases of foods built in. Most
of them also allow us to create foods that we eat all the time, like the usual
smoothie or Mom’s favorite casserole.
We can change what we
track. That means that if, for instance,
we want to eat more vegetables, we can add a tally to our log for vegetable
servings. Or, if we are concerned about
the food/mood relationship, we can write down how we feel at each meal or
snack.
The point is, we can do
this simply or with tons and tons of detail.
Experimentation is pretty much the best way to figure out the best plan
for each of us. Let’s try. We can learn a lot!
