Diet and exercise diaries, journals or logs can help you reach your health and fitness goals. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute notes that maintaining diet and exercise diaries, also known as self-monitoring, can be a positive tool to help guide you toward your health goals. Physicians trained in nutrition and exercise therapy can give you valuable feedback based on your diary entries and can offer helpful suggestions to further improve your health.
Healthy Lifestyles
Maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle is important for your long-term physical and mental health. According to MayoClinic.com, a combination of diet and exercise is optimal for weight loss, which in turn reduces your risk for numerous health problems. Many people, notes MayoClinic.com, do not like the idea of dieting and exercising because it implies making sacrifices and committing time and effort. But diet means consuming healthier food, not necessarily less food. And exercise means increasing your activity levels by engaging in fun activities that elevate your heart rate and improve your fitness levels.
Diet Diary
Maintaining a diet diary involves recording every item of food or drink you consume over a given period of time, often several days to one week. Maintaining a diet diary is a helpful and effective method of tracking your daily food choices and then making changes based on your findings. Diet diaries are commonly prescribed by health care professionals who are interested in improving your eating habits and long-term well-being. For many people, maintaining a diet diary is an illuminating activity, as diet patterns that were previously unknown become evident over time.
Exercise Log
An exercise log is a journal in which you record any physical activity you participate in over a given period of time. Exercise logs are usually maintained for longer time periods than diet diaries, as changes in fitness status are best tracked over months, not days or weeks. In addition to the type and duration of exercise you participate in, you may record the intensity of your workouts and your post-exercise recovery status in your exercise log. As you become more fit, you will be able to review your log and note any changes you have made in both your exercise capacity and your feelings about exercise.
Purpose
Diet and exercise diaries perform two important purposes. First, they provide insight into your lifestyle habits and patterns and they help promote health behavior change. Second, they provide valuable information and insight for your physician, who can use that information to help guide you toward optimal health. Tracking your lifestyle activities can be an encouraging activity and an informational activity for others. Recording your diet and exercise habits is a powerful tool that can help you realize a healthy lifestyle that will reduce your health expenditures over time and decrease your risk for chronic disease.
Considerations
Before you begin recording your diet and exercise habits, meet with your doctor to discuss the details of maintaining a diet and exercise diary. Although it may seem like a simple concept, it takes a lot of planning and effort to maintain an accurate and successful diet and exercise diary. Your doctor can tell you what to record, how long you should maintain your diaries and when she would like to see you for a follow-up appointment to discuss your lifestyle behaviors.
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