A useful tool for weight control, your food diary is a record of the types and amounts of food you eat every day and can also make you aware of your particular eating habits, such as when and why you eat. You can also use your food diary to keep track of physical exercise. If you are trying to lose weight, control diabetes, prevent heart disease or have any other reason for wanting to change your diet, a food diary can help. Good examples of different styles of food diaries can be found on various university, government and medical center websites. Some are available as downloadable and printable files, while others must be copied into your own journal.
Diary for Emotional Overeating
If you eat, don't eat or overeat for emotional reasons, then where you eat, who you are with and how you feel while you are eating all affect your diet habits just as much as your food choices. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website provides an example of a food diary with columns for filling in all this information. After keeping this type of food diary for at least several days, you may begin to see and understand the emotional circumstances that lead to your overeating. This type of diary can help you determine if you are eating because you are hungry or because you are feeding your emotions.
Diary for a Diabetic Diet
The Indiana University School of Medicine website features a sample food diary and activity log accompanied by tips for people with diabetes who may also be concerned with weight control, high blood pressure and heart disease. This diary, printed in English and Spanish, is an example of a simple food and exercise record. For each day, there is a column for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. In the next column, you fill in what you ate and drank and in the third column, how much you ate and drank. In a separate activity log, you keep track of your daily physical activities by checking them off in five-minute intervals.
Diary for a Healthy Heart
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute website features a simplified daily food and activity diary where you can keep track of what you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner over the course of week on a single page. This type of diary has limited space for recording information, but it will show you what your overall diet looks like after recording your meals for seven days. For instance, just by keeping this simple record, you might see that you eat a great deal of meat at every meal or that you don't eat a wide enough variety of fruits and vegetables. At the bottom of the page is a space for recording your diet, exercise and behavioral goals, such as eating slowly, eating more fruit or eating only when seated at a table, rather than allowing yourself to eat on the run.
Nutritional Intake Diary
An example of a food diary wherein you list the fat, carbohydrate, fiber and protein content of the foods you eat can be found on the University of California, Riverside, website. This diary, prepared by a registered dietitian, can help you see if your diet is supplying too much or too little of any of these nutrients. Accompanying this sample diary is an outline of how to use the diary and how it can help you evaluate your diet, plan meals and keep an accurate record of just how much you eat at every meal.
References
- Centers for Disease Control: Healthy Weight -- My Food Diary (PDF)
- Indiana University School of Medicine: Food Diary & Activity Log (PDF)
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Aim for a Healthy Weight--Daily Food and Activity Diary
- University of California Riverside: Riverside Medical Clinic --Journal Your Way to Success (PDF)
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