I recently tested a new food journaling program on my iPhone in order to provide feedback to a company. I haven’t actually kept a food journal since I was required to as a nutrition student, but I thought it would be easy; all I had to do was send three texts a day about my meals.
Boy, was I wrong.
It wasn’t easy and it felt like a chore. It became just one more thing to add to my already overbooked day. Frankly, I hated it. (It did, however, give me a whole new perspective on what I ask of my patients.)
But just because I hated it doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthwhile tool to use when trying to lose weight or simply eat healthier. Food journaling can definitely help with accountability and, in today’s world, there are lots of different ways to food journal — from a variety of apps to websites designed specifically to make it easier to record your daily diet. (And yes, old school pen and paper are still options.) However, your food journal is only as good as the information you provide it. Accuracy is key, and if you aren’t lucky enough to have a registered dietitian nutritionist looking over it and asking all the right questions, your food journal could be lacking a lot of important details.
[See: 7 Diet Mistakes Sabotaging Your Weight Loss.]
And even as a nutritionist, I forgot some of those key details when sending off my daily texts. For example, one night I forgot to log my martini, another day my snack was left off and once I didn’t bother to explain that my lentil salad was made with olive oil. Truthfully, there was probably at least five journaling mistakes I made, whether totally by error or simply because I wasn’t dedicated enough to the process. Learn from my mistakes by not making these common errors:
1. You estimate portion sizes.
This seems like a no-brainer, but it isn’t always as easy as you think to give an accurate portion. How many ounces was the salmon I ate when dining out? What about the burger I made at home but didn’t weigh? Exactly how much egg salad did I put on my scooped bagel? Sure, you can estimate, but the most accurate way to record portions is to use measuring spoons and cups, as well as a home scale. And in restaurants, eyeballing it is probably your only option. (Please leave your measuring tools at home, but do your best to try to compare restaurant meals to what you might have eaten and weighed at home.) After a while, it might become a lot easier to identify serving sizes and you can lose the tools.
[See: 6 Ways to Train Your Brain for Healthy Eating.]
2. You don’t record all the ingredients.
You don’t necessarily need to record an entire recipe, but if you eat a salad, for example, you need to record the dressing and how much, as well as whether you added cheese or croutons. If you had tuna salad, was it made with regular or low-fat mayonnaise? Did your lentil salad have olive oil or just vinegar? Were your mashed potatoes made with nonfat milk or whole milk? Was your chicken rubbed with olive oil or marinade before it was thrown on the grill? Nutritionally, there are big differences between all of these extras. If you are recording your food using a program that provides a database of foods to choose from, this point could be especially important to keep in mind.
3. You don’t record all beverages.
Everything you put in your mouth counts, especially beverages. If you have a couple of cups a coffee a day with added sugar and milk, the calories can add up. Had wine with dinner? You better not forget to record it — and be totally honest about the size of your pour. Was it 6 ounces, 8 ounces or 12 ounces? And, even though water is calorie-free, you should still record it since it is beneficial for your health and a food journal should reveal more than simple calorie counts.
4. You leave out some snacks.
I typically eat only one snack per day, but for many of you, it could be more like two or three. Every single snack needs to be recorded and that includes just “a little bite” of cheese, “a couple” of nuts or a “spoonful” of your hubby’s ice cream. If the app or program you are using to record doesn’t specifically ask for snacks, but only meals, add your snack to your meal record. Snacks count just as much — if not more.
[See: 11 Fantastic Fall Snacks.]
5. You procrastinate.
Guilty as charged. The best time to record is immediately after you finish your meal. If you put it off, you might forget what you ate or get bogged down by more current meal recordings and simply not record it at all. As one wise saying goes, “there’s no time like the present.” And that definitely holds true with food journaling.
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Don’t Make These 5 Food Journaling Mistakes originally appeared on usnews.com
