#35 - Keep a food journal and write what I eat everyday for a month (32/101)

I think a lot about what food goes into my body and how it affects it. I can tell a difference when I am having a healthy week, when I haven't had my green smoothie in a few days, when I am full and when I still want dessert. When I was in college about five years ago my body began to go through a ton of changes and I could tell that I needed to be more conscious about what I ate. I have a healthy metabolism but I couldn't eat a whole cookie cake like I used to be able to, but instead just a slice. I decided I wanted to watch what I was eating in a healthy and sustainable way so for a while I wrote down everything I ate without changing any of my habits. After a couple months of writing down everything I consumed, I started to recognize trends in my diet and from there, made small changes. For example, I noticed I was not drinking nearly enough water so began to fill up a water bottle on my way to class everyday. I noticed I was eating out at too many restaurants so began to go to the grocery story to buy a weeks worth of groceries and plan out my meals. I noticed I ate way more carbs than vegetables at meals so made an effort to eat double the amount of vegetables as carbs at a meal. After a while, I stopped writing down what I was eating because I began to think about my eating unconsciously and a lot of these healthier habits stuck.

Now a few years out of school, I decided to keep a food journal to see how I was doing and if any new trends emerged. Along with a few colleagues, I spent the last month writing down everything I ate and drank. I was pleased to see that I was drinking a lot of weather, eating a lot of good food, exercising regularly and more but also noticed a few trends that I can think about and be more intentional in my food choices. For example, every time I got on a plane I had a glass of ginger ale (which ended up being 6 ginger ales in the last month). I did not realize I was drinking so much soda so now can think about what I order on a plane instead of always choosing a ginger ale. I loved doing this exercise because it helped me think about leading a healthy lifestyle and intentionally thinking about what I consume so I can make choices about what goes into my body.