Keeping a track of what you eat and drink in a day sounds easy, but in reality we tend to get to the end of the day and scribble down our food diary as we recount what we think we’ve had, forgetting the nibble of cheese here or the extra top up of wine we had with dinner! It’s also hard to be realistic about portion sizes so jotting down, or photographing what you’ve had as you go is the most comprehensive way of recording what you’ve consumed. Not only can you log your food, drinks and activity levels but it can also be useful if you’re noticing you’re lacking energy in the afternoon each day, or find that your digestion isn’t quite right after eating a certain food.

A food log or record is a great insight into a your eating habits, it might be that you’re skipping breakfast but substituting that for a super sized latte each day, or, snacking just before bed. The important thing is that it can give you clarity on which part of your diet needs to be worked on so that you're aware of your habits and you can make positive changes to address them.

How?

There are many ways of keeping track of your food intake, the obvious is to carry a journal with you and write it all down on paper but that relies on you taking your paper diary with you wherever you go.

Given we live in an age of technology and our phones are mostly glued to our hands, they therefore make an excellent tool for helping you make this process as straight forward as possible. In fact to make it even easier, your training app has a food diary feature where you can jot down what you’ve eaten, take photos and there is also integration with My Fitness Pal should you want a better idea as to how many calories you’re consuming over the course of a day.

What kind of information do you need to cover in your food diary?

Like with any database, the information you get out is based on the quality of information you put in so try to be as thorough as possible with your food diary. Here's a list of the main things you should include when you’re logging your information.

Date and day of the week: always make a note of the date of your log and day of the week as you may start seeing that you eat well at the start of the week but then things begin to slide by the end. Knowing where your weak spots are will help you have a more targeted approach to making improvements.

What: write down the individual ingredients of what you’ve had if it’s something you’ve made yourself, or, write down the type of meal/food/drink you’ve had listing brands if that’s applicable. Be as specific as possible. Don’t forget to include condiments, toppings and sauces or whether you’ve added a spoonful of sugar to a cup of tea for example.

How much: list the amount of the food/drink item it you’ve put the meal, or guesstimate/take a photo if you’re eating out. You can list measurements in cups, weight (kg or ounces), or the number of items for example e.g. 10 grapes.

When: note down the time of the meal, snack, drink etc.

Exercise: make a note of when you exercise, duration and what kind of exercise you’re doing.

Any other symptoms: this might include low energy, low mood, digestive problems, migraines - pretty much anything that’s bothering you. You might start to see obvious links or patterns between foods you’re having and the way you’re feeling.

Other things to consider:

• Make sure you’re being thorough and writing everything down, even if that means a slice of cheese. You may see that you graze and nibble a lot without realizing.

• Write things down as you go rather than waiting until the end of the day. You probably won’t remember all the little things you eat; it’s amazing how selective our memory is!

• Be as specific as you can, even with how meals are prepared - did you fry, poach or boil your eggs for example.

• Guesstimate portion size or use visual aids to help define quantities e.g. a fist sized piece of chicken, a matchbox sized piece of cheese etc.

• If you don’t have time to make a full note of what you’ve had then take a photo as a track of what you’ve had.

And finally:

Don’t cheat yourself! By not listing things down you’re only doing yourself a disservice. It can be a hard process to look at our habits but it’s so important to do so in order to see where changes need to be made.