Are You Tracking Your Food?

There are many reasons you should be tracking your food, even if weight loss isn’t something your focusing on. Keeping a food journal, whether pen and paper or through an app, is a great way to learn about habits, and even pinpoint things you are getting too much, or too little, of. 

1. Creates Awareness

Too often we are eating and not paying attention to what we are eating. This leads into being unaware of how much we eat, how we eat, when we eat, where we eat, and why we ate it.

2. Creates Accountability

It may seem insignificant, but tracking your food will force you to think twice about what you put in your mouth and helps hold you accountable to your goals.

3. Shows You What You Are Doing Well

Keeping track of your food is not only about discovering what you are doing poorly, it can also show you what you are doing well so you can continue to do it.

4. Shows You What You Are Not Doing Well

Finding flaw in your diet is a good thing, because then you know what you need to work on. Errors are the things that propel people to the biggest successes, and being able to identify them is the first step to improving them.

5. Shows You How Much You Eat

Tracking your food is also a great way to identify how much you are actually eating. It can help your determine if you are eating too much, or if you are eating enough.

6. Shows You How Often You Eat

Tracking your food helps you pay attention to what you are eating in your meals, and helps you identify any snacks you are putting in your mouth without even realizing it.

7. Helps Detect Food Intolerances

People react differently to different foods, and keeping track of your food is a great way to help identify what may be affecting you individually.

8. Helps Identify Patterns

A lot of the time, things we think are unrelated to what we eat are actually more related than we realize. How you feel throughout the day could be a direct result of what, where, when, and how we ate. 

9. Helps Identify Triggers

Tracking your food will force you to be mindful of your choices and why you are making them. Many times our habits have nothing to do with  hunger and everything to do with our environment and how we are feeling.

10. Allows You To Reflect On Progress

Tracking your food allows you to look back and reflect on your progress. Tracking your food helps you to celebrate these important milestones and motivates you to keep going.