Health Tip Tuesday: Food Journal

My first health tip ever on TheJourney, yay. I would consider this one to be my most important one. There are lots of other things that can be added to it, but in it's simpliest form I would have to say that it is crucial to:

*BE CONSCIOUS OF WHAT YOU ARE EATING*

I have become quite good at keeping track mentally, so I don't need to physically write down what I eat. But I did, however, do this for a long, long time. I recommend that you write it down for a while until you really get the hang of it.

Here are some super cool notebooks from Pinterest

Keeping track of your food intake throughout the day doesn't have to be some huge, scary process. Just write down what you ate and how many servings (notice I didn't say calories - stay away from this trend as calories don't give you the whole picture on quantity and quality of food). In reference to servings, you will need to look at the Canada Food Guide for what a serving looks like and how many in each food group you need (this isn't a huge concern yet, but just look at what they recommend).

I want to keep this a simple and non-daunting task for the week (hopefully longer than a week though) so it will be a self-awareness exercise. If you find it easier to use your cell phone, then use that. Or, if you want to make it exciting, go out and find a cute little notebook that fits in your pocket/purse.

Here is a sample:

Morning
1 serv milk
1 serv oatmeal with cinnimon and brown sugar
2 cups of green tea

Afternoon
2 serv crackers
2 serv chedder cheese
2 serv baby carrots
bite of cookie

Snack
1 serv yogurt
2 serv iced capp

Dinner
3 serv spring mix salad
1 serv cashews
1 serv dressing

* You can organize this any way you like, this is just an example. Just write down every bite and be conscious of everything going into your body. Good Luck!