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Conscious Nutrition: The Power of Food Journaling and Mindful Eating for a Healthier You

By cultivating awareness of our dietary habits and the sensations and subsequent reactions that surround each meal, we can unlock the transformative potential of food, far beyond the basics of simple nutrition. Paving the way to gaining insight and true ownership into the drivers of our health and happiness. Alongside an appreciation for how food can nurture relationships, cultural bonds, and ecological harmony.

In this post, we will explore the importance a food diary can hold in the diagnostics of disease, the role mindful eating can play, and the synergy between these two practices. In delving into their myriad benefits and the practical applications of both, we will see how together they can hold the key to your healing. Offering a roadmap to nourishing not only our bodies but also our souls, empowering us to thrive in our ever-evolving world.

What is Food Journaling?

Key for practitioners, and a useful tool for anyone looking to delve deeper into their chronic condition or struggling health, food journaling is just one of the many types of journaling that can prove helpful on your personal wellbeing journey. Referred to interchangeably as food journaling, food tracking or simply the keeping of a food diary, it can be a helpful way for anyone keeping the diary, to recognise their own eating rituals and routines and the intricate relationship these can have to one’s overall health.

At its most basic level food journaling involves keeping a detailed record of what you eat and drink on a daily basis. It typically includes information such as meal times, portion sizes, ingredients, emotional or environmental factors, and any/all symptoms throughout the day. Whilst there is the very valid argument that such tactics can descend into an unhealthy habit, and such approaches must be exercised with caution for some, here we’ll focus on the positive aspects of food journaling.

The aim of the diary is to note dietary habits, recognise all ingredients (so many go undetected especially in processed foods), identify patterns, and gain insight into eating behaviours. Using this data to cultivate awareness, inform your future decision making and aid meal planning with a view to utilising nutrition and the mindfulness around it, to drive a more positive health and wellbeing outcome. Ultimately empowering you through a clear overview and perspective on your relationship and reactions to food.

The level of detail in a food journal can vary based on personal preferences and goals, and practitioners specialising in different areas of health often tailor their client’s diaries to the key fields they need to know. Some may prefer a more comprehensive approach- and from a practitioner’s perspective the more data available to pour over the better- while others might focus on specific aspects like calories or emotional triggers.

Whilst it’s best to avoid overwhelm, notation can begin with smaller parameters and broaden in line with growing confidence and need. Individual discussions on this should come from a shared dialogue between you and your health provider. It can be done with a pen and paper or by using various apps designed for tracking nutrition and meals, depending on what feels doable and the most in tune with you. The more naturally inclined diary and data keepers out there may well find themselves more easily drawn to the practice, for those that aren’t, find a way that feels the most sustainable to ensure recording and results over a sustained period of time.

The Benefits of Food Journaling

It can help you remember what you have eaten that day, bringing about better awareness on what/how much you eat and drink eat day
If you are also tracking calories, you can see where you can improve if you are trying to achieve a goal
It will let you see if you are eating too much or NOT enough
It will let you see what time of day you typically get hungry and help you adjust your eating schedule
It will help to build your awareness of your food choices. Sometimes even simply writing down everything you eat in a day can help to reduce mindless snacking, helping you realise if you are eating out of boredom rather than hunger
It enables you to see trends in symptoms and to look for sensitivities and allergies by providing documented evidence of the sensations you experience and may have forgotten about or not realised are potentially in response to food
Facilitates you in seeing how your mood impacts your eating habits
May help you stay on track with all health goals

It’s no understatement to say that whilst at its most basic level, journaling offers a clear log on your diet and eating habits, this dietary data is an invaluable piece in the puzzle when it comes to driving your health forward, being a key document for detective work into the potential pattern of symptoms contributing to or holding back you healing. As well as a useful tool in creating a testing plan and protocol that works and begins the process of mindfully taking and making your goals of better health, condition management and symptom free living a reality.

Tips for successful journaling and helpful reflection

Choose a style of journaling that’s most comfortable to you. The most important thing for consistency is getting a groove with an option that is easy and enjoyable to use.

Choose a style of journaling that’s most comfortable to you:

The most important thing for consistency is getting a groove with an option that is easy and enjoyable to use. Choose a physical notebook if preferred or use a mobile to make notes or an app to record your food intake. Smartphone apps can be helpful if you interact and find technology a seamless part of your day. There are several apps available that makes it easy to track your meals and nutritional information.

Set a start date:

Decide on a specific date to begin your diary and practice. This can help create a sense of commitment and make it easier to track changes over time.

Record everything you eat and drink:

Be thorough in documenting everything you consume, including meals, snacks, beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), and even the condiments, sauces, dressings and toppings. Include portion size to get a more accurate picture of your nutritional intake but don’t get too bogged down that this becomes a double-edged sword. There is no need to count the number of chips on your plate and estimating portion sizes such as 1 cup of vegetables is fine.

Include details:

Along with the types and quantities of food, note additional details such as where you ate (at home, in what room, out in restaurant, in the car, on the move), who you were with (family, friends, alone), and your mood at the time. This information can provide insights into emotional eating and social eating patterns.

Be specific:

Be as specific as you can with food and beverages. For example, if you’re drinking a latte, note the type of coffee (caffeine/decaf), the type of milk (cows, goat, oat) and the size. If you’ve had fried chicken, don’t just note chicken. Also, list any activities you do whilst you eat and drink, be it working, watching TV or playing a game.

Make notes in the moment:

Write down the food or beverage as soon as you consume it. Don’t rely on your memory at the end of the day because your recollection is likely to be less accurate. Similarly write down any symptoms or thoughts that come up throughout the day. Accuracy again is the key.

Be honest and accurate:

Record your food intake as honestly and accurately as possible. This includes being mindful of portion sizes and not underreporting or omitting items. The goal is to have a true representation of your eating habits.

Track timing:

Note the time of day when you eat each meal and snack. This can help you identify patterns related to meal times and discover if you have irregular eating habits. Also note the timings of any symptoms experiences-physical or mental.

Include Nutritional Information:

If you’re aiming to monitor specific nutritional aspects, such as calorie intake, macronutrients (carbs, proteins, fats) or vitamins, consider all this information in your diary. Many mobile apps automatically provide nutritional details.

Reflect on your choices:

Take a moment to reflect on your food choices and how they make you feel. This can help you become more aware of your eating habits, cravings and triggers.

Reflect on your symptoms:

Take time to reflect on how you feel whilst eating and throughout the day. How did the foods make you feel? Tired, bloated, anxious, itchy. Reflecting will enable you to identify patterns of symptoms and how you’re feeling across larger timelines.

Reflect on your emotions and moods:

Your mood can impact what and when you eat or drink. Are you happy, contented, sad, bored.

Include your mindful exercises:

Noting how mindful mealtimes were or felt will give you valuable insight into how you feel at different times, in different environments, with different company. Leading to valuable perspective on the wider elements at play.

Set goals:

Once you’ve established a baseline, consider setting realistic and achievable goals for your diet. These goals could be related to specific nutrients, portion control or overall dietary habits.

Review and adjust:

Regularly review your food diary, looking for patterns, trends or areas where you feel you can make positive changes. Use the information to adjust your eating habits gradually.

Be patient:

Changing habits takes time. Be patient with yourself and focus on making gradual, sustainable improvements rather than drastic changes.

Keep your thoughts short and sweet:

There is no need to write a novel unless you want to.

What is Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating is a practice that involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both in terms of the food itself and the sensations, thoughts and emotions associated with the ritual act of mealtimes. It is rooted in mindfulness, a form of meditation, that encourages awareness of the present moment without judgement.

Eating food is one of the places in the day where people exhibit the greatest degree of indifference or of being in autopilot. Often eating is done whilst doing something else, such as watching TV, working or driving. Yet eating is potentially one of the most important things in our lives-sustaining our physical body, bringing pleasurable sensations, filling us with emotional joy or satisfaction and thus can be a powerful source of spiritual enjoyment and insight. The purpose of mindful eating is to help individuals savour the moment of eating, appreciate the experience of food and encourage full presence during meals.

Whilst recommendations around food and eating have always centred around awareness and paying attention, ‘sit down whilst you eat’, ‘chew your food’, the difference with mindful eating is that it is not centred on rules and guidelines, but rather rests on the individual experience. We all experience food differently; we can all experience the same food differently on different days. By paying more attention to the way we eat and the environment, emotions, sensations that surround those times, we can hopefully become more attuned to ourselves and rooted in our lives across multiple moments throughout the day.

Key Principles if Mindful Eating Include:

Awareness: Paying attention to the colours, smells, flavours and textures of your food. Engaging all your senses in the eating experience.
Patience and Savouring: Taking the time to fully enjoy and appreciate each bite, chewing slowly and mindfully. Letting the experience unfold rather than racing through it.
Listening to your body: Tuning into your body’s hunger and fullness cues, and eating in response to physical hunger rather than emotional triggers. This can also be applied to symptom awareness in response to foods.
Non-judgement: Avoiding self-criticism or guilt around food choices. Being compassionate and understanding toward yourself.
Eating with intention: Making conscious choices about what you eat and why, rather than eating out of habit or in response to external cues. This can extend to include healthier food choices that actively support health and/or align with environmental considerations.
Gratitude: Cultivating a sense of gratitude for the food you have and the effort that went into producing it.

Benefits of Mindful Eating

Often used as a tool to promote a healthier relationship with food, to retrain eating behaviours and to enhance overall well-being, mindful eating can be applied to any type of food, whether it’s a breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, drink or treat. Practicing mindful eating has been shown to help individuals develop a more considered approach to diet and mealtimes, leading to a greater appreciation for the nourishing and enjoyable aspects of eating. It can also prove an easy introduction to the wider application of mindfulness and meditation within one’s day and life. Broad benefits include better digestion, wiser food choices, healthier eating, weight loss, increased food enjoyment and improved self-image. In my clinics I’ve seen resolution of symptoms across skin issues, anxiety, allergies and stress when mindful eating is used as a tool for gentler mealtimes and insight.

How to Practice Mindful Eating

The key to practicing mindful eating is to slow down, engage the body and mind in all food choices, and to place much needed focus on your food.

You want to bring your full awareness to the moments of your meal. Try these tips to eat more mindfully:

Turn off all notifications and devices to limit distractions.
Stop any other activities. That means no working, reading, watching videos, or anything while you’re eating.
Engage all of your senses before you even take a bite: How does the food look? What is the texture of the food? Notice the temperature and smell of the food.
Take small bites and chew slowly. Feel the movement of your jaw and tongue as you chew and swallow.
What does the food taste like? Does the flavour change as you eat slowly?
Before, during, and after your meal, check in with how hungry you feel and your satisfaction with the food.
Don’t reach for things automatically, stop and take moments to notice what you are feeling. Eat only with intention.
As the meal continues, notice any changes that come over you. These can be a gradual feeling of fullness, or any symptoms that may arise.
After swallowing your food turn inwards, and/or close your eyes for a few moments to notice the consequence of what you just experienced.
In addition to how you experience a food, consider what it took to bring this food to you. Who was involved in the growing process and production? Consider the dun and soil it took to grow the ingredient and ask yourself where in the world it came from. Appreciate all it took to bring it to your plate.

A Dynamic Duo

By themselves, mindful eating and food journaling are both helpful ways to holistically bring awareness to your whole eating experiences and the impact food has within your life. Together, they form a potent partnership, and can help you formulate and ultimately stick to your desired health plan.

So many eating behaviours can often be driven by our mood and how we feel and we so often have stopped listening to or never truly learnt to tune into our true food and eating pattern needs. Being able to visualise and in turn learn the differences between eating for physical hunger or emotional soothing, in addition to gaining perspective on the best timetables and/or worst triggers for you can be lifechanging.

Equally, we can have battled and arguably learned to live with persistent symptoms of ill health and irritation, without ever being able to accurately investigate and identify their possible links to common modern foods. Using mindful eating skills and food journals in tandem can facilitate insight, foster knowledge and provide strength, whilst also paving the way for practitioners to test for and help you in curating the diets you really need, supporting you to lean into the foods that nurture you and leave behind those that don’t.

Weaving the Practices into Life

As with any new habit and routines, the key to incorporating them into life is a combination of simply getting going, making the commitment, arming yourself with the things you need to support success, gentle discipline and some solid kindness to yourself as you forge ahead with good intentions.

Remember, a food diary is a personal tool, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Tailor it to your needs and preferences, and use it as a positive tool for self-discovery and improvement.

Whilst it would be great to eat every meal and snack each day mindfully, it can be overwhelming to try and do too much too soon. And that’s before you add a family and potential work schedule demands into the mix. To begin with, if easiest, simply make sure you take a lunchbreak regularly, sit down and and sit away from your desk. Focusing only on taking a pause and prioritising your food. If this sounds too much, pick breakfast or dinner either side, choosing the one you’ll most be able to tune in for. And work towards more meals as you and your loved ones, get the hang of it.

Adopting a new habit takes time, so starting with just one meal a day helps to build consistency slowly. Like other habits, you might feel the urge to quit food journaling or eating mindfully if you happen to miss a meal, day or two. But don’t give up. Simply pick up where you left off. One untracked or undocumented meal should not derail your progress.

A comprehensive mindful eating journal can provide the framework for introducing and combining both health strategies at once. Offering a broad template complete with a checklist and selection of prompts so you can orientate yourself and respond with ease on the array of cues, cravings, choices, emotional responses, inner dialogues and more that may come up. Collectively strengthening your awareness around both food and the practice of mindfulness, one day and meal at a time.

You’ll find a template to help you get started in my resources section that combines the food diary I ask my clients to fill out before our appointment, with prompts to aid reflection and tips to help you begin a mindful eating practice of your own.

You’ve meditated on the moments of meals and kept the diary… Now what?

After completing a week’s worth of food journaling and mindful eating, step back and look at what you’ve recorded. Food diaries and data capture are most helpful when you look back to review and reflect on them. This can be something you do solo, or a valuable joint exercise with your nutritional therapist who can help you identify any trends, patterns, or habits and suggest ways to improve the situation. Being able to work with them and on them drives you forward.

For example, you might consider:

How healthy is my diet?
Am I eating vegetables and fruit every day? If so, how many servings?
Am I eating wholegrains every day?
What is my meat and fish intake?
Am I eating food and beverages with added sugar? If so, how frequently?
Do my moods affect my eating habits?
How often do I eat on the run?
How do I feel after I’ve eaten bread?
Were there any common foods on the days I felt anxious, itchy, bloated or had a headache?
Do I crave this food as much in the morning/evening/at the end of my monthly cycle?
Did I feel better when I was eating in this room/with this person/when I cooked personally or went out?
How do I feel looking at my food choices and eating schedule?

If you’ve been keeping a diary to monitor the behaviours and symptoms of your family there will naturally be a clearer divide between what you log as the parent and the questions you ask out loud to your child. Adjusting questions accordingly and delving deeper into the areas with them that are causing concern is unique to each family and again, your therapist can tailor what’s needed for maximum insight and benefit.

Driving Healthier Habits and SMARTER Health Goals

Both mindful eating and food journaling serve as powerful tools in building healthier habits and setting SMARTER health goals. Increased awareness around food, and heightened consciousness can enable you to make more intentional food choices aligned with whatever health objective you seek.

Maintaining a food journal allows for a systematic tracking of dietary intake, facilitating a clearer understanding of nutritional habits and areas for improvement. Through this process, you can set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluated, and Reviewed (SMARTER) health goals that are tailored to unique needs and aspirations. By combining the insights gained with the data recorded anyone and everyone can establish concrete objectives, monitoring progress effectively, and adjusting strategies as needed to achieve sustainable lifestyle changes and optimal health outcomes.

Things to Consider

In order to succeed and to truly be of use, your diary needs to be truthful. It can be tempting to avoid noting an unplanned pudding or binge episode, but fret not. Nothing about these activities is about judgement, nor should they be used to berate yourself. Ultimately there is nothing to be gained by cheating to look good or feel better. Such tactics prevent a practitioner being able to work with you for real transformational change and robs you of being able to later see the improvements you legitimately make.

Being cautious and truthful about your vulnerabilities, motives and health history around foods is a must. Regularly checking in with yourself on if the food journaling is fostering positivity around meals and not aiding disordered eating and unhealthy weight loss is so important.

If the level of detail in the diary becomes a burden, always strip it back to the basics which move you forward with the most insight and least stress. If it isn’t about weight gain, don’t input portion size, if it’s more about allergy symptoms focus needs to be on the ingredients and any reactions that follow. Documentation should not feel a chore. Sustainability is key. Keep it light and focused for the least stress and most actionable understanding.

The Path to Improved Knowledge & Health

As you navigate health challenges and goals, incorporating these practices into your daily routine can serve as a beacon of stability and self-care. By recording your dietary choices and cultivating a mindful approach to meals, you gain invaluable insights into your relationship with food and its powerful impact on our bodies and minds.

The synergy between food journaling and mindful eating amplifies their individual benefits, offering a comprehensive strategy for improving health and the habits that support it. In essence, food journaling and mindful eating transcend the realm of mere dietary habits; they become vehicles for self-discovery, healing, and personal growth.

Together these practices can empower us all to make informed decisions about what we consume, fostering a sense of empowerment and control over wellbeing. By prioritising nutritional awareness and mindfulness in our approach, we not only nourish our bodies but also cultivate a profound sense of connection to ourselves, the world around us and the beautiful ritual that eating should be. So, if it is healthy to do so, embrace the potential they hold, knowing that through them, we all can embark on a journey towards a healthier, happier, more balanced life.

Conscious Thought, Holistic Living