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Why You Should Keep a Weekly Food Journal & How to Do It

Have you ever thought about keeping a weekly food journal, but you weren’t sure if it was worth the time and the hassle? Well, I am here to tell you that tracking the food you eat can be incredibly beneficial, and it is also easier than ever to do. In fact, using a food tracker is one of the best ways to understand how what you eat impacts everything from your health, to energy, to mood and even sleep. And thanks to the free MyFitnessPal app, you can track your foods in just minutes per day.

Erin Wade holding a mobile and a black water bottle

This post has been sponsored by MyFitnessPal. As always, all opinions are my own.

Why should I keep a food record?

Food Journal Empty Plates and Coffee

When a new client comes to me to solve a problem – whether it’s to lower her blood sugar levels or figure out why she’s tired every afternoon, the first thing I always ask is ‘what do you eat?’ And that’s not just because I am a dietitian. It’s because food impacts so much of our lives – from our sleep patterns, to energy, appetite, and overall health- so knowing what you are putting into your body is the first step in helping you achieve whatever health goal you have set for yourself.

But here’s the problem – if you are like me and get asked you what you ate for breakfast three days ago, you probably can’t remember. Heck, I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast today. That’s why food tracking is so important. It helps you to not just remember what you ate, but to identify patterns in how you eat and how it impacts you. For instance, if you are much hungrier today than normal, you can look back in your food journal and see what changed. Maybe you ate less fiber, or didn’t get enough protein.

If weight loss is one of your goals, trying to achieve it without tracking can be a challenge. I mean, if you have ever grabbed a food on the run and forgot you ate it later (and I know it can’t just be me who does that), you can see why. In fact, research has found people who keep food records lose twice as much as those who don’t. Pretty amazing, right?!

The easiest way to keep a food journal

A woman holding a mobile with food app scanning a can's bar code

Did I sell you on the idea of keeping a food record yet? If not, I know what’s holding you back … you think it’s going to be time consuming to do, don’t you? I know that’s how my clients feel too…until I introduce them to the free MyFitnessPal app.

MyFitnessPal is my go-to recommendation for food trackers and is the #1 nutrition and food tracking app for a good reason…they have a database of over 14 million foods. Which means, in seconds, you can easily type in the food you are about to eat or scan the barcode on the food (or even take a picture of your meal in the premium version) and all of the food’s nutrition information gets pulled into the app automatically. That means you no longer have to spend time with a pen and paper writing foods down, looking up their nutrition information, and getting out your calculator to total it all up. The app does it all for you…in seconds!

How to use a food tracker

Woman taking picture of the strawberries

If you have a kept a weekly food journal in the past and found it to be tiring, you may not believe that it can truly be so simple now. So, let me show you. Once you download the MyFitnessPal app (and it’s totally free to download), set up your nutrition profile, and you are ready to track your food.

To enter a food, click the blue ‘+’ on the bottom of the app, choose ‘food,’ and then start typing in your food choice or just scan the bar code on the food. If you have the premium version, you can even take a picture of your plate and it will automatically track that way as well. And that’s it…your food was recorded in seconds. It doesn’t get much easier, does it?!

The benefits of keeping a food journal

I like to think of using a food record as a way of being a ‘detective’ of your own body. It isn’t just about looking at one food choice or one meal. Looking at your weekly food journal can help you to identify trends. If you notice some days you have more energy than others, look to see what’s different. If your blood sugar runs higher some days than others, you can look back and pin point the culprit.

Using a food tracker to help to identify patterns in the foods you eat and how they impact your overall health is the best way to determine what nutrition changes are working for you and which can be improved upon.

Are you ready to start keeping a food record? Go grab the free MyFitnessPal app together and then tag me @erinpalinskiwade on Instagram and tell me the impact keeping a food journal is having on you. I can’t wait to hear from you!

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