When I started my weight loss journey it was important to understand calorie counts and how many my body needed for fuel. At that time, I wasn’t eating lots of fruits and veggies so it was very clearly calories in/calories out to get my weight loss started.
Counting calories became a very automatic mindset after years of doing it, which has been great for maintaining the 35lb loss…but isn’t providing insights to some of my other not so great habits. A Food Log simply records the foods you eat and the associated nutrients or calories, there are a lot of great tools like MyFitnessPal that make this process easy whether you are at home or on the road. 
However a Food Journal allows you to spend a little more time reflecting on your choices. A lot of different types of food journals exist, but all have a component that helps you understand your habits. Here are sample pages from a few different types of food journals: 
Diana the nutritionist I have worked with from California Yoga Sport notes that many people are able to identify food allergies after a few weeks on a food journal. For example, you might not feel sick when you eat dairy, but consistently the next day have a headache. Or you might find that the only time you reach for a salty food is after a rough work meeting…it’s really a process of helping you to become aware of eating for reasons other than hunger and how the foods you eat then effect your mood, health, focus, etc. A great book about this is The Amen Solution, if you are interested in learning more about food and your brain.
Have you ever kept a food journal? This will be one of the first 30 day challenges that I post, as I think it’s a great way to get back out of some bad habits we often develop during the holiday season and break a lot of long term patterns too!
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Gratitude Journal
Dec 20
I am grateful for random hugs
I am grateful for holiday invites
I am grateful for cute kitten videos
I am grateful for Survivor (hey it’s a guilty pleasure)
I am grateful for my bike trainer
