the secret tool: food log
Today’s gonna be a mini challenge for you.
I want you to write down everything you eat or drink for the next 30 days.
Every single thing. Every bite, every sip, every lick, every taste. Put something in your mouth you ended up swallowing? Write it down.
Now I don’t mean you have to go old school pen & paper. You can record it on your phone, use a tracking app, or get a notebook, just write everything down.
A lot of the questions I get circle around the notion of “I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ve lost weight but gaining again, what to do?”
“I binged all weekend, what do I do?”
“I overate dinner last night, what should I do?”
“I’m losing weight so slowly, what do?
“I’m stuck after losing 5kg, what do I do?”
All these questions I’ve answered in some shape or form in my letters or daily Q&As over at IG, but the little secret I want to share with you today is that if you had a good idea of what you’ve been eating on a regular basis, you have a better chance to make an adjustment and fix the issue yourself.
Lost weight but gaining again?
Look at your food log, how does the food you eat 2 weeks during your weight loss period differ from your weight gain period. There’s definitely a difference. Now you have the tools to help you figure out exactly what you’re doing wrong. Did you start including a late night snack when previously never existed? Did your portions get bigger over time? Or perhaps you’ve been eating out way too much than usual? All these can be answered by simply looking and analyzing your food log.
Binged all weekend?
Take a look at the log. Have you been eating way too little over the weekdays so on weekends you can’t control yourself with all the temptations around you? Look over how many days you were able to stay on track before the binges start occurring. You can pinpoint and see patterns of where things start to break apart, and start to make amends & adjustments from there.
Overate for dinner and worried?
Check the food log, just exactly how much did you overeat? Was it just an extra portion of french fries or a whole big mac? If it’s just something small, you have the log to assure you it’s no big deal. If it was something bigger you still have the rest of the week to make adjustments if need be. The food log can not only help you reassure your worries but also help plan future meals.
Stuck after losing a few kg/lbs?
Review the log, has anything changed since you got “stuck”. How long were you stuck? 2-3 days is not stuck. 2-3 weeks and zero progress is stuck. If it’s 2-3 weeks, has your diet been on point during those 2-3 weeks or were there off days? If there were off days, then it’s not stuck. It’s just inconsistent. If there was no off days and you’ve been consistent, and truly zero progress in all realms then perhaps you’re currently eating in maintenance and gotta eat a little less calories. All answers you can figure out from your food log.
A lot of times we don’t know what to do with our diet cos we don’t know exactly what or how much we’re eating. I’ll be honest with you, having tracked my calories every single day for the past 7 years, there are days where I thought I’d just do it by memory and over the next couple of days I'd realize there's a lot of minor details that I completely forgot about. And that would be me trying to recall everything in a day, can you imagine trying to recall everything you ate and drank in the past 7 days?
Near impossible.
I want to introduce you to writing down everything you eat and creating a food log cos I feel the lessons you’ll learn from it is priceless. You absolutely don’t need to do this for the rest of your life. If you decide to that’s fine too, but it’s not a necessity. Trying it out for 30-90 days is plenty for you to get a feel on how to be in control of your diet and see the finer details on where you can make improvements when needed instead of constantly feeling worried and anxious playing a guessing game.
Try it for 30 days. If you manage to complete it, email me telling me your experience and if you've learned anything about yourself and your diet.
Maybe there will be a prize for completion?
— Po