Keeping A Food Journal

I have to say, I am SUPER EXCITED! I have been educating myself more and more in the area of training and sports nutrition. It is exciting stuff! Deepening my understanding of what goes on in the body at the cellular level, in our tissues,  organs and systems. There is so much to be learned and applied, in order to optimize my nutritional and physical health, which will also translate into optimizing the same for my kiddos and perhaps helping others around me. However, what I'm about to share may not be sooo exciting...

Ok, so admittedly I am not the best at keeping a food log. I find it laborious and logging food just isn't something I enjoy doing. HOWEVER, I recognize the importance of doing so. It helps one to identify areas of deviation on a specific nutrition plan. It also assists in establishing a caloric baseline, with which one may increase or decrease calories to target physique goals. Finally, but I'm certain not all-inclusive, it also helps on to identify specific reactions to certain types of food that may be a sensitivity for an individual.

The key things for me will be to keep it as simple, fun and least time consuming as possible. So first, I found a handy dandy journal that has the day laid out for me, all I have to do is plug in my food. I will record my food in a notebook until it arrives, but this should really help me. Having a hands on, use your pen or pencil notebook is fun for me. I really don't get along well with the apps out there. I have tried the popular My Fitness Pal, but for some reason I don't really get into the groove of using it. As far as "least time consuming", I plan on keeping my diet pretty  much the same for a while. I might change things up by altering with spices and such, but I think I am going to take the guesswork out of it. This way I can literally plug in the same foods every day - and keep track of my deviations.

I expect I will learn even more about my relationship with food, as I continue to track and monitor my deviations. Which brings me to the goal closely related to this one. I want to be 100% on my nutrition. The past couple of weeks enabled me to get into a nice groove with my workouts and being consistent with them. The next couple weeks, I want to focus and really dial in my nutrition. The more I learn in this arena, the more I will integrate into my daily practices. It will be kind of cool to experiment with this a little bit and see what the results are.

So there ya go! That's my Monday post. Not all that grand, but necessary nonetheless. The week ahead is packed with practices and games for my kiddos, a nice rest day in the middle of the week, workouts and learning for me, and training a new pup!

Have a great week and feel free to leave me a note with any questions or comments you may have :)