Food Diary: Friend or Foe?

Do you keep a Food Diary.  You know, that little book that you write down every little morsel of food that goes into your mouth? 

Okay, I will admit, it can be extremely daunting and difficult and horribly old fashioned, but you would be surprised how many extra little details you miss when you try and calculate everything at the end of the day.

A Food Diary can be a great way to help you stay on track in your journey and can also help you to see when, in your life, you are more susceptible to snacking on foods that we know we will feel guilty about later.

Earlier today I posted this question on my Facebook Page.  Mothers consume an extra 73,043 calories a year by doing this . . . . 


The answer?  Stealing food from their kids.

Incredible isn't it?  Without thought we are allowing ourselves to fall prey to the one thing we are trying so hard to prevent.

I know that I am guilty of this and I am trying so hard to not do it.  Regardless of how much my mouth is watering when I see those delicious and delectable Teddy Graham crackers on the table!

Now, a Food Diary is going to be of no value to you if you cannot be honest.  That means, regardless of whether or not you had a bowl of ice cream at 9:00 a.m., you need to write it down.  That way, when you look back on it you will be able to see why you are not as far along in your journey as you were hoping or if your eating patterns reflect significant events in your life.

So what are some benefits of keeping a Food Diary?  Well, here are a few for you:

• Accountability - have your partner or a friend look at your Food Diary with you at the end of the week to see where you could have been more faithful in your journey.  
• Increases Awareness - you are able to more readily see where those extra calories are coming from
• Calorie Awareness - a Food Diary might help you realize that you are eating too many calories at one meal and will help you see where you can shed some calories and more strategically place them throughout your day.
• Proper Eating - a Food Diary will help you realize if you are eating too much of one food group and not enough from another food group.  It will also help you realize if you are eating enough fruits and vegetables.
• Portion Sizes - a Food Diary can also help you see if you are eating proper portion sizes in your meals.  Not sure what proper portion sizes are?  Check Here!

Those are some pretty big benefits!

When I started off on my journey I kept a Food Diary occasionally.  I will admit, I was not always the most faithful at writing in it daily but when I did, it most definitely helped me see where I was going wrong and what I needed to change.  Plus, my husband would look at it which helped to keep me more accountable.

My biggest pointer to keeping a Food Diary would be to write down what you are going to eat the day before.  That way, you can just follow it without having to sit and think and ponder throughout your day.  However, make sure that if you do eat something that was not previously written down that you include it in, maybe in a different colour, so that you can see where you may need to make changes (for example:  you may need to add in more protein throughout your day to help curb your cravings for snacks).

Here are 5 tips from WebMD to help you keep your Food Diary:

• Write as you go.  Don't wait until the end of the day to record what you ate and drank.  "We recommend they write down as soon as they can after they eat," says Victor Stevens, PhD.
• Focus on portion size.  Practice at home with measuring cups, measuring spoons, or food scales.  And be aware that people tend to underestimate how much food they're served.
• Use whatever type of Food Diary that works for you.  It doesn't matter whether you use scrap paper, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a notebook.  What matters is that you use it.
• Don't skip your indulgent days.  "We encourage people to keep records especially on days when they're tempted to eat," says Stevens.  "What gets measured tends to get changed."
• Cook at home.  You'll have more control over what you consume, and you know what that food contains, and how much of it you're eating.  That makes for a more detailed entry in your food diary.

Another important thing to consider when you are keeping your Food Diary, says Julian Hooks from Review that Diet, is what you were doing while you were eating.  He lists 4 important questions to ask yourself:

1. Did you eat in front of the TV?
2. Were you snacking while preparing a meal or cleaning up afterwards?
3. Do you eat while doing other tasks like reading or working?
4. Do you frequently eat as a social activity?

"These are most often times that we eat without even realizing it," he says.  "And more importantly, eating while we are not even hungry."

So if a Food Diary is something that you feel will work for you then I encourage you to start one today!!!  It may be another step in your journey to help you realize your cravings towards food and turn them into cravings towards God!

If you require a template to follow for your Food Diary, consider this one from Review that Diet.

Tired of Feeling Guilty

Eating Too Much

It started as a child.  I would sneak snacks out of my parents cupboard all the time.  I can even recall at one point, my Dad found an empty chip bag sandwiched between the couch cushions in the basement.

Food guilt.

Okay, maybe when I was younger it wasn't so much feeling guilty about what I ate but rather feeling guilty that I got caught having things I knew I wasn't supposed to be eating without asking.

Now, as an adult, I find myself feeling guilty when I eat things that I know are not constructive towards my healthy eating journey and towards my journey of craving God more than I crave food.

Have you experienced it?  That gnawing sense of guilt that we feel after we have reached for that tub of ice cream after the end of a stressful day?  Or after you have sat and watched a movie and, without even realizing it, have polished off an entire bag of chips?

Do you ever wonder what it is that is making you feel that way?

According to Well and Good NYC's article When Food Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself, "post-dining guilt can be seriously damaging to your psyche."

I agree.  However, not for the same reasoning that the article does.

I think that the guilt we are facing after we binge eat or make unhealthy food choices comes from within our heart.  It is the guilt that we feel when we realize that we have turned to food instead of turning to God when we have had a bad or stressful day.

We have to consider what it is that causes us to binge eat or make unhealthy food choices to begin with.

When it comes to "dieting" most of us deny our bodies things that it actually needs.  By doing this, we in turn start to turn to "pleasure foods" or foods that we know are not what our bodies need but rather what our body craves.  This usually relates to sugary goodies.

It is these foods that make us feel less than satisfied and in turn, make us feel guilty about ourselves.

So what do we do?  How do we balance out eating sensibly and healthy and not giving into our cravings?

First, and most important, is to pray.  We need to remember that none of this would be possible without God.  I know that I mention this each time I write.  However, it truly has been the only thing that has kept me going lately.  Without God I would have given up this journey a long time ago and I would not be where I am now.

Secondly, we need to listen to our bodies.  This may mean allowing yourself to have a tiny treat every once in awhile.  If this is what you need in order to refrain from binge eating and feeling guilty about your choices then go ahead!  What works for one person with respect to their journey will not always work for you!

Lastly, turn to friends and family who can help you continue with your journey.  Have an accountability partner; someone that you can talk to at the end of each week about how things have been going and the choices that you have made.

And don't be afraid to have that piece of chocolate at your next family function.  We don't need to be ashamed of having a treat every now and then.  We are, after all, allowed to treat ourselves occasionally too!

Dear friends, I urge you to bring all of your struggles before God when it comes to your journey to crave Him more.  If you can feel the stress rising and know that this is a trigger to your unhealthy eating habits, come before God on bended knee and lay it all before the cross.  You may just find yourself feeling satisfied without having to reach for that tub of Chocolate Fudge Crackle Ice Cream.

Our Bodies Are a Living Temple

When I began this journey almost 3 years ago now, I never really took time to consider the fact that what I had been doing to my body was not only unhealthy but also against what scripture teaches us about our bodies.

As I stated in my post about Focusing on Yourself, we need to remind ourselves that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit.  (1 Corinthians 6 vv 19 to 20)

In the Old Testament, the temple was a place of worship.  Great pride was taken in the design of it and it was crafted with care.  It took many years for it to be built.  1 Kings 6 vs 38 states that Solomon spent 7 years building the temple.  They cut and prepared timber and stone for it's crafting (1 Kings 5 vs 18).

7 years.  That is a great deal of time.  It is not like he just rushed through it and had it built in a year or even 2.  Solomon spent 7 years building the temple.

And rightfully he should have.

The temple was the place where people went to worship God.  It was a holy and glorified place.

It brings my thoughts back around to how I was treating my "temple of the Holy Spirit."  How I was neglecting it and pouring unhealthy things into it.

These days I have begun thinking of my body as something that needs to be filled up with spiritual nourishment. In order for me to take care of my body, I need to fill myself up with the word of God and allow him to work in me.

My body belongs entirely to God.  I am not free to do with it as I will.  I need to follow his teachings and I need allow myself to listen to Him and to lead where He has called me.

I guess another way to think of it is when you borrow something from your friend.  It is not something that belongs to us so we take care not to damage it or ruin it.

Why then, dear friends, can we not treat our bodies the same way?

I know that I was not purposefully treating my body poorly.  I was not intentionally treating this body that I had been given with disrespect.

In fact, I didn't even know that I was doing it!

I don't know about you, but when I see that my body is a "temple of the Holy Spirit" and that it needs to be my place of worship to God, I find myself thinking more about what I put into it then I did before.

Dear friends, I encourage you all to think of your bodies as the living temples that they were designed by God to be.  Raise your hands in worship to Him and glorify Him in your daily living.

Call on Him when you need Him and fill yourself up with spiritual nourishment.  It will only help you that much more on your own personal journey with your Heavenly Father.


"Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."  (2 Corinthians 7 vs 1)

Emotional Roller Coasters

My friends, let me tell you that these last few weeks have been some of the most emotional weeks I have had to endure.  We have gone through some changes this past week and my emotions have been on a very wild roller coaster because of it.

Emotions are a hard thing for me to handle.  It is not like I am a woman who sees crying as weak, because I don't!  I believe that it is important to let your emotions show when the time is right.  It is okay to cry in the comfort of someone you love or to be angry (as long as your anger is controlled) or, best of all, to be happy and excited!  Yet for me, emotional roller coasters trigger something in my mind and body that makes it seem like it is okay to eat.  It is okay to reach for those "comfort foods" and it is okay to indulge in things that I know are not okay for me.

I will admit, it was comforting to eat whatever I wanted and when I wanted . . . . at the time.  Yet here I sit finding no comfort in the guilt that I am feeling or in the way my clothes are fitting.

The worst part about it all, is the fact that when you eat "comfort foods" your body tends to turn around and want those all the time.  It doesn't matter how much you try and push them away, all your body can do is crazy those foods that you have allowed yourself to indulge in for a period of time.  And let me tell you first hand, those cravings SUCK!

Trying to turn emotional eating into a healthy eating habit has been one of the hardest steps in my mountain that I am having to face.  I have been an emotional eater for quite some time and I have a feeling that it will be the one thing that Satan will throw at me again and again to make me feel off the path that I am trying to build.

I must admit, I find myself becoming easily discouraged at this point in my life.  I have said to my husband that I feel like once I am finally starting to walk with one foot in front of the other there is something that comes along that knocks me back down.

Yet I am not here for a pity party.  I am not here to write to have you all say "Poor Laura!"  The point of my writing is to be a sounding board for those of you that could possibly be going through the same things I am.  I write because I enjoy it.  I write because it is a release for me.  I write because when I am distracted with writing to each and every one of you, my mind is off of food and focused on something more powerful then the hold that food has over me.

Please understand that my life is not a complicated one.  It is just a life where I can faithfully admit that I have a problem.  Like most problems it is not going to go away in the blink of an eye.  I can't snap my fingers and be the perfect, size 8, woman that I dream to be.  I can, however, walk hand in hand with my heavenly Father as I go through my struggles and know that, despite my shortcomings and despite my earthly tumbles, he loves me more then even I can fathom.

Take heart, dear friends.  We are not making this journey alone.  We have the strength of a Father who carries us when we stumble.  We have the power of a loving God who wants us to succeed and who wants us to have a life fulfilled in Him.

I've Got That Empty Feeling

An empty bottomless pit feeling.  It's not fun.

I like to think that the only thing empty is my stomach, but if I am being honest with myself then I know that this is not the case.  My body may be obese, but my spirituality is facing a period of starvation.

One thing I am coming to understand through Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst is that I have spent many years of my life trying to find satisfaction and gratification in food.  I was trying to be filled up physically while not concentrating on being filled up spiritually.

Let me clarify something.  When I say that my stomach is empty I am not meaning literally.  Right now the empty feeling is not because I have not eaten, but rather because I am eating the correct portion sizes of food and I am still hungry.  Over eating for as many years as I have causes the stomach to stretch and I am now in the process of trying to "shrink" it.  It may not be the most enjoyable process ever, but at least I know that I am making healthy choices.  As I type this I just finished eating some almonds and an apple for my afternoon snack.  My stomach?  Still hungry!

It is interesting to consider that although I did just eat a snack and know that it was fulfilling, I am feeling like I am lacking something.  The truth is, with respect to food there is nothing lacking.  My body is just screaming at me, begging me to fill it with some kind of sugary goodness that I am sure is lurking in one of my kitchen cupboards.  I will not give in.

I always thought that praying and talking to God about my weight was, in a way, being vain.  I never thought that I really should give it all over to him.  To be honest, I thought it foolish.  Yet today I have found myself deeper in prayer then I have been in the last few weeks.  I have found myself talking to God more and trying to find my strength through Him.  I have found myself, quite literally, on my knees.

I want this journey to not only be a physical journey, but also a spiritual one.  I look forward to my increasing talks with God and to the times that He will bring me to my knees.  I know that I have a long way to go, but I am taking them one tiny little step at a time.