I Did My Food Journal...Now What?
In my 12 years of personal training, coaching people on achieving fitness has never been the challenge.
You see, exercise is an external addition to your body. If you were able to regulate sleep well, eat the right levels of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, and just move around for 10,000-15,000 steps, there is a very high chance that your body would be deemed ‘healthy’.
No additional exercise needed.
The challenge has always been nutrition.
The old cliché says that ‘food is fuel’, it is so much more than that.
Food is social. Food is comforting. Food is fun (ever make cookies with a 3 year old?). Food is status. Food is pleasurable. Food is a necessity for life.
Because of the reasons above, trust me, the list continues. People’s relationship with food varies. This variability makes coaching nutrition exponentially challenging.
*Disclaimer* I am not a Registered Dietician. The contents of this article is not medical advice, nor should it be intended as such. If you have food intolerances, medical conditions surrounding food, OR a question about meal plans for specific diets, I 10/10 recommend meeting with a local RD in your area!
Okay, now that the fancy mambo jumbo is out of the way, let's get in to what the title of the article says.
If you’ve ever asked a Personal Trainer, Nutritionist, or Registered Dietician about food then you know what’s coming…The food journal.
Another quick aside…Yes, there is a difference between those three professions and their qualifications to coach you on your food intake. For an example of how a Personal Trainer can help you with nutrition, check out this article I wrote last year.
The food journal.
Maybe the most feared yet underrated piece to coaching nutrition. For those who may not know, a food journal is simply when you write down what you eat over a 3-7 day period. Typically, you record the food you ate, the amount you ate, and the time you ate it. There are variations of this, but these are the nuts and bolts that I see stay the most consistent.
As the title of this article says, you aren’t here to learn about those pesky food journals, rather, what the hell do you do with the food journal once you’ve completed it?
I wanted to provide some insight on how I 1) coach people with their nutrition and 2) give you some strategies you can use at home and 3) teach you a thing or two.
So let’s get in to it.
1) Food journals are just data collection.
Similar to exercise, without doing the workout 1-3 times, how do you what weights to use, how long it takes to complete it, and if you can feel confident doing it?
Take an example of my week last week. What you are looking at is my total consumption of macronutrients. The red is my total amount of protein, yellow is total amount of carbohydrates, and blue is the amount of fat eaten each day.
Check out the red (my protein).
You’ll see on the first 3 days I stayed pretty consistent. Those first 3 days I had the mindset while doing this food log of “okay, Casey, just record and see what it looks like”.
What it looks like on days 1,2 and 3 is that my protein intake was lighter than it should be, and that without additional effort on my end, won’t increase.
Check out how the red bar increases on Thursday and Friday. Because of the first 3 days of data collection, I was able to make adjustments to finish my week out.
So when you’re looking at your completed food log, assess the totals of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Objectively look at them, and ask where you can make changes,
2) Tweak the 80%, not the 20%.
Another thing worth looking at is the number of times a particular food item has been entered in to your journal.
I’ve found that the vast majority of people tend to eat the same thing 80% of the time, but fixate on the 20% of the food they eat as having the most negative impact on their health.
That just simply isn’t the case.
Go through your food journal and look at the consistent items. Seek strategies to adjust those items, not necessarily remove them, rather, see if there is a way to enhance them so that they fit your nutritional goals better.
Referring back to point number one on this list, I eat a ton of greek yogurt for breakfast. It’s quick, easy, and gets the job done. Knowing that I wanted to increase my overall protein intake, I added a scoop of chocolate protein powder. What was already high in protein food, turned in to a protein anchor for my daily intake.
The above is just an example on how you can use your food journal to take what you already are doing, and make it better.
3) Your food journal will tell you if you’re hitting your daily calorie goal.
This sounds like a ‘duh’ statement, but hear me out. 95% of the clients I work with want to either lose weight or gain weight. In order to accomplish either of those, you have to eat under (lose weight) or over (gain weight) a caloric threshold.
95% of the time, if you are unable to achieve your weight loss or weight gain goal, it’s because you are not eating to your threshold.
Insert food journal.
If my goal is to lose weight, I need to eat under the white line. After the first 3 days if data collection, I was able to set a realistic goal for my outcomes and adjusted my calorie totals to reflect that.
Notice, I did this AFTER my first 3 days of entry. Those first 3 days were truly data collection and not a part of my nutritional coaching.
Without a food journal, I wouldn’t have known my total calories. I can tell you that my assumption was that I was eating where I needed to be. I can also tell you that my assumption sucked. I needed the visualization, and I also needed the information so I could give myself feedback.
You see, the above three points do not work in isolation. The food journal follow up is truly cohesive.
The first 3 days collect a baseline of information. From there you can assess the following…
Am I eating the correct total calories for my weight loss/gain goal?
Can I adjust my carbohydrates/proteins/fats to assist in my weight loss/gain goal?
What are my 80% foods and do I need to adjust them to meet my weight loss/gain goal?
Run through those three questions with your food journal in hand, and give it a go. If you have any questions, or even if you want me to take a look at your food journal, smash the reply button and send it over. I would be happy to give you my input!