Just over a year ago, I competed at "Luciapokalen" - the biggest amateur Fitness/Body Building event in Scandinavia. The preparations for the competition required me to go on a strict, calorie restricting diet for several weeks. I knew a lot about nutrition and food before that too, but keeping a food journal definitely was an interesting eye opener in many ways for me.
Today I'm more aware of how my body responds and reacts to different types of food and nutritents. I encourage everyone that's interested in learning more about nutrition and how your own body functions to keep a food diary, if only for 3-7 days.
To become more "Food Smart", this is what you'll do:
Go to www.fitday.com and create an account (it takes less than 2 minutes and it's free...)
Record the foods and drinks you consume and add everything it all to your "Food Log" (as accurate as possible - eat like you would normally and don't try to fool yourself by not recording food or snacks!).
Now do this for a few days (suggestion, 3-7 days, they don't have to be consecutive days) and you will be able to see charts and tables of your daily nutrient intakes (vitamins, carbs, fat, minerals, etc)...You can set up custom nutrition goals and if you record your physical activity you will get an estimate of your daily calorie balance too.
Hopefully this will make you a little more aware of the contents of what you are eating, how it makes you feel and perhaps also how you distribute your calories during the course of a day and if you could make any changes/smarter choices in your food habits.
Just to clarify - I'm not generally a supporter of "calorie-counting" AT ALL. I'm more a fan of a physically active lifestyle combined with smart food choices (along with some unhealthy ones, occasionally) - who want's to be on a diet for the rest of his/her life?
"You will lose weight when dieting, but it's mostly water...from crying". Unknown
More on my personal nutrition philosophy will follow in future posts!
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