Food Journals and My New Found Appreciation for Them

                                                            

Ever since I can remember, I have suffered from stomach problems. I was constantly miserable, sick to my stomach, bloated, and just overall did not feel well. My relationship with food has always been extremely complicated. I love food. I love the taste of it, but more often than not I overrate, or ate too little, or ate things that made me sick, simply because I liked the taste of it. I never once stopped to think about why I always felt sick or bloated. I just thought that's who I am, and I would just have to get used to it. Of course, I had read and heard suggestions from nutritionists about keeping a food diary, and I always thought it was such a fun concept but not for me. I am organized and OCD, but keeping a food diary felt tedious and like a waste of time. I thought that I ate relatively healthy, until I started keeping track of everything I was eating.

Finally, at the beginning of this year, I decided that it was time for me to start. This was not necessarily something I was doing out of an interest in counting calories, I was doing this in an attempt to figure out what I was doing wrong. Why was I always feeling so sick. I am 28 and my stomach never feels good. Ever. I decided I was done feeling that way and have since taken the time to track my foods through my Fit Bit app, and through a personal hand written journal. My app helps me track my macros/calories, but my journal has allowed me to write down how I feel during the day and during my workout. It is incredibly eye-opening. I don't believe a person can fully realize what they are eating and how it is affecting them unless they make a conscious decision to truly recognize those feelings we are experiencing due to the things we are using to fuel our bodies. 

I haven't quite mastered the art of eating healthy without flaw. Aside from eating healthier, it has also enabled me to recognize the things that I should probably be avoiding. I eat healthy and consciously for the most part. Last night, I had the best intentions of making some salmon for dinner and bringing the leftovers for lunch. My salmon was thawed out yesterday and ready to cook. I pulled the two I had thawed out of the packaging, one of them literally disintegrated in my hands. It was complete mush. Disgusting. I have never seen that until last night. The other one was fine, so I cooked it and had my healthy dinner. The mushy salmon though meant that lunch wasn't as straight forward as I had hoped. After cooking and eating and doing dishes, all I wanted to do was curl up and watch "The Bachelor". That meant Ramen was for lunch. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Ramen. I'm no snob. I also enjoy doctoring up my Ramen. At work there were some pickled jalapenos and I decided it sounded absolutely delicious to add a few to my microwaved noodles. Sure enough, it was delicious. I had zero guilt and went about my day. Fast-forward to at home after work. I could not get through my workout without having to use the restroom. A year ago, I would have thought nothing of this. I would have assumed it was just my stupid sensitive stomach and been miserable, but today, I know exactly what caused my uncontrollable bowel movements. TMI? From here on out, I plan to avoid pickled jalapenos in ramen noodles at all costs. 

Long story short, I have become a huge proponent for food diaries. I believe they can change lives if a person is serious enough about keeping up with it.