Do any of you keep a food journal? How do you write in a food journal? Is it like a like list of dates, times, and food you ate. Do you write feeling behind it? Are food journals helpful?
Food journals can be helpful. For me they end up being a trigger but that's because my ED really went down hill when I got obsessed with Weight Watchers. And in that program you're supposed to keep track of what you eat and calculate points, etc. So now I'm not supposed to keep one. But I know that for a lot of people they are helpful. Most dieticians like you to keep a food journal.
It's basically days, times, what you ate. How you felt, etc. It's basically whatever you want it to be. There isn't really a set way to do one. Hope this helps.
Lauren
i keep a food journal. i'm not really sure how helpful it is for me, but it doesn't negatively affect me, so i just keep doing it. it's basically just a list of the times and what i ate all day. the reason i'm not sure how helpful it is for me is cuz i think about food 24/7, so i already have each day totally worked out in my head and could probably write the damn thing down at 7am and only be off by 15 minutes or so.
so yeah, that's basically what it is. i think it's pretty important for people who don't correctly follow their food plan, so their therapist/nutritionist can see what they're ACTUALLY eating. but i follow mine, so i don't know what it really does for me.
that being said, it IS a nice, convenient place for me to record my thoughts and feelings about the food i eat so when i go to therapy on Saturday i can actually look and see how my week has been. do you know what i mean? it's good for keeping track, but sometimes i worry that it's just tightening my control over every little thing that has to do with food. like sometimes, it'll be 2:52 and i'll be hungry for my snack, but i'll force myself to wait till 3:00 because it looks "better" in my journal. weird, i know.
but yeah, i don't think a food journal is harmful and it's not really a pain to do it. i'm not sure i totally understand why i'm supposed to keep one, but i kind of like it anyway. hope this helps!
I am required in treatment to keep food journals. I think they are helpful although for me like Lauren they can sometimes be triggering. The biggest issue with the food journal is that you have to be honest about what you eat, don't eat, or throw up, if you aren't willing to do that I wouldn't suggest keeping one. My treatment people use it to make sure that I am eating (anorexia) and to see if I am throwing up. It has been helpful in keeping me from throwing up b/c I get really embarrassed when they give me the grill about what I've written...
I kept one for a long time..i wrote out what i ate and it was very regimented in that every day would be roughly the same amt of cals per meal and snack- with 3 meals and 2 snacks. The food itself varied but the amoutn stayed roughly the same. I found it to be so helpful because eventually i was able to like judge meal sizes and things like that because i had 'practised' by writing it out so many times, that i knew it was ok to eat. That was a while ago and I now don't use the journal at all, but Im still able to judge good meal sizes, expecially when put into unexpected or stressful situations (liek the pizza post...I would have 2 slices and a drink for lunch). I guess it can be a trigger for others though, so it really depends on what you feel is right for you..
