Snack Tracking - What are You Really Putting in Your Mouth
I've kept a food diary off and on for many years. In fact, I even have a food log you can download for free. It's a great tool to keep track of your diet, what you eat, what you drink, and make changes for a healthier lifestyle. I began keeping a food diary when I found out that I was pre-diabetic (kind of like being sort of pregnant). When I made a conscious decision to keep track of what I did eat, I began to make better choices, but yet I found that even with meal changes I still felt the same, I wasn't necessarily losing weight, and my blood sugar levels were staying the same and even going higher.
My nutritionist asked if I was keeping track of what I was eating between meals, and I realized I was keeping track maybe half of the time. I realized that maybe it wasn't the meals that were the problem, but what I was choosing to snack on between meals. Those mindless times I'd just snack on a few bites of this or that and not really remembering or thinking that it would count.
During the holidays I realized that mindless snacking was taking it's toll - so I wanted a concrete way to find a way to curb and keep track of what I was actually snacking on between meals, and after ten days - I'm pretty surprised and it's been an eye opening experience, and I'm making changes. Here's what I did, and how you can do it as well:
I began by wanting to be aware of what I was eating between meals - so for the first five days I made no changes in my eating habits. All I did was take a one gallon ziploc bag for each day. Every time I went into the kitchen for a snack - whatever I ate, I put the same amount into the plastic bag. By the end of the day, I had filled the bag with the snacks that had gone in my mouth. After five days, I had a concrete visual of what I was really eating. It was the good, the bad, and the ugly. There were pretzels, chips, candy, a couple tablespoons of ice cream, fruit, nuts, etc. I was always really good about recording the snacks that I planned for, but the mindless snacking not so much. I was also able to ascertain the quantity of snacking I had been doing during the day.
I was pleasantly surprised on January 5 when I saw that Hoda Kotb on the Today Show shared that she was doing almost the same thing I had been doing. I felt that I was on trend so to speak.
For the last five days, I have modified the routine. Instead of filling my bag as I snacked with what I snacked on, I filled my gallon bag in the morning with acceptable snacks, emptied the bag as I snacked. For the most part, this has been working. There have been a couple times that I caught myself going to my snack bag, wrinkling my nose, and heading to the pantry for a cookie or crackers. Sometimes I gave in, but for the most part, I've been good about sticking to the acceptable snacks.
Another addition I made to the routine is drinking bottled water while I snacked. Every time I would go get a snack, I had to drink water. This has helped me stay full, and has really helped in me getting rid of the mindless Dr. Pepper drinking.
In this New Year of taking control of what goes in my mouth, I realize that I have to be conscious of what I'm doing and mindful of my mindless snacking. It's so much easier to plan ahead and take out the whimsy spur of the minute factor. The scales are thanking me for it as well. I'm down two pounds.
