Ways to Motivate You to Track Your Food Intake These Holidays
Ways to Motivate You to Track Your Food Intake These Holidays
The season of festivities, hot chocolates, and gift-giving is right around the corner! While it is easy to get lost in the ripple of the most wonderful time of the year, it’s also important to try to balance between a healthy diet and enjoying the different food traditions that we get to fully revel in only once a year.
One approach to achieving this balance is by tracking your food intake. Its benefits are not only valuable for people who are trying to lose weight, but to any individual who wants to take ownership of their health. Tracking your food intake allows you to learn more about your eating habits, changes in your energy levels, and observe any digestive issues. Here are three ways to motivate you to track your food intake this holiday season:
Detect what you think are just “little extras”
When you take note of everything you ate in a day, you could surprise yourself with little things that quickly accumulate, like a chocolate here or there, or a piece of pie everyday. These little treats could and might turn into a big health issue down the road. These “little extras” you eat in-between meals may include an extra teaspoon of sugar in your coffee, or tiny pieces of holiday cookies, or candies we munch on while watching Christmas movies. Having a treat is important, but if treats become daily habits, then we longer call it a “treat”. Keeping a record of your food intake will help you realize your daily food habits and aid in balancing your diet.
Showcase what you are doing well
Keeping and updating a food intake tracker regularly will help you discover not only eating habits that are poor but it can also allow you to see which ones you are doing well. This will encourage you to avoid certain foods that trigger a sensitivity like an upset stomach or migraine, and most importantly, to know which ones you should continue eating.
Highlight food information
There are a number of food-related symptoms you might be experiencing while enjoying food festivities in the holiday season. It could be heartburn, nausea, stomach cramps, or allergies. But when you make it a habit to track your food intake, most especially their nutrition content, sugar, and calories, it would be more convenient to pinpoint what is causing these health symptoms you may be experiencing and perform immediate remedies.
Keep all these records in one place like My Health Journal’s Food Intake Tracker. It has tables that lets you record the date, time, and food you ate, as well as comments on these eating habits: if it’s not part of your original diet plan, how much you have consumed, and even allows you to take note of how your body is reacting to it. Remember: balance and consistency is key to help keep your health in check.
Have a healthy holiday season!
- My Health Journals Team xo