Why to Maintain a Food Diary: A Key to Mindful Eating and Fertility

Why to Maintain a Food Diary

Healthy Foods :

When I ask my patients trying to conceive about their eating habits, they often draw a blank. Questions like “What did you have for breakfast yesterday?” or “When was the last time you had junk food?” are met with confusion. Many wonder why, instead of immediately prescribing fertility treatments, I’m asking about their diet.

The truth is, your body’s ability to conceive is intricately linked to what you eat. While age is an important factor in fertility, it’s not the only one. Your body needs to feel safe and well-nourished to support conception, ovulation, fertilization, and embryo growth. This is where maintaining a food diary becomes crucial in your journey to conceive.

Junk Foods :

As someone who believes that FOOD is MAGIC and can be the solution to many of our problems, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be mindful of what we eat, especially when trying to conceive.

We must brutally accept that we often don’t eat right. Correcting this is crucial while you’re on your Trying To Conceive journey. Here’s a suggestion from a fellow ‘messed up eater’: maintain a food diary. Let’s get into more details

What is a Food Diary?

It’s nothing fancy. It’s just a documentation of what you have eaten over the day. Breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, beverages. Even the most conscious eater, may not be getting the recommended daily allowance of macro or micro nutrients appropriate for their weight, height, age and lifestyle. And I say this with a lot of experience. Correcting this, which is probably the root cause of sub-fertility is extremely important.

It’s common to feel over whelmed when words like RDA, are thrown around. Don’t be! The next couple of paragraphs are for people who are in their Trying To Conceive journey, having issues with fertility, undergoing fertility treatments. Having a conscious understanding of what goes into your body to help you survive through the day is quintessential.

When you maintain a food diary and write down everything that you have eaten or drunk in a day, you get to understand the mind-body equation of hunger and satiety well. There are two hormones in our body which determine our eating habits. Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone, the more of it gives us hunger pangs and pushes us to eat. Leptin is the satiety hormone, which does the opposite. Somewhere in between our body also deals with something called as ‘cravings’. And when you are on your weight loss journey or trying to conceive journey – cravings are not your best friend! Giving in to them is silently yet possibly changing the whole hormone balance, energy homeostasis and sugar metabolism. A pop of candy after meals which started as taste test of a new bar hanging at home, may not even seem like a big deal, only for you to realize couple of months later that your body is accustomed to eating sweet after meals. And that’s a silent craving there my love!

Let me tell you something super interesting. We eat because we are wired to act on the lines of hunger. Our body demands food. We also eat because our emotions drive us closer to food. And this is not hunger. This is purely an interplay at the ARN – Appetite Regulatory Network of the Hypothalamus. This is happening at a different level of consciousness. Maintaining a food diary can help identify and modify these patterns.

Benefits of Maintaining a Food Diary

Weight loss and weight loss maintenance. If you’re someone who’s concentrating on reducing your calorie intake .
Mindful eating - you don’t need that extra packet of chips which you reach out to when you’re bored. You don’t have to munch in .
Identifying trigger foods and food sensitivities.
Address stress eating

The first step in building better habits is to be aware of the existing habits. The whole world is now talking about GUT MICROBIOME and its role in health and harmony of the body. Its role in practically functioning of every organ in the body from digestion, removing toxins, fertility, longevity etc. Looking back in the past couple of years and our heavy dependence on antibiotics for various physical ailments, our consumption of processed and ultra processed foods would have taken a huge toll on the MICROBIOME and there has been a significant increase in the incidence and prevalence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Gluten sensitivities and food allergies.

By maintaining a food diary, you can better relate to your body’s signs and symptoms in response to specific foods. There is better relatability.

If You’re New to Maintaining a FoodDiary, Here’s a Step-By-Step Guide:
If you are a virgin at FOOD DIARY, here’s a step by step guide to starting and maintaining one, without over whelming yourself.

Start slow, it is not a competition to win. You don’t have an opposition. So stop fighting with yourself, start it like a fun activity.
Document your major meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Give details about the quantity, company and ambience.
Once you get into the flow of documenting the major meals of the day, level it up by noting down beverages. From your morning coffee to the peer pressure coffee you have in that office break. The more details you include, the better is your awareness. And being aware of your own habits is the first step to mindful clean eating.

Do this for about 15 days before you notch it up by including your snacks. Don’t forget the midnight biryani. I live in Chennai and the city is lit with food parks and stalls till 4am! And by lit, I don’t mean lit with lights, it’s also lit with people!

If you have come all this while, you probably survived the most difficult part of any task – CONSISTENCY! So why not write down a line or two about how you feel after each meal? I was a picky eater as a kid and made my mum go round and round for every single meal! I know a couple of my friends who are still picky in their eating habits! What motivated me to outgrow mine is the pure joy of being mindful trying to live long! It’s as simple as that. When I first started a food diary, eating at a fried chicken counter, made me happy. But when I did this on a repeat mode, more often than necessary, it made me aware. Aware of the fact that those trans fats are doing more harm than good. My happiness was short lived. Soon, I started to write ‘feeling guilty’ after a stomach full of fried chicken meal. When I did it for the third time in a row – that’s when I decided, ghosh I’m done with this.

Six Evidence-Based Reasons to Start Maintaining a Food Diary Today:

Did I just make you a pro already ? Now to juice it all up, 6 compelling evidence based reasons for starting your FOOD DIARY today .

DISORDERED EATING - We eat because we are hungry, we also eat because we are stressed, because we are emotionally triggered. Journalling takes a bit of time but helps people over come these emotional and environmental triggers. FOOD DIARY is like an Emotional Barometer in disguise.
DEVELOPING A ROUTINE - Of course there is thrill in spontaneity, surprise, thanks to this amazing neurotransmitter - ADRENALIN. It gives us the strength to possibly move a car when high. But you know, there’s peace in routine. There’s peace in predictability. There’s peace in structure. And that works best for a mindful clean eating behavior. People who are in weight loss journey or are trying to conceive, need to be more predictable of their eating habits. From the amount of calories consumed to plating a balanced meal - the more simpler it is, the more is the consistency associated with it!
ACCOUNTABILITY - this is what changed my picky eating and stress cravings. Even if it’s just being accountable to a non living object like a diary, you still end up being judged and scrutinized by your brain. And accountability can be a powerful motivator, been there, done that!
GOAL SETTING AND ACHIEVEMENT - I’m someone who believes setting realistic goals is the key to a successful outcome. For some it may be eating more veggies, for others it could be as simple as limiting junk to twice a week. There is power in ticking off your goal for the day. And I’m saying this with a lot of experience. When I achieved my daily ‘fruit goal’, boy that felt like an achievement. When I saw myself ticking off fruit every single day for a consecutive 21 days - that felt powerful. That motivated me to stay stronger, longer!
RESTART & REFLECT - Everyone’s on their unique special journey. Reflecting and restarting are a part and parcel of life. Flipping through the pages can offer valuable insights on their journey, growth, resilience and determination.
MINDFUL EATING - The essence of this blog. It takes a lot more than just the thought of eating healthy. By consistently recording what you’re eating, you are being more present for yourself. You are becoming more aware of what you eat, more aware of those practices which you never thought as bad, rather those falsely ‘once in a while’ practices, which are more than that! With this awareness comes an opportunity to make changes!

And that’s how we end it!

Conclusion

Maintaining a food diary is more than just tracking what you eat. It’s about becoming aware of your eating habits, understanding your body’s needs, and making conscious choices. Whether you’re trying to conceive, lose weight, or simply eat healthier, a food diary can be an invaluable tool in your journey towards mindful eating and overall well-being.

Remember, the key to successfully maintaining a food diary is consistency and honesty. Start today, and you might be surprised at the insights you gain and the positive changes you can make in your eating habits and overall health.