The food diary is perhaps the most important tool in recovering from problematic eating and eating disorders. It is used not to count calories but to become conscious! This tool breaks the highway hypnosis of a food trance. It will help you understand how you use food in your life. Problematic eaters use food to disconnect; therefore, it is essential to implement strategies such as this one to connect with the present moment and, in turn, with yourself.
To change your eating disorder, you must shift the thinking that surrounds food and your life. The food diary is the first tool in this process. It records exactly what you are eating from moment to moment as well as where you eat, how you eat, when you eat, and what your feelings are during the eating session. The focus isn’t on the actual foods as much as on your feelings while eating and the amount you need to eat in relation to those feelings.
Although it may feel difficult and even punishing to write down and record your food and feelings during each eating episode, this step is essential when identifying the root causes of your problematic eating. Be gentle in this process, but also be as honest and as clear as you can.
Use the example provided and record everything you eat (not just things you feel happy about eating). If things feel “off” with food, continue to stay with the process. Write in your food diary as soon as you have eaten and be as clear as possible.
Writing down your comments about what was going on when you were eating is the most important thing here!
Rather than focusing on calorie counting or dieting, you should focus on eliminating dieting and normalizing your eating so your daily eating routine begins to look like a more regular pattern of three meals and two snacks per day. If you have used a food log to some capacity in the past, please let that go, as this process is used to be present rather than to “figure out” the food. Being present is about being conscious from one minute to the next, throughout the day, so you are able to make food decisions that you are happy with.
Record the time you eat.
Record what you eat and drink—and roughly how much. This task isn’t about adding up calories. Just write down the amount you are eating as accurately as possible. This detail is helpful in determining whether you are eating enough food at each sitting. It is also important to list all substances you ingest (alcohol, drugs, vitamins, health products, etc.) to understand whether they affect how much you eat.
Discern whether you have overeaten. Recording whether you feel you have overeaten is important in the pursuit of giving your body the adequate amount of food in the long term.
Consider how you are feeling and what your thoughts are when you are eating. How did you feel before eating? Were you anxious, depressed, or angry? Also, do you feel full, starved, or somewhere in between?
What triggers might be present (interpersonal, emotional, and environmental)? For example, “I ate a box of cookies. I felt anxious, upset, and angry. (Trigger: “I had an argument with my husband.”) As a group, we will look at alternate behaviors in response to the triggers you list.
The following is an example for the layout of your food diary in a notebook. Begin now.
Time:
What was consumed?
Did I overeat? Did I undereat?
Feelings and thoughts:
Triggers:
After monitoring your eating for a few days, you can look at the diary and begin to identify patterns in your eating. Record anything that you notice.
Answer the following questions:
Are there times, places, or people that trigger binges, restrictions, or other problematic eating?
Do any specific situations trigger binges or restrictions?
What types of food do you eat during binges? Do these foods vary?
Are some foods triggers?
Are there any foods that help avoid overeating or restriction?
Are there long periods of time when you eat nothing at all?
Are your eating times more than four hours apart in a single day?
Are days or hours of strict dieting often followed by days or hours of bingeing?
Creating a regular pattern of eating is the goal here. Therefore, the diet mentality is one that the food diary will uncover, and restrictions of any kind will begin to become apparent. Eating Disorders often try to hide these so this is key.
It is important that to record feelings and emotions here. Noticed thoughts can also be recorded for observation.
Some examples of “noticed thoughts” might be:
I am a failure, I just can’t stick to eating healthy.
Nothing ever works to help me stay present.
I will never beat this.
I am defective. There is something wrong with me.
An Extra Intention
Also begin to pay attention to how much more present you are with people throughout this process. Do you find that you are able to hold conversations easier when you have peaceful days? Can you listen with less anxiety? What are you experiencing? When we find ourselves disassociating with people, we come to see that we are replicating this behavior in our relationships with food.
