We hope you guys are having fun with the Love Your Life Challenge so far. Today’s post asked you to keep a food journal, which many of us has done, but this is a different type of food journal. This is a food and mood journal!
While most people keep a food journal to track calories, we find it to be extremely important for making the connection between the food you are eating and how you feel. That’s why we wanted to share the importance of keeping a food and MOOD journal. By doing this, you may begin to see how food is affecting your mood, energy levels, and even digestion.
It’s important to put details in this journal…
- Did you eat standing up? Sitting down?
- Were you in a rush when you were eating?
- Did you eat slowly or quickly?
- Were you with friends, family, or by yourself?
- What time did you eat..are you eating consistently?
There are so many factors that may be affecting what you eat, how you eat it and how it makes you feel afterwards. For instance, stress hinders digestion and may cause you to feel tired, bloated, and gassy after a meal. You may also find that when you are stressed you eat more…or you eat less!
This type of journal also allows you to make the connection between blood sugar balancing meals and possible food intolerances.
- Did you feel hungry and slightly tired 30 minutes after eating an apple? Did you feel energized and full after eating an apple with almond butter? Which sustained you?
- Did you get a headaches each time you had dairy, gluten, soy, peanuts, etc?
While one day is a huge start to connecting with your food on a more emotional level, doing this over a period of time really allows you to dig deep into your food habits and how that affects your mood!
Use this outline for a journal as a guide for how you want to keep your food diary!
We Hope you enjoy this exercise and learn a lot about yourself along the way! Let us know!