The Food Diary

One of the most important tools is a food diary. Now this won’t help me straight away, but I know it will come into play at a later point, and it will be good if I don’t have to start from scratch then, which is why I am starting it today. TODAY, Nicky!

The food diary is not there to give me guilt, but it will help me see in what situations I eat and why. It reveals the reasons for my eating and lays the base for changing behaviour.

Here is a table which I find useful to analyse the situation. I know it will take a few minutes each time I’ve eaten something, but really investing that time will be worth it when it helps me deal with my eating disorder.

Here is my food diary. I'm sure you will be fascinated   ;-)

 





































The tricky part is to write things down right away. I tend to, intentionally or not, forget half the stuff I’ve eaten, especially the snacks and things that just wander into my mouth in passing. So I really have to force myself to keep the diary or a little notepad at hand and write everything down right away.
And another tricky bit ... to be truthful. I tend to leave out the bad days, and only write down the days that I’ve been good. But the good days don’t tell me why I eat, its especially the bad days that reveal the reasons behind my behaviour.