What Do I Eat? I Guess I Don’t Really Know…

It’s been over two years since I changed to a diet for endometriosis.
This means — no gluten, no dairy, little to no soy, no red meat or pork, no coffee, no alcohol.

While I have adapted to this way of eating (and drinking), it still seems to come as a shock to others around me. (I understand these sentiments, as there was a time when these food groups made up much of what I was eating.)

When I list off my dietary restrictions to others I am almost always asked:

“So what DO you eat?”

I realized the other day when asked this question again, that I didn’t really have an answer. I had to pause to think – What do I eat? 

The fact that I had to ask myself this was a sign that perhaps I need to get better in touch with the foods I am eating each day. So yesterday I decided to start a food journal. I wrote down everything that I ate and a few notes on how I was feeling physically and emotionally.

Importance of Food Journaling

I suppose I’ve always related food journaling with weight loss — as this is a common practice in programs like Weight Watchers. And this is true, food journaling helps keep track of how many calories are consumed, which is helpful if you are trying to lose weight.

In addition to weight loss, food journaling is good for tracking nutritional needs — to make sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals and not too much of anything. I found an online Nutrition Data site run by Self — that allows you to enter food items and see the nutritional content. This is helpful when you are making your own recipes.

Food journaling can help point out if more variety is needed in your diet (I know this is an issue for me) and to see if you are eating a good balance of fats, protein and carbohydrates.

Food journaling helps recognize food allergies and reactions. It can also point out food patterns and trends in relation to emotional eating. 

And keeping track of what you eat will only aid you in the future if you decide to consult with a professional nutritionist, Naturopath or MD.

Here’s some apps to help you track food symptoms:

• mySymptoms
• Symple
• Zany – this one is a photo app so you can easily record what you eat with a picture on your smart phone

30 Day Challenge

By keeping a food journal, I am going to see if I can find patterns or trends with my daily food choices and a few annoyances that I’d like to get rid of:

• I get bouts of what I believe to be eczema on my hands — they crack and bleed and when it’s real bad, it’s real miserable. I believe that food plays a role in this.
• I’ve been struggling for some time with breakouts on my face. I’ve really noticed this happening since starting to detox, but know too that my internal workings affect this, as well as my daily food choices.
• And of course I’m going to track how I feel physically — if I have cramping or pain, am tired, bloated, etc. Or if I am feeling a certain way — stressed, sad, happy, bored, etc.

I am challenging myself to keep my food journal for thirty days and next month I will share what I learned with you 🙂 I believe by challenging myself openly in the cyberspace world, that this will keep this goal in line 🙂

I challenge you to do the same — join me 🙂 What are you eating on a daily basis? Is it contributing to your pain levels?

I have hopes that my food journal is able to help me answer the common question — What do you eat? — Without having to stop and stare out into space…. LOL.

On the Positive Side?

After a day of doing this I can see how food journaling helps keep alive accountability within my food choices. It has helped me to stop and think – Do I really want to eat that? I’m going to have to write it down …. LOL.

One of my goals this year was to connect to my body and I feel like food journaling is another contribution to this. I know it will help me figure out what it is that I eat and perhaps inspire me to expand my food choices 🙂

I am also tracking which day it is in my cycle so I can relate my monthly hormonal changes to my physical and mental well being.

I believe that food is a huge contributor to our health and well being and does make a difference — and am sure this is more convincing when it is in black and white 🙂 Let’s write it out.

Do you keep a food journal? Have you discovered any trends? I would love to hear from you.

Much love.