Hi fellow foodie! Do you know what you ate for breakfast yesterday? What about lunch or dinner? How many snacks did you eat yesterday? If you are anything like me, you may be able to answer a couple of these questions after pondering for a minute or two. If you are able to answer all the above questions, props to you! It sounds like you are mindful of what you eat and when you eat it. And I would even venture to guess that you have a pretty good diet and do not have many digestive issues.
However, for the rest of us, the pace of everyday life is so fast-moving that not only do we easily forget what we eat but often we don’t have time to properly digest our meals. Enter the food journal. I apologize if those two words initiated a trigger response in you that looks a lot like bitter beer face. Before my sugar detox journey, I had tried and failed many times, over many years to keep a food journal successfully. I would read books or hear speakers recommend mindful eating and food journaling but I was always so busy and did not have the right system in place to be successful at this Hero Habit (A Hero Habit is one that supports your optimal health and wellness). I am nearing the end of my fourth week of my sugar detox and I can happily say that not only have I learned to successfully maintain a food journal but I am also learning very important information about my eating habits. The latter is the most surprising and potentially the most important reason for you to consider keeping a food journal.
After several attempts using Google Docs I have created a food journal that is easy to maintain and provides important information regarding eating habits, I can tell you exactly what I have eaten for the last three weeks! No, I do not have a photographic memory, I only know because it is all written down. I have titled my food journal, “From Sugar Belly to Happy Belly…Food Journal”, and in this 3rd draft of my journal I have added categories like, water intake, exercise, feelings and thoughts and even BMs! If you do not know what a BM stands for…go ahead and google it. I am not prepared at this moment to get graphic. All digestive drama aside, this kind of data is absolutely crucial for those of us who seek to make drastic dietary changes for the pursuit of a happy belly. As I have shared previously, it took lab work revealing a Candida overgrowth in my gut (a very unhappy belly) to fuel a passion in me for radical change. I have always been a lover of food and having an upset and bloated stomach after nearly every meal for months, was so discouraging because I was not able to enjoy food in the way God meant it to be enjoyed.
Speaking of enjoyment, have you ever eaten for pleasure? For the sole purpose of crunching food in between your teeth, savoring the saltiness on your taste buds and smelling the aroma of your salty and crunchy snack? My hand is raised too. Have you ever eaten late at night because you felt bored, sad, lonely, angry, depressed or restless? Hand raised. According to the Mayo Clinic, emotional eating can be defined as, “a way to suppress or soothe negative emotions, such as stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness and loneliness.” My arm is getting tired of holding my hand up this long. As someone who comes from a few generations of women who battle/d eating disorders and/or food addiction, I am a chip off the old block. I have struggled with emotional eating for decades. I have always been aware of the way I get the munchies when my emotions start getting loud, but this sugar detox process and consequential food journaling, has moved my awareness to empirical data. Cold, hard facts. It is impossible to hide from ink on a page. In my past life where sugar abounded in my home like the oxygen I breathe, I could pretend I didn’t understand why my pants didn’t fit so well anymore, but nowadays, my pants fit great and I can tell you exactly why.
I would love to share just a few key points I have learned so far. For example, I have learned that there are certain people that trigger an anxiety response in me and my body’s automatic response is to eat or drink out of anxiety. I have also learned that if I prepare myself for these moments with what I call a “clean conscience” snack (a snack that keeps my belly happy and not upset), I can soothe myself without eating something that will hurt my belly and it also prevents overeating. Preparedness saves the gut! My food journal has a space for feelings and thoughts throughout the day so I can easily connect a negative emotion with a hunger/craving response. This is not a cure for emotional eating but at this stage of my sugar detox journey, it is good enough for the moment. Good enough is good enough.
I have also learned that my forty-two year old body requires a lot of time, four weeks to be exact, to get used to my happy belly way of eating. I experienced some frustration between week two and week three because I would have seemingly random bouts of sluggish digestion and bloating. I could look at my food journal and see that my diet was not to blame, but in a way it was. I have radically changed my food intake over the last four weeks and overeating has become virtually nonexistent. This is partially due to the accountability my food journal provides. It is also true that because the quality of my meals and snacks has dramatically improved, I would venture to guess that my belly is happy and satisfied ninety-seven percent of the day. Can I just say that I wish this for everyone? This is why I am developing a six-week sugar detox program that will be available for purchase by July 7th. Having a sugar belly is no fun. Making drastic dietary changes is not for the faint of heart, but a happy belly is worth it. Even if it meant that while my body got used to more happy fats, more protein, less carbs, more fibers, zero added sugars, etc., I had to endure some discomfort to arrive at a satisfied appetite. Some of you youngins may not have to wait as long for your bodies to accept dietary changes. Happy for you.
Lastly, without going into graphic detail I have included BMs in my food journal because the honest truth is that how your food comes out is your body’s communication system with you that all is good in Bellyville or Bellyville is NOT happy with you and your diet. I will have to share more about this in a future post. I credit Dr. Sears for having taught me this stinky truth a couple of years ago in his charming little book that he is kind enough to post online in PDF format so I do not have to be the bearer of crappy news. If this area of your life is not easy breezy, your body is sending you an SOS and I implore you to respond ASAP for the love of your belly & co.
I hope that you will consider food journaling for yourself and I would love to hear what you begin to learn about your eating habits. One of the benefits of this practice is that I am modeling it for my daughters and my wish is that by the end of summer they will have started this Hero Habit for themselves. I cannot begin to imagine how different my life would be today if I had been taught this practice as a child.
My food journal will be one of the several resources included in my six-week sugar detox program. If you would like a free copy of my food journal in PDF format emailed to you, you may either share this post with five of your loved ones and email me at susysmith08@gmail.com or you may DM me on Instagram @107livin to let me know who you shared it with. I will happily share this resource with you. It is helping me tremendously to take back control of my dietary choices and consequently, my body. Owning one’s body is such an empowering and life-giving state of existing that I wish it for everyone!