If you are interested in improving their health, you may have heard of a food journal. A food journal is a way to track what you are eating, see any trends, and eventually improve your diet. However, a food journal may not be for everyone.

Should you keep a food journal?

A food journal can be incredibly beneficial if you are trying to track your weight. Even if you are not trying to lose weight, you can benefit from keeping a food journal for other health reasons, such as monitoring protein or cholesterol intake.

If you have gastrointestinal problems, you can also benefit from keeping a food journal because you will be able to see trends quickly and make adjustments accordingly. Food journals can be helpful to show your doctor or nutritionist so that you can evaluate your health and diet choices together.

It’s important to know yourself, though. If you have a history of eating disorders or obsessive behaviors, you may not be the right candidate for keeping a food journal. Logging your food so intimately can restart the cycle of disordered behaviors. Also, even if you do not have a history of eating disorders or obsessive behaviors, if you start to have these while keeping a food journal, you should cease keeping the journal.

When keeping a food journal, you can include many different things, depending on your goals. However, a simple log can record what you ate, where you ate it, and how you felt afterwards. If you are trying to lose weight or gain weight, it can be beneficial to record your serving sizes as well.

A food journal is a record of what you eat over a period of time, whether a week or a month. This journal can be helpful to help lose weight or to track other dietary metrics. No matter why you are keeping a food journal, eating healthy snacks is important. Healthy snacks, such as Jawbox Jerky, can help you stay full for longer and give you the much-needed protein to help your body function.