Assessments: Food diary and diet analysis

This is my first post in a while.  I’ve been testing out my new diet analysis on a few unlucky guinea pigs and so far it is working out quite nicely! A study showed that most people underestimate their food intake by up to 50%!  This means that however much we think we are eating, we’re actually eating up to half as much again!

At first I thought the same as you’re probably thinking right now…

“yeah, most people underestimate their food, but I’m not most people.  I know I eat healthily!”

But I highly recommend you do a food diary.  I did and it opened my eyes!  I thought I was eating healthily (it’s my job, after all!), but when I saw that one weekend an entire third of my calorie intake was from alcohol!!!  (ok, so it was my friends birthday weekend….but that is no excuse!) Anyway.  From the diet analysis I did on myself I saw exactly where the strengths and weaknesses in my diet were.  I saw where I was going right and wrong and how I could make it so much better…and noticed an interesting thing. So I tried it out on a few other people and noticed the same thing in most cases.  And that interesting thing was this…

“Most of us only need to change 2 or 3 things to make our diets 10 times better!”

Thats all!  Only a couple of simple changes and most of us can make a massive improvement in our diets, health and fitness! In my case it was:

  • Use the wok and spice rack in my kitchen most days
  • Cut down (but not cut out) foods made in a factory
  • Don’t be so over-indulgent when I’m at a birthday party

And I’ll bet that most of you reading this could either do the same or have already done the same! And I’ll bet even more that those of you who have not done this yet, have been told to do it a million times and you have answered:

“But my diet is pretty healthy already!”

But don’t forget what I said at the top of this post, most people underestimate their calorie intake by up to 50%.  We are notoriously shite when it comes to judging our food/drink intakes.  Don’t just assume you are doing things right (because you are probably wrong).  Prove it! Download This simple food diary template below and fill it for a week and see where you are going right/wrong. Food_Diary_A4