Three things no one ever told me about keeping a food log…

First of all the reason I am keeping a food log is because my cholesterol (overall and the bad kind) has skyrocketed to unacceptable levels and I have a bunch of other risk factors that in combination have brought me to a place where for my own sake I need to get realistic about what I eat. So if the old adage you are what you eat has any validity I figured it is time to take an honest look at exactly what I eat, hence I am keeping a food log. The other (second) reason I am keeping a food log is because I lied to my doctor when I told her I exercise so I am keeping track of that now too as my own personal mea culpa. One more factor that plays a role in high cholesterol that I was unaware of is sleep, specifically the lack thereof. I have named my log Sleep, Eat, and Exercise-and if this was Face Book I’d say like it when you see it but it’s not so I’ll move on to the 3 things no one ever told me about keeping a food log…

1.     No one told me how hard it would be not to lie to myself because I really want too, but since I already lied to my doctor I’m going to choose to be honest with myself. Besides that I don’t want to defeat my purpose here but the truth is it really isn't easy to be truthful with myself all the time either. I think some people call it rationalizing but I am calling myself out on it.

2.      My husband always says I don’t eat enough protein and he is right as much as it pains me to admit that. I also eat way too many carbs. My favorite food really is garlic bread. The cool thing about keeping a food log on my computer is that I can highlight garlic bread every time I eat it and now I can see a pattern to my bad eating habits. The next step is to change the pattern.

3.      Keeping a log takes daily dedication. It’s easy to forget what I ate if I don’t keep up with it every day (sometimes every meal) and I hope that isn't just an old age short term memory loss kind of thing or a wishful forgetting. I also have to do more in depth label reading including serving sizes (who knew a loaf of garlic bread had that many servings) and beyond transfats I've been looking through the ingredients for hydrogylized anything to avoid. Just standing at my computer isn't enough to be called exercise and I don’t do it often enough either, but on the plus side I have found that I can ride the stationary bike and work up a sweat while I watch TV.

On an end note, I am happy to add that I am at day 24 and continuing.