Keeping a food journal for our Health & Fitness methods class was not hard
for me as I have kept food and activity journals on and off for the last five
or six years. In 2006 I found
myself weighing more than I ever had in my life and I became determined to turn
it around. I put myself on a 1200-1500
calorie per day diet and began a more regular exercise routine. During this time I religiously kept a
food and exercise log and I succeeded in losing 30 pounds in about six
months. Give or take five pounds,
I’ve largely been able to keep it off.
Writing down food and exercise information each day really keeps my good
(and bad) habits in the forefront of my mind. It doesn’t prevent slips and lapses, but it helps me get
back on track more quickly afterwards.
I think I am a pretty healthy role model as I subscribe to diet and
exercise habits that are well balanced and allow for occasional splurges in
eating as well as occasional rest days from exercise. The most important thing is to eat a well-balanced diet (no
crazy fads), to allow yourself small indulgences, and to not beat yourself up
for having a bad day (or week) every once in a while.
For this class, after one week we were asked to set a goal
for the remainder of the class. I
set two goals for myself – to increase the intensity of my daily exercise at
least three times a week and to get more sleep. Sleep has been a big issue for me since starting this
program and in particular this quarter with our classes all concentrated in the
middle of the week. I find myself
wanting to spend time with my family during dinner and early evening and then
end up “burning the midnight oil” trying to get my school work done later in
the evening and well after they’ve gone to bed. This not only makes me tired in general but also has a
definite (and negative) impact on my eating and exercise habits. The more tired I am, the less motivated
I am to push myself when exercising and the more apt I am to snack between
meals to keep my energy up.
Nevertheless, I did force myself to do less walking and more running
when taking my 11-month old lab puppy for his morning exercise before school
each day and once I got going it really did make me feel better. I also learned that it was easier to
stretch the length of my running intervals in manageable increments rather than
setting overly ambitious goals for myself that set me up for failure.
I think keeping food/activity/sleep journals is a great way
to increase students’ awareness of their health habits. It’s amazing how I found myself giving
second thought before taking a cookie or other not-so-healthy choice because I
didn’t want to have to record it or how the guilt from skipping a day of
exercise is multiplied by seeing that blank spot in the journal the following
day. Keeping a health journal is a
great way of making us more aware of our choices and also accountable to ourselves
for committing to goals and recording progress towards those goals. This could easily be stretched into an
interdisciplinary activity for our students. Math can be incorporated by calculating things such as
calories and BMI and also by graphing progress towards goals. Science can be incorporated in learning
about the body’s needs for a balanced diet, knowledge about the “quality” of
calories (nutrient-rich vs. “empty”) and the physiological importance of
exercise and sleep.
