Food Journal Reflection

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.