No matter your fitness or health goals, keeping a food journal is a no brainer.
Around this time last year, I posted about tracking what goes in to your body. I shared the reasons why it was important and suggested the necessary steps. What I didn’t share with you was my own personal experience. I don’t do this continually, but I’m journaling daily right now.
Here’s the log from my Monday:
- 5:40am: 20 ounces water
- 5:50am: 2 ounces organic chicken (mixed white and dark), medium apple
- (5 x 5 workout)
- 7:30am: 5 eggs, 3.5 ounces Maitake mushrooms, large Japanese yam, 3 cups coffee
- 10:15am: 2 eggs, banana
- 12:45pm: Medium avocado, 3 cups spinach, one slice of cinnamon raisin Ezekial bread, 5 ounces wild albacore tuna (pole caught)
- 1:51pm: Medium apple
- 4:15pm: Large red organic bell pepper, 1/2 cup organic kidney beans, 3 organic celery stalks, 16 ounces of water
- 7:15pm: Two free range chicken legs
- 8:15pm: One roasted organic acorn squash prepared with sea salt, cinnamon and olive oil
I’m meticulously tracking for several reasons, but one of the most notable is I’ve hit a significant plateau in my weight training routine. I’m not getting stronger, and I attribute my lack of gains to either less than optimal rest or nutritional deficiencies. I believe that by understanding what my habits and regular practices are, I’ll be better equipped to adequately adjust. Just a few days of awareness is all it takes. From Liz Applegate, Ph.D:
I consider a food diary to be as important as a training log. But unlike a training log, you don’t have to record your food habits every day. Keeping a food diary for just a few days a couple of times a year is enough to keep you on track. Get your Palm Pilot or pencil and paper ready.
Palm Pilot? Relax, I pulled that quote from 2007. Food journals have been utilized for ages to study energy and the effects of food on our systems. We should be using them to analyze ourselves today as well. I’ll start.
Particularly on a day in which I trained hard, I need to pay attention to protein intake. I may have been a bit light today in this regard and will ensure that a higher percentage of my calories come from animal flesh on Wednesday when I face squats and dead lifts.
We don’t all have the same goals. Assuming you have any at all related to nutrition, learning more about yourself is an exercise without downside.
Strong mind,
Kap
Josh says
Surprising macro breakdown Kap. Seems like fat is quite high and protein too low? But you’re shredded guess I can’t say it’s not working.
Alex says
Not sure where you’re getting that fat is quite high. The only fat-centric items on the list are the medium avocado and the olive oil for roasting the acorn squash. That’s not a lot of fat per day even for someone who’s not on Kap’s level of fitness training.
Josh says
Eggs and chicken legs? That food log is almost 40% fat according to the myfitnesspal app. I’m not anti fat just an observation.
Justin Smith says
Hey Kap,
Thanks for posting about this topic. I noticed no dairy on the list, is that a personal preference or for health reasons?
Thanks,
Justin
Kap
do you have thoughts on using a tool like the myfitnesspal app? I enter daily, but don’t spend a lot of time on analysis. This blog was a good to provoke thought. Maybe a deeper dive is in order?
i notice you use many eggs, how are they prepared? don’t see nuts or dairy … avocado, maitake mushroom, Japanese yam (or sweet potato), yay! 🙂
Thanks for sharing that Kap. Nice to know even you track your food. It’s a big help for me as I’m trying to change my lifelong eating habits. Even when I think I’ve got it down pat, I’ll discover I might be getting out of balance. I do have a question though-with that wild albacore tuna, was that caught with a bamboo pole or an artificial one!
Kap, when I was a vegetarian I worked out a lot as I still do but gained a lot of pounds that was not muscle — I was not prioritizing protein enough. A list or journal would have helped. A helpful article I recently found (perhaps it was here on your blog) is discussed by Mike Roussell:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/561891-is-it-possible-to-build-muscle-on-a-vegetarian-diet/
Kalilady says
Hi Gabe. Been reading your blog for a while now and appreciate all the personal sharing you do. Hope you don’t mind a little input…Using http://www.caloriecount.com/foods and making some assumptions on portion size, I calculated your entry above to be roughly 2,998 kcal. Next using http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced (one of the best, in my opinion) and assuming minimum levels of activity and using a weight of 210 (a guess on the weight and you are probably more active than what I imputed), you should be consuming 3,733 kcal just to maintain your weight. That is a daily deficit of 735 kcal. Food for thought 🙂 since you said you had hit a plateau and weren’t getting stronger.