If you know me, you know I love a journal.  You would also know that I am a bit of a health nut.

Now I try to keep the health stuff quiet.  I find the people who get addicted to the latest fad diet or exercise regimen and then preach to their loved ones how it will “change your life” quite insufferable.

Plus I have always preferred the evolutionary over the revolutionary approach to healthy living.

So a few months ago I decided to sanely evaluate my diet.  For three months I tracked all that I ate and all that I drank.   And the lessons I learned about myself and those around me were phenomenal.

Lesson 1:  We are not drinking as much water as we think.

Before I began my journal I jotted down what I thought was my average intake of all the essential healthy things, water, veggies, fruit, etc.  I was not shocked to discover how  few vegetables I eat (and still do).  But my water consumption was much lower than I imagined.  In fact, I underestimated it by more than 50%.  And what a simple course correction it was, once I had the facts.  I went from four glasses to ten with ease and that one change made me eat fewer junky snacks too.  Talk about a win-win!

Lesson 2: Nighttime eating is notoriously naughty.

Luckily I am a morning person so it’s rare I am up past 9pm.  But when this happened a few times over the three month experiment, I noticed my food choices were poor.  Those choices also affected my sleep.  On the nights I ate a clean dinner hours before I went to bed, I slept better than on the nights I ate right before turning in or ate poorly before turning in (like a PB&J sandwich because dinner was “not enough”).

Lesson 3: We snack less while keeping the journal.

Since I documented every last item I ate or drank I could not fool myself.  I believe we lie  all the time to make ourselves feel better about our life choices.  And these are often unconscious lies.  “I only had two drinks” when in fact I had three.  It reminds me of the times I gambled in Vegas.  Five hundred dollars was extracted from my bank account yet I tell everyone I lost $250.  The journal was like a polygraph self-test.  Hard to lie when the data are staring you in the face.

Lesson 4: We influence others by our actions.

I noticed that my food choices affected the people around me.  When I ordered healthy options at restaurants, those with me seemed to follow suit more often than not.  Many people asked about my healthy decision-making.  However, I did not proselytize, preach, or cajole anyone to eat anything.  I just recounted my food journal experiment.  Ironically, never forcing upon others my kooky experimental ethos makes people more likely to try it out.

Lesson 5:  Anger and sadness are mental and physical.

I was happier when I kept my journal.  I soon realized that so many of my moments of sadness or anger are fueled by my lack of adequate fuel!  When I am eating and drinking properly I rarely lose my cool.  I also rarely get upset about minor problems.  When another person was acting out it did not bother me very much.  I was able to keep things in perspective with a greater sense of equanimity and good humor.   We spend so much time analyzing our anger and sadness, blaming others, blaming situations, blaming the past, when in fact many of these moments are created or exacerbated by poor dietary choices in our present.  Instead of just focusing on the psychological underpinnings of our triggers, it’s time to give equal attention to the physical causes of our angst and worry.

So go ahead and start your own food journal experiment to see how you can improve your well-being now and make it a habit in less time than you think.

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.