People with diabetes are constantly aware of food, that’s a given. We need to pay attention to what we’re eating, how many carbs, when we’re eating and longing for foods we crave but probably shouldn’t eat. I have kept food journals in the past to get a grip on how different foods affect my blood sugar. I find them to be helpful. I was somewhat careful to write down what was in a particular meal (along with before and after glucose readings) but I never spent time writing down everything I ate in a day. A recent attempt to pinpoint another health issue, separate from my diabetes, was not only eye-opening but a bit uncomfortable.
I’ve been having “gut issues” for months now. I got to thinking about the possibility of lactose intolerance since I have family members who deal with that. Pretty much the only dairy I eat these days is cheese and a bit of cream in my coffee but I figured it was worth a try. A food diary seemed like a good idea because, who knows, it might be something else I’m eating that’s causing me grief. If I just kept track of everything I ate for a week maybe my doctor could look at that and say, “Well there’s the culprit!” So I began. I lasted two days.
Have you ever really paid attention to everything you eat? Regardless of the fact that I think about food all the time, I never realized just how much I was eating. It was embarrassing. When you have to stop and write down what you’re eating, it puts a huge spotlight on that snack you’ve decided to eat. Knowing that I had to “own up” to eating something, I would either change my mind and eat something “safer” or else eat it anyway and then feel guilty. I even considered not writing something down just so no one else would see what I’d done! Talk about feeling like Big Brother is watching. It was awful.
I’m writing this to bring up the point that, even though we may have made dramatic changes to what we eat on a daily basis, even though we may be committed to a healthier lifestyle, even though we “know better”, it can be so easy to derail our good intentions with mindless munching. This is not to say that we can’t have a treat now and then, but it would be in our best interest to make it a planned treat and curtail the munching for munching’s sake. My short experiment in food journaling may not have been the success I was hoping for but it did cause me to pay closer attention to what I’m eating. I’m much more aware now and have been making better choices. What could you do to improve your diet?
