I always learn a lot about my eating habits when I can look at my food choices over the course of a "normal" week. However, recording everything I eat all of the time is too time consuming for me. The solution I have found is to take one week about every six months and make the time to record my food intake. This is an insightful process as it forces me to measure everything and realize again what 1/2 cup of oatmeal, or 1 tablespoon of almond butter looks like. It is a great way to reevaluate your food intake and make any adjustments that have become necessary since the last time you checked. You will learn a lot about serving sizes and nutrition information, too.
There are a lot of different ways to keep a food log. One is to just grab a piece of notebook paper and start writing what you ate. Make sure to include the date and descriptive amounts of EVERYTHING. One thing I have learned is that if you eat something, but don't write it down, you still ate it :) Sorry about that. You can then look up the nutrient content or, just make it a practice in awareness. Another option is to input your intake into a calorie calculator of some sort, which will provide you with the feedback you are interested in there are several of these out there. The one I am most familiar with is Super Tracker: https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/foodtracker.aspx You will need to create a profile in order to save your information. After you input the date and search the database for the food you ate, it will generate the report you request. Under the tab, "My Reports" you can choose which reports are the most useful to you.
It might be a bit time consuming, but even a few days recorded will give you an idea of areas that could use some improvement.
I would love to hear what people are surprised by after taking a close look at their regular intake. I always have a couple of surprises. It is well worth the effort!
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