I can’t believe I am already this far into my Genius Hour! It has been a very enlightening and challenging journey. But so far so good! It looks like there is some hope for us crazy busy, broke post-secondary students! In this posting, I want to talk about some 21st century tools that you can use to help track your eating habits. But first, let’s talk about why you would even want to take the time to log your food intake in the first place! We’re busy enough already, right? Why add more responsibility to your plate?
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| Vigneault, Elaine. (2008, February 10). Vegan Food Diary (Online Image). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/elainevigneault/2254477481 |
One reason that it’s a good idea to keep a digital food journal is that it keeps you accountable for eating enough food in one day! It can be easy to slack off or skip a meal when you’re busy or on the go, but having a digital food journal will remind you of the nutrients your missing out on in a day and that will help to keep you motivated and on the track to staying healthy. Another good reason to keep track of your food intake, as explained by Marc Perry of Built Lean is that you will get a better idea of the source of your calorie intake. This can help you determine just how healthy the foods you are eating actually are, and may even show you what important nutrients, vitamins, and food groups you are missing in your diet. Also, Shape Fit explains that this activity provides a good way to track your water intake as well! So using a food journal can also help you stay on top of your hydration goals as well. Additionally, if you have any additional goals to gain or lose weight, these digital food journals typically have programming to set goals for calories, protein, carbs and more to attain those goals!
One program that I would recommend based off of my research and personal experience is the app called My Fitness Pal. It is undeniable that for doing something like food journaling in the 21st century, having the journal at the touch of your fingertips no matter where you are is essential for your success in accurate, detailed tracking. This is a free app that I have been using on and off for a while now. What I like about this app is that it goes beyond just tracking my food and liquid intake by getting my personal information in order to recommend dietary goals to achieve my ultimate goals. You input your starting weight, your goal weight, the number of pounds you wish to gain or lose weekly, and your activity level in your current lifestyle. From this, I not only see where all my calories are coming from and what vitamins and nutrients I am gaining, but I also see them in a perspective relative to my fitness goals. For anyone with fitness goals, it is impossible to separate your diet from them!
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| Oklancia. (2005, August 5). My Fitness Pal Logo(Online Image). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/oklanica/7717137562 |
Another great aspect of this app is that it provides a function to add in exercises you do in a given day. This logged exercise will adjust your daily calorie intake limit/goal based on your output of energy accordingly. When you exercise, you need more calories to fuel your body before and after the exercise. This adds even more clarity and accuracy to the picture! I will also get push notifications send to me on my phone if I have forgotten to log a meal, as well as congratulatory messages for achieving multiple day streaks of tracking my meals! Another feature of this app that I like is that you can add “recipes” to a library. So if there’s a meal or recipe you make often, you can get the nutritional information on your specific cooking, and add it to your journal with ease any time you eat it! Furthermore, this app also has a lot of food brands/companies in its database, from fast food to restaurants or different brands of food you buy in the grocery store. So no matter what you eat and where you eat, you can input it into your journal with the most accuracy possible.
Caroline Bearden of Built Lean provides a review of the My Fitness Pal App that sheds light on some other pros that I have explored personally, but also some cons you may want to consider. Despite its cons, I still believe it can be a good aid to ensuring you are eating enough food in a day and gaining all of the vitamin and nutrients you need to be healthy!
Buzzfeed also had a list of 17 different mobile apps that people who are seeking to eat healthy can use to help seek out the right foods, recipes, and locations to eat!
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