Taking Stock

The idea of taking food stock has been brewing a lot on my mind. By this I mean noting and recording what you eat (quantity-wise) daily in a journal. It differs from counting calories, which is accurately measured (where I trip up) before you eat anything (where I completely stumble), instead letting you track your eating habits over time. Please note this is for people with no side issues (bulimia, comfort eating, and anorexia). And so starting today – the 4^th of January, 2012 – my food stock taking begins. I think it’s only wise that I skip yesterday – the 3^rd of January – which coincidentally is my birthday. 

The first rule to taking stock is honesty. I don’t need to expatiate as you would only be deceiving none other than you. The second rule is to identify foods eaten due to (i) hunger pangs, (ii) cravings and if you want to go the extra mile (which you know I’ll be doing), (iii) greed. I believe that on average over time, there should be a reduction in the ‘cravings’ category with a simultaneous increase in the ‘hunger-pangs’ category. And just like our teenage journals/diaries (assuming you kept one), our hope should be that we look back on previous entries with either a satisfied smile on our faces and/or disgust from having changed drastically. Well, one can only hope.

I’ll take you through my day’s stock:

January 4, 2012

Cereal (hunger pangs)

2 glasses of water

4 cinnamon biscuits (cravings)

1 bar of patchi (more cravings)

1 caramel dairy milk sweet (plain greed)

2 cups of green tea with honey

Jollof rice & 4 plantain slices with fish (hunger pangs)

1 cup of green tea with honey

2 things stand out: First of all, no fruits and vegetables and secondly, not enough water. Let’s not even talk about exercise just yet. So now I am conscious of the areas to work on/ know what to store in my fridge. I don’t plan to share this publicly after today (except if requested) but I hope you can all use this as a guide for your private food journals. Besides being conscious of what and how much we put into our bodies, please let’s start to differentiate the necessities from the ‘extras’. With this, I wish you all a healthy Year!