I can’t believe I’m at Week 10 already! The changes I have seen and felt over the past two months have been nothing short of remarkable. But this week, I’m tackling something I have never really done before: tracking my food.
I have had a complicated relationship with food for as long as I can remember, and in a way, I never realised just how deep it ran. Working in kitchens from the age of 14 shaped my eating habits in ways I am only now beginning to understand. Back in the late 80’s, kitchens were a completely different world, there was no such thing as political correctness, no ‘work-life balance,’ and let’s be honest, chefs were next level crazy. Pots were thrown, tempers flared daily, and you learned resilience the hard way.
That chaotic environment shaped how I ate, or rather, how I didn’t. Long hours, high pressure, and the constant rush meant that food was an afterthought. I never knew if I had eaten at all some days. Hunger came and went, and by the time I had the chance to eat, it was too late, I either wasn’t hungry anymore or was too exhausted to care. After staring at food all day, the last thing I wanted to do was eat it. That pattern stuck with me for decades.
Even now, my default setting is to not eat when I’m stressed. I don’t emotionally eat, I just don’t eat at all. The problem? When I don’t eat enough, my energy crashes, I lose weight too fast, and my immunity takes a massive hit. It’s no surprise that when I look back at my endurance sports days, triathlons, cycling, and long-distance training, I was constantly under-fueled. I didn’t know it then, but I wasn’t eating enough to support my performance, and I wasn’t recovering properly. Maybe if I had understood sports nutrition better back then, I could have been stronger.
I never really thought much about my relationship with food, until last weekend when I got food poisoning. Being sick made me hyper-aware of how I really treat my body. Suddenly, I had to face the fact that I don’t eat enough, I’m inconsistent, and my habits haven’t changed much since my early hospitality days. Add in my food allergies, and eating out becomes a minefield. The anxiety of “Will this food make me sick?” has shaped how I eat, too. Instead of embracing food as nourishment, I’ve avoided it, ignored it, or just seen it as something to get out of the way. That has to change.
I don’t want to just survive this year, I want to thrive. That means creating a new relationship with food, one that fuels me instead of depleting me.
So, this week, I’m introducing a food diary. They say, “What gets measured gets managed,” and that couldn’t be more true. We are what we eat, but most of the time, we have no idea what we’re actually consuming. We eat out of habit, boredom, stress, or sometimes, like me, we don’t eat at all.
Tracking my food isn’t about restricting myself, it’s about making sure I’m actually eating enough. As I have just completed my nutrition studies, I now have the knowledge to understand what my body needs and I can’t make excuses anymore, I now know better. But habits die hard, and I know my natural tendency is to put food last.
To change that, I’ve set a non-negotiable habit: every night at 7:30 p.m., I’ll log my daily food intake. This keeps me accountable and ensures I’m getting enough protein, carbs, and healthy fats to fuel my body properly.
I’ve downloaded MyFitnessPal (just the free version), which is great once you put your meals and recipes in. It takes a little time to set up, but once it’s done, it’s a great tool. I have also set an alarm at 7:30 p.m. every night as a reminder. The key to making a habit stick is making it automatic. If I don’t log it, I won’t know what I’m eating.
Food tracking isn’t just for weight loss, it’s for anyone who wants to understand their eating patterns, make better choices, and get real with themselves about what they’re putting into their bodies. Awareness is everything.
So, for Week 10, my habit is simple: track everything I eat and drink. This habit will build awareness, fuel my body properly, and help me stay on track as I move forward. Because at the end of the day, what get’s measured gets managed.
