For the past two weeks I have been keeping a daily food and
activity journal. Speaking honestly, I
have to say that I found this task to be both annoying and insightful at the
same time. There is nothing fun about
writing down each and every food and beverage that enters your body. In fact, it was irritating at times. To help
me keep track, I kept a small notepad in my purse and I would jot down my
consumption and physical activity for the day.
At the end of the day, I would then
transfer this information onto notebook paper in my class binder. If I decide to continue journaling or pick it
up again at a later date, I think I would definitely use an app on my phone or
Kindle to simplify the process a bit. Some
of my classmates kept track of their consumption and exercise this way and
swear that it is faster and easier than writing it out by hand.
The benefit to keeping this journal
over the past two weeks was that it was extremely insightful. I was able to look at a few days worth of
entries and see clear patterns forming.
For example, I don’t drink nearly enough water. I have never been a very “thirsty” person,
but I was surprised to see that I only really drank liquids with meals. I also noticed that I would bring my morning
drink to class on class days, (which was typically a large coffee with cream
and splenda), but never usually finish my drink by the time I left UW in the
afternoon. I would usually get tired of
my drink or it would get cold and I would then just throw it away half full. This meant that I was probably only drinking
about 24 – 30 ounces of liquids a day, and maybe a fourth of those ounces would
be actual water instead of milk or juice.
That’s terrible, and I had no idea that I was drinking so little.
Another trend I noticed
from keeping my food journal was that I don’t eat nearly enough fruits. This surprised me because we keep so much
fruit in our house. My husband and I
have a twelve year old son and an eight year old daughter and they LOVE
fruit! In fact, every week we go to the
Yakima fruit stand in Bothell and the kids pick out the fruit for us. We keep a huge fruit bowl on our kitchen
counter and it is always full of their favorite choices, which are bananas,
peaches, and mangos. What I noticed from
my journal was that I was only eating about one small piece of fruit or a few
berries a day. This was definitely an
area that I needed to make a change in.
The final
area I noticed a deficiency in was in my physical exercise. While I am quite active at work each weekday,
(chasing after preschoolers, walking around the Zoo and parks on summer field
trips each week, etc.) I noticed that when I am home from work or on the
weekends, I am either relaxing or I am sitting, doing homework. I can’t help the six and a half hours of “sit
down” class time three days a week, but I can make better exercise choices (which
will make me a better example for my children and future students) by making
time to exercise during my non-work and school time.
After the first week of journaling, (and once I noticed that
there were three specific areas that needed improvement) I made new goals to
follow for the second week. Eating more
fruit turned out to be the simplest thing for me to change. The fruit was already there, staring me in
the face. I just needed to remember to
grab it. I quickly realized I needed a
BIG reminder to do this. So, I wrote
myself a note on hot pink cardstock and I taped it to my big fruit bowl. The note said “GOT FRUIT?” Because my car keys hang nearby, the sign was
a great reminder for me to grab a piece of fruit and a napkin for a snack on the
go, on my way out the door. This worked
great, and I am keeping the sign up!
Getting more exercise and drinking more water were more
difficult goals to reach. I really don’t
like the taste of plain water so my sweet husband got me some MIO water flavor enhancers
to help with the taste. This did make
water more tasty but it didn’t help that I still am not very thirsty most of
the time. During the second week of this
task I made a huge effort to drink a bottle worth of water in the morning and
afternoon. The MIO helped, and I stuck
with this goal, but I was constantly having to remind myself to drink. Getting more exercise was my third goal and
the toughest challenge for me. I am exhausted
from going to school full time, working almost full time, and running a household
and being a wife and mom. I live a very
busy life. I find that when I have down
time, I just want to relax, sleep or read.
I made the goal to exercise each day during the 2nd week of
my journaling. I didn’t accomplish this.
I did however, get in two 45 minute workouts during those seven days by
reading while I walked on our treadmill at home. I didn’t achieve my goal, but I added in exercise
that was manageable for me with my busy schedule.
The message that I will take away from participating in this
activity is that I need to make my health more of a priority, and in doing so, I
will be setting a better example for my students. I have realized that my busy schedule is not
likely to slow down anytime soon. This means that I need to not only be aware
of what I am eating and of how much exercise I get, but I also need to make
sure that I am getting enough sleep, healthy foods, and exercising so that I have
the stamina to finish out this academic year and head out into the teaching
world. I can also have my students keep
journals so that they become more aware
of their activities and so that they can also work to make healthier choices
for their busy lives.
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