What is a Food Diary Analysis?
With so many new diets to follow every month you might be feeling Hacked off with the diet hacks and, understandably, confused about what you should do next.
If this sounds familiar, then stick around for today’s blog and I will tell you how to draw a line under the fads and learn how to hit the reset button on your diet and lifestyle.
While there are indeed countless weight loss and lifestyle solutions on the market, most do not make the individual the focus. Which to me is crazy.
Yes, many of these diet approaches work for a period but as we all know that the amount of time varies dramatically. The sustainability and enjoyment we get from following these plans are also worryingly low. This, of course, is without the many unhealthy and unproven diets on the market.
The solution? Stop looking externally for a diet to follow and look internally at your current diet, lifestyle, and how they interact together. In all my time as a coach and nutrition coach, I know that only very distinct individuals can handle large volumes of change at a rapid pace. Most people and, myself included, find lasting success through gradual structured change, week by week. If you focus on the most important areas of your diet holding you back you can build confidence and strategies to overcome your real-life barriers to success.
Maybe your biggest struggles are traveling for work and eating badly on the go, or maybe you find you snack more because you work from home for example.
It is one thing to be successful at weight loss on a highly structured, highly restrictive diet plan. The problem is if 90% of what you are doing simply does not fit your real-life routine then will you be able to sustain it, or will you revert to old habits and unhealthy eating?
What is a Food Diary Analysis?
To help create the right focus on the individual and their unique set of personal circumstances I designed the dietary analysis. I have been successfully using this with clients for almost five years now and it creates the benchmark people are often craving.
The process starts with the individual completing a 3-7 day food diary and a series of questionnaires. This successfully highlights, eating and lifestyle habits, goals, health concerns and barriers to success holding them back. This part of the process the client learns a lot about their habits and the foods that are creeping into their diet more regularly than they expected.
Once the food diary has been completed then the report will be compiled into a comprehensive report of where you are in terms of health and diet quality. The report is not about only highlighting all the bad foods that feature in your routine (although we naturally have a bit if that). Instead, we aim to identify the areas of your struggling and the areas you are doing well. All to often people don’t feel confident in the positive things they are doing, or if they are working.
The analysis also helps your coach see the trends in your week, eating habits and lifestyle. This information is then used to make recommendations that get to the heart of where and why you are struggling.
For example, a client complains of low energy in the afternoon as a reason they struggle to get to the gym. Looking at their dietary analysis we establish they have a low intake of slow digesting protein, particularly earlier in the day. Instead, we see a reliance on sugary cereal, chocolate-based snacks, and an unstructured lunch.
Addressing this client’s protein intake and eating routine will help balance their energy levels and make them feel fuller for longer at the same time. This, in turn, makes reducing sugary snacks more manageable, avoiding fluctuations in blood glucose levels and making that trip to the gym more manageable. Finally, the reduction in sugar-based calories also helps them with their overall weight loss goals. We aim to address the cause, not the symptom.
Because we all have different habits, struggles and routines to manage the food diary analysis help work with you at an individual level and understand why and where to make the changes that are most impactful for you, meaning no more blanket diet plans that don’t fit.
How Does it Work?
When completing a dietary analysis, you get to speak with a coach at the start of the process to answer all your questions. Next, you will have access to our specially produced videos to help complete your food diary with maximum ease and accuracy. Finally, once your analysis report has been completed we set up a 1-2-1 coaching session (conference call or live if local) and walk you through all the results, recommendations and strategies we feel are the smartest steps forward to hitting your goals and claiming back your diet.
The food diary analysis is our most popular service at Fundamentally FIT and has helped countless people hit the reset button on their diet and take a positive and confident step forward to a healthier life. Many clients complete the analysis and our recommendations into action on their own, while others prefer the professional coaching we offer and use our ongoing services.
If you would like to learn more and speak with a nutrition coach about your goals and learn how our programs could give your diet freedom then request a free twenty-minute no-obligation consultation below. Just let us know if you would like to chat online or in-person if you are Local to Walton on Thames.
Andy Strong
