5 Your food diary

Now you have an opportunity to analyse what you eat and drink, why you eat and where you are when you eat. Create a food diary and record a typical day’s intake of food and drink.

• Make sure that you write the diary while you eat the food or have the drink.
• Note down even when you drink water.
• Use household measures, e.g. two slices of medium sliced bread, five egg-sized potatoes, hand-sized meal portion.

The British Dietetic Association fact sheet about portion sizes may also be useful.

You might want to create your diary using a table. Here are some suggested headings:

• time
• food/drink
• amount (household measure)
• where eaten
• eaten with?
• hungry/thirsty?
• time taken to eat
• your mood before, during and after eating.