Use a Food Journal to Monitor Blood Glucose

By Stephanie Karpinske, R.D.

Using a food journal can help you keep track of portions, calories, and carbs. But more importantly, it can help you keep track of exercise, your moods, and your blood glucose. Here's how to use a food journal to capture -- and change -- the way you think about eating on a diabetic diet.

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Why Journaling Can Help

Journals help people sort out feelings, monitor spending habits, and document their lives. For a person with diabetes (PWD), a journal that documents food intake can be a powerful tool.

Use a food journal to help you:

monitor and lose weight
manage blood glucose
discover eating habits and behaviors

Your success with a food journal depends on how honest and detailed you are in your reporting. Used effectively, journaling is a proven method for losing weight, managing blood glucose, and discovering eating habits. A 2008 study of almost 1,700 people found that those who wrote down what they ate and drank for six days a week lost twice as much weight as those who did not.

Get our tips for using (and following through with) a food journal, and see how other people with diabetes have used it for their own weight loss.

Next: What to Include in a Food Journal

Use a Food Journal to Monitor Blood Glucose

Using a food journal can help you keep track of portions, calories, and carbs. But more importantly, it can help you keep track of exercise, your moods, and your blood glucose. Here's how to use a food journal to capture -- and change -- the way you think about eating on a diabetic diet.

Why Journaling Can Help

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