I’ve been working with nutritionist/acupuncturist Olivia Honeycutt at Merritt Wellness for a while now. One of the tools Olivia gives her clients is the Standard Process Daily Record of Food Intake form.

You don’t have to be going to a nutritionist to use this tool, although you may want to if you are having issues you suspect are diet-related. So many health issues are now considered to be diet-related, including auto-immune diseases formerly believed to be purely genetic, that this tool could be a useful ally on your path to better health.

If you are interested in recording what you actually eat and drink as well as your bowel movement and sleep quality, click the link above to view this form online and print it for your own use. If you print it, you might consider printing it single-sided so you can look at a week’s records at once. The two pages together equal one week of records.

I find it helpful for noticing patterns. Whether it’s food cravings I’ve indulged, how much water I drink, or tracking changes after eliminating/reintroducing a food (I’m currently grain-, dairy-, and sugar-free to continue to heal my gut, reduce inflammation, and increase my insulin sensitivity), I find keeping a written record to be most helpful. My memory can be faulty about what I’ve eaten, so writing it down keeps me honest.

Feel free to do as I do and make notes in the margins about weight, mood, etc., to circle cheats and other anomalies, to list ingredients. Food is medicine, and the basis of health is to eat healthy. You learn by doing and noticing how you feel…and you’ll definitely know it when your metabolism shifts.

If you’ve read this far, you might be interested in reading this article from the New York Times about nutrition and science, specifically about sugar. I’m following up on what this writer is doing (he co-founded NuSI, which is funding well-designed nutrition research that should lay many questions to rest). Will post here when findings are announced.