The question of whether you should track your food or not is a personal decision that has a lot of variables to it.
Tracking your food when you have IBS can have great outcomes for you, but it can also do quite the opposite—depending on who you are and what your history with eating and IBS is.
In my own life, I can see how food journaling at times was very helpful and necessary for me in reaching certain health goals and I can also see how in other time periods, it was detrimental to my mental health. The only thing that changed for me was where I was at in my life and my mindset.
In today’s episode, you’ll get a better idea of where you are at on this scale and determine whether food tracking might be beneficial or harmful to you.
Find the full transcript for this episode at healingheribs.com/18.
The Downfalls of Monitoring Nutrition With IBS
As you have probably experienced with your IBS, food becomes a main area of concern in your life. As everything you eat or don’t eat can have real negative consequences or truly beneficial ones.
You can start to become hyper focused on the foods that upset your stomach or that you perceive to give you worse symptoms and you consciously or unconsciously avoid those foods in order to prevent pain and uncomfortable situations.
Which were or are those foods for you?
Sometimes this process is even less natural and individual, as women often hear from others about which foods they should be avoiding for their IBS, or to be healthy.
Maybe you’ve gone down this path as well, as I know I have. I think to a certain extent, this makes sense. However, there’s an enormous problem to that can occur when you are tracking your food every day and becoming hyper aware and mildly obsessed with your diet.
When you are writing down your food and you are doing it from a place of fear, control and over concern as I would define it, this can become counterproductive. This kind of attention on the food you are eating can create stress in your body that translates into worse IBS symptoms.
If you spend time before or after every meal fretting over what you are eating, and what you should be eating and what you shouldn’t be eating, you should have questions for yourself.
How does the food monitoring make you feel?
If the answer is stressed and worried, I would advise you to take a step back from this practice and really consider why you are doing it and if it is truly serving you. The answer is personal to you and your process. Working with a professional around this question can also provide a lot of clarity as I have seen with my clients in my Healing Her IBS program.
Honestly ponder whether taking a break from nutrition tracking could create some rest for you and if it could take some attention away from your IBS in a positive way.
The Benefits of Nutrition Tracking
I also want to delve into how and when nutrition tracking can be beneficial for many women who have IBS.
As has been talked about before in some of my previouspodcasts, what you eat and how you eat can make a difference in whether you get better or not. It can make a difference in the speed or your recovery.
I have often seen in women with IBS that they are not eating enough, or they are avoiding certain food groups altogether and that can create nutritional deficiencies that affect your body’s ability to heal. You restrict foods with the intention of getting better, but it can backfire.
Fiber and protein are two nutritional areas of concern that greatly influence your gut and your body’s ability to thrive and heal. If you haven’t listened to episodes 9 and 12, go back and listen to those episodes to learn more in depth how these essential nutrients play into your IBS recovery.
There are also other micronutrients such as B vitamins, thiamine, probiotics and Vitamin D —which all play vital roles in how our bodies are functioning. If you are deficient in any of these areas (or certain others) your healing can stall.
Therefore, it makes sense that tracking what you eat could help you heal if you are looking in the right areas. If you are tracking what you eat with the intention of making sure you are eating enough food and getting enough of the macro and micronutrients that your body is going to need- I say do that food tracking!
How to Decide Whether to Track or Not
If you are in the position now of asking yourself whether you should or shouldn’t be tracking your food, I would advise you to do some self-reflecting on a few areas:
- First, ask yourself? Why am I tracking my food? Do I have a specific goal in mind that tracking is helping me achieve?
- Next, ask yourself: How does it make me feel to track my nutrition daily? Does it make you feel energized and connected to your purpose or does it drag you down?
- After that, you should think about the length of time that you have been tracking your food and how helpful or hurtful the practice has been to you during that time period.
Journalling or talking with someone can give you clarity around what the right move might be for you. Also remember that food tracking should be a tool that you use for a specific reason and having clarity around what that reason is can make a huge difference in your motivation to do so or not.
Thank you for listening today.