In this episode of Prevent T2, Megan McCrory talks about the benefits and techniques of food tracking to help prevent type two diabetes. Megan explains the importance of understanding eating habits by documenting what, when, and how much you eat.

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Takeaways:

• Tracking food intake is essential for understanding and improving your eating habits.
• Start tracking just one meal a day to gradually build a consistent habit.
• Using food labels effectively helps you make informed choices about your nutrition.
• Measuring portions accurately can lead to better control over calorie intake and weight management.
• Practice measuring common foods at home to develop an intuitive sense of portion sizes.
• Tracking is a skill that improves with practice, so be patient with yourself.

Chapters

00:00 AI Edits PT2-005 Track Your Food

01:38 The Purpose of Tracking Your Food

03:49 How to Track Your Food

05:12 Practicing Food Measurement at Home

10:48 Making Sense of Food Labels

13:47 Creating Your Tracking Action Plan

16:24 Summary and Closing

The CDC Diabetes Prevention Program Curriculum (CDC DPP Curriculum) is based on the curriculum from the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) research study supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease.

© 2012, University of Pittsburgh, based on the DPP research trial supported by cooperative agreement number U01-DK48489 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has certain rights in the material.

Medical Disclaimer: THIS PODCAST IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING MEDICAL ADVICE. NO INFORMATION ON THIS SHOW SHOULD BE USED TO DIAGNOSE TREAT, PREVENT OR CURE ANY DISEASE OR CONDITION. YOU ARE NOT LISTENING TO THE PODCAST OF A MEDICAL DOCTOR, DIETICIAN, OR THERAPIST. All information, content, and material of this podcast is for informational purposes only and is provided so that listeners can make their own nutrition and health decisions after consulting with their health care provider. This is one of my big themes of taking action for yourself. Making the decision now to change your future. Although I am involved in healthcare and have been for many years, I am not a medical doctor, therapist or dietician. I am not treating or diagnosing any medical conditions. Information provided on this podcast is not a substitute for routine consultation with your healthcare provider. I recommend consulting with your healthcare provider before making any changes related to a specific condition.

Individual results may vary and are not guaranteed.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:00

Welcome back to prevent T2, the podcast all about building the lifestyle habits that can help you prevent type 2 diabetes.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:08

I'm Megan McCrory, your lifestyle coach, and today we're diving into food tracking.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:13

If this is your first time tuning in, let me quickly explain the program.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:17

Prevent T2 is a lifestyle change program created by the CDC to help people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:24

In this podcast series, we're going to walk you through practical strategies to help make healthier choices one step at a time.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:30

It's designed to span one year, with episodes broken down into manageable sessions so that you can work at your own pace.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:38

This program is designed to be listened to in order, so please start with episode one.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:42

Before we dive into today's topic, I want to remind you that you need to be somewhere that you can focus without distractions, or maybe take a walk while you listen.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:51

Or find a quiet space where you can reflect and fully engage.

Megan McCrory: 00:00:55

And make sure that you have the Prevent T2 guidebook handy to follow along with the activities.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:00

The link is in the show notes or you can download it at the website mybestself Fit.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:05

This is episode five, and we're going to explore the importance of tracking what we eat and drink.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:11

You're going to come away with tools to make tracking food easy and effective and with ways to make sense of food labels to help guide your choices.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:21

By the end of the episode, you'll know exactly how to practice food tracking at home and how to use food labels to take control of your nutrition.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:29

Don't forget to weigh in today.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:31

Track it in your weight log so that you can see the impact of your efforts over time.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:36

So if you're ready, let's dive in.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:38

Let's start with the question, why do we even bother with tracking?

Megan McCrory: 00:01:43

If you think of it as a tool for understanding your eating habits better, tracking really helps us see the patterns in what and when and how much we eat.

Megan McCrory: 00:01:53

And that information is going to be really tough to gather without some kind of writing it down.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:02

Okay, so here's an example.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:04

Let's take a look at Sally's story.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:07

If you have your Prevent T2 guidebook, you want to follow along, you can take a look at Sally's story.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:13

Sally has been trying to lose weight for a month and she's really frustrated because the scale isn't budging.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:20

And when a friend asked her what she ate the day before, Sally's guess of what she thought she ate turned out to be much lower than what she actually ate.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:31

And because she didn't track her food consistently.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:34

Sally wasn't fully aware of how her daily intake was adding up.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:39

So the power of tracking is that it is a form of self accountability.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:44

And the more details we gather, the better equipped we are at making small adjustments that can lead to big results over time.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:52

And those small changes are really what we're looking for to support a long term, sustainable, healthy weight.

Megan McCrory: 00:02:59

And that's going to help you lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:02

I track my food every once in a while to see basically how I'm doing and what I'm putting in my body.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:10

So for example, I like mayonnaise or mayonnaise or mayo, depending on where you're at.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:16

I tend to put too much on.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:18

I could be like, oh wait, I don't need that much to have the flavor.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:23

And when I actually weigh out my food, then I can see, oh wow, that much mayonnaise is that many calories.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:32

And if I just did the half of that or a quarter of that or whatever, then you're starting to reduce the calories.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:39

So it's for me, recalibrating my ability to make a healthy plate is really my purpose for tracking food.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:50

So we know that tracking is powerful.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:53

But let's break down exactly how to track what you eat.

Megan McCrory: 00:03:58

And I want you to think of tracking in three parts.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:01

So what you're eating, when you're eating it, and how much you're eating.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:07

So for the what and the when, you're going to begin by just jotting down what you ate and drank and when you had it.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:15

So this can be very simple.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:17

Just item the item and the time.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:19

am salad,: 12:30

Megan McCrory: 00:04:35

Okay.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:35

And how much you're eating.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:37

So that's the third part.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:39

Now this is where some precision helps make a difference.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:44

Because if you just say yogurt at 8:00am, a quarter cup of yogurt versus a cup of yogurt is going to have very different amount of calories.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:52

This is why we want to track the portions that we're eating.

Megan McCrory: 00:04:56

This part might seem tricky or daunting, but there are some easy tools and strategies to help you do this.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:04

And even if you don't have measuring cups with you all the time or a scale, you can still get a pretty good estimate.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:12

So that brings us to our next section where we're going to try practicing food Measurements at home.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:19

Now, obviously, this is a podcast, so if you're out for your walk, do this when you get home.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:25

If you are home, you can follow along.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:27

And this is just so I can guide you through some of the different ways that you can measure food at home.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:34

All right, so let's get some hands on stuff happening here.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:39

We're going to practice portioning at home to help you begin to eyeball portions or get your your eyeballs used to portions so that when you're out and about, you can portion accurately or understand what portion you're eating.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:54

So here's what you're going to need to do this activity at home.

Megan McCrory: 00:05:57

You're going to need dry measuring cups.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:00

So this is measuring cups for things like rice or cereal, vegetables, liquid measuring cups for drinks or sauces or soups, measuring spoons for smaller portions like for condiments or spreads, and a kitchen scale for measuring weight, like meat or nuts.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:17

Now, if you don't have a scale, that's okay.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:19

Measuring cups and spoons are a great start.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:22

Once you're comfortable with those, a scale can add more precision, especially for things like nuts and cheese and meat, where even a small difference in amount can make a big difference in calories.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:32

Personally, whenever I'm practicing food portion tracking, I really prefer to weigh everything.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:41

And I do this because it's much easier.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:43

And I am living in Switzerland at the moment and we use the metric system.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:49

So even if you're in the States, honestly, the metric system is so much easier because it's all based on 10 and it's fantastic.

Megan McCrory: 00:06:57

So a hundred grams of this, a hundred grams of that, and it's much easier to calculate everything if you're doing this in metric.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:05

And the scale I love because, for example, if I make a dish that has a lot of different ingredients, I can weigh all the ingredients.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:14

Let's say I'm making chili.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:15

This is my favorite example.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:17

I'm making chili, which I absolutely love.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:19

And it's actually really good for you.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:20

If you can get low fat meat or even you can use chicken or whatever, but has the beans in there and it has tomatoes and it has lots of good stuff in it.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:29

All I do is I weigh all of the ingredients that I put into my big pot.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:34

And I have a little book, I have my, like a little kitchen journal.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:38

And I weigh each thing that I put into the pot and at the end I know the total amount of weight for that entire pot of chili.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:47

I use the app Lose it.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:49

And I can put all that in the App.

Megan McCrory: 00:07:51

And then when I go to take a portion of chili out, I just weigh the portion of chili, and then I already know the percentage of all those different ingredients.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:02

Weighing is for me, because I'm very analytical.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:05

The best way for me to do it, but it does take a little bit more time, but it's way more accurate.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:11

All right, back to our little practice.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:14

So first, you're gonna wanna pick some of your staples, what you eat normally.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:20

So, for example, if you normally eat cereal for breakfast, pour the amount that you usually eat into your bowl and then measure that amount into a cup and see how many cups that is.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:35

Is it a half a cup?

Megan McCrory: 00:08:36

Is it one cup?

Megan McCrory: 00:08:36

Is it more than one cup?

Megan McCrory: 00:08:38

And now you can say, okay, so my normal cereal is one and a half cups.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:44

The portion sizes for cereal on the boxes are ridiculous.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:48

I think they're for children, not for adults anyway.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:51

And then you can record that.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:52

You could say, okay, if I don't do anything different, I know at least know what my portion is for cereal.

Megan McCrory: 00:08:58

You don't have to weigh or measure your cereal out every day.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:01

If I pick this bowl and I fill it to here, that's going to be the portion you've defined.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:07

The other thing you can do is use your hand as a guide.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:10

Right?

Megan McCrory: 00:09:11

Everybody's hands have different sizes.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:13

That's fine.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:14

But your hand is always with you wherever you go.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:17

So you can use your hand to visualize your portion sizes, which is great for when you're eating out.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:22

For example, if you have a portion of meat like chicken or fish, and it is about the size of your hand, then that is one portion of meat.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:32

And you can, again, you can do this at home.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:35

Put a piece of cooked chicken on your hand, see how big it is and weigh it.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:40

And you go, oh, okay.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:42

It's all about training your mind and training your eyes and to go, okay, that's one portion of meat, or that looks like one and a half portions of meat.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:51

Same thing with vegetables.

Megan McCrory: 00:09:53

You could say that, oh, that portion of broccoli looks like a little bit more than one size of my fist.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:02

So you put your hand in a fist, and that's basically roughly around one cup of vegetables or pasta.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:08

That's using your hand as a guide.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:11

Then the last way is to kind of eyeball versus measure.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:16

So when you guess a serving of something like peanut butter, then measure it with a tablespoon to check your estimate.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:25

The goal is not here to be perfect, but to get really familiar with the serving sizes so that you can make better on the go estimates.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:34

Try to practice each week picking a few foods to measure that week so you can build up your portion intuition over time.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:43

And I think you'll be amazed at how much more accurate you can become when choosing portions.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:48

All right, once you have a handle on portions, the next step is to make sense of food labels.

Megan McCrory: 00:10:54

Food labeling is different all over the world, and I have to say that I feel like the food labeling in Europe is pretty straightforward because, again, everything is based on the metric system.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:06

So when you look at a food label, the serving size is always based on a hundred.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:12

So a hundred milliliters or a hundred grams.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:15

So you can do a very good direct comparison between two different products.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:21

However, in the States, there's no consistent serving size.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:25

The serving size is based on what the manufacturer puts in as a serving size and not this 100 grams or 100 mils.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:33

So you have to be careful in the States when you're looking at serving sizes.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:37

And that's.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:37

So that's the first thing.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:39

The first tip here is the serving size.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:42

This is the portion size that the rest of the label's information is based on.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:48

If you eat that portion, then you'll know how many calories and other nutrients are based off that portion.

Megan McCrory: 00:11:57

If you are in the United States and you're looking at a label, you just have to be conscious that, oh, this is two ounces of food is.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:08

With this many calories and this much fat and this much protein, et cetera, it's just not gonna be cons that serving size is not consistent across labels.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:16

So here in Europe, like I said, on every label, there's a hundred grams, which so makes it very easy to compare.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:24

But there's usually also a serving size that says, okay, maybe you don't eat a hundred grams of mayonnaise.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:30

A serving size of mayonnaise would maybe be 30 grams or 15 grams.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:34

I'm not sure.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:35

So they do both.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:36

But I feel like having that consistent 100 grams as a baseline is.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:41

Makes it so much easier to compare foods.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:45

So the next label tip, that's the tip that's on the label is this percent daily value.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:51

It looks like a percent dvd.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:53

And these percentages tell you how much of your daily nutrients needs are provided by that serving.

Megan McCrory: 00:12:59

And it's usually based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:02

If you're looking to limit sugar or sodium, you want to look for lower percentages, while higher values of things like fiber and protein are good.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:13

And if the labels are super confusing for you, there are apps out there and websites that you can use to scan the labels and calculate the nutrients based on the serving size that you have.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:25

So that's super good.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:27

I know that the.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:28

The app that I use, it, they do that.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:31

So if I buy a tub of cottage cheese and I don't want to put all that stuff in, I can scan the label and it pulls up all the information, and then I can tell it, oh, I've had half a cup or 100 grams or whatever it is, and it will calculate that automatically for me.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:47

All right, so now that you had the basics of tracking, let's talk about your action plan for this week.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:54

Here's how to make that work for you.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:57

Start simple with your action plan this week.

Megan McCrory: 00:13:59

If tracking every meal feels like too much, try just one meal a day.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:04

Maybe just track your breakfast in the morning or just your lunch, and then you can build up as you go.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:10

Now, obviously, you're training yourself, so are you going to get a lot of information if you only track one meal a day?

Megan McCrory: 00:14:17

Not so much.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:18

But the point is that you can get to the point where tracking every meal, and then once you track every meal and you don't have to do this forever, people, this is like a training exercise.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:29

So first you have to train yourself to do this, and then once you do it, maybe you do it for a month, where you track every meal for a month, and then you don't have to keep doing it.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:39

Then it kind of gets obsessive.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:41

And especially if you have any kind of eating disorder, that can be a bad thing.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:44

But it is very important to help you understand what your baseline is, what you're eating all the time, and then how you can help make changes.

Megan McCrory: 00:14:54

You're going to want to set up some kind of system that helps you feel a little bit more natural when you're doing this.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:00

It could be an app, it could be a paper log, could be snapping photos.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:05

You need to find what fits well into your lifestyle that's going to feel the most natural for you.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:11

My method is, I tend to, when I'm home, I have some little IKEA notebook sitting there, just plain paper with a pen.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:20

I write the date at the top, and I just scribble in the ingredient or the thing that I'm using and how much it weighs.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:29

That's all I do.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:30

I don't do anything with that.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:32

And then at the end of the day, or maybe even the next day, I'll sit down for 10 minutes and enter everything into my app.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:39

And then I know what I've eaten because it's all in the app and then I get all of the nutrient stuff.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:45

So that's my system.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:47

Write it down once a day, once every other day, put it in the app.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:51

Then this is also important is to be flexible.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:54

So tracking every each day can be completely different.

Megan McCrory: 00:15:58

So maybe some days you only write down your portion sizes, or maybe some days, busy days, you just write down what you ate.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:04

The key is consistency over time.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:06

So even if you have some days where you can't write down everything, or you can't weigh it or measure it or whatever, even writing it down will help you keep that consistency of tracking.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:17

And remember, every day you track is progress.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:21

Even if it's just one meal, you're building that habit.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:24

So to wrap up today, we've covered why tracking is so effective and how to practice measuring at home and how food labels can help you guide some of your choices.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:35

We also talked about ways to get started with tracking that feels doable and can fit into your life.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:41

Tracking your food is a great way to get curious about your habits and to learn more about yourself.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:48

Approach it with a spirit of learning, not perfection, and you'll be very surprised at the insights that it can bring to you.

Megan McCrory: 00:16:56

Now, as we wrap up, I encourage you to practice measuring a few common foods this week.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:01

Try using the tools and techniques we discussed today and see what you discover about your portions.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:06

And remember, tracking is a skill.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:08

It gets easier the more you practice.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:11

And in our next episode, we're going to explore the benefits of getting more active and how to make movement a consistent part of your life.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:19

Thank you for joining me today.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:21

Remember to check out the show notes for any helpful links or templates.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:25

Thank you for joining me in this episode of Prevent T2.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:28

I'd love to hear how your action plan is going.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:30

Feel free to share a voice memo with your experience or using the link in the show notes or reach out to me by email.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:37

We'll see you in the next episode.

Megan McCrory: 00:17:39

Bye.