I finally got around to analyzing all the meals I’ve been logging. I wrote a 3,000 word blog post about it if you’re interested but here’s the Coles Notes version…
After logging and analyzing more than 1,000 of my meals, I have a much clearer picture of what I put into my body. And I’ve gained a better understanding of my relationship with food in general. I also have a plan to make changes and the data to measure my success or failure against going forward.
Lesson #1: I’m a snack-aholic
Lesson #2: Charts are logging’s better half
Lesson #3: You need to dive into the data
Lesson #4: I’m my children’s compost bin
Lesson #5: Bread is the Uber of my food world
Lesson #6: There’s more to a good meal than taste and nutrition
Lesson #7: I’m a lunch skipper
Lesson #8: Dinner is my favourite meal
I know this is bordering on self-promotion and I apologize if it’s inappropriate here. But I haven’t found a lot of examples of in-depth analysis of N=1 data sets here. Feedback encouraged.
So that’s about a year’s worth of data? Any trends or shifts in meal patterns over that period of time? And do you see yourself logging every meal for the rest of your life?
It’s two sets of roughly six months of data each, with a gap of time between them. I didn’t track food over the Christmas holidays because my eating wasn’t “typical”. Though, looking back, I should have tracked that period of time because it would have allowed me to compare how I ate over the holidays with what I normally eat. Lesson learned.
I do plan to analyze the differences between the two sets. Specifically, I’ll build a dashboard in EventLoggers.com that lets me choose any two date periods to generate some comparative analytics but that hasn’t made it to the top of my list yet.
I’ve flop-flopped about continuous and complete meal logging - at one point I considered it unrealistic but I’ve had two fairly good runs at sustained periods of logging my food. I’m keeping my eyes on some new tools that should make it more realistic for lots of people to log most/all of what they eat.
I think it’s reasonable and useful to track a month of eating (about 100 meals), take a break for a couple months, and then track the next month and compare the data sets. I’m very curious to know what other people think though. And I know lots of people have health conditions that require varying levels of “continuous” food/drink monitoring.
Thanks for sharing this, Dean. Not self-promotion at all - great example of citizen science and N=1. I appreciate your effort and sharing the results - I learned something from your share. Thanks.
Hi! Yea, I totally agree with thinkerdog! Thanks for sharing! I try tracking regularly including holidays and other special occasions. It gives a good comparison and I’m always surprised about the differences, haha
