Keeping a food and stool diary
A food and stool diary is about the plainest record there is: what you ate and drank, when, roughly how much, and, if you want, your stools. Why you keep one is your business, and these pages don't get into it. They're about the keeping, which is where a lot of diaries probably stop: an entry takes too long, a few meals go missing, then a few days.
How to keep one is the habit from start to finish, stools included. The template has the 2 tables ready to copy, with a worked week. And if what puts you off is the calorie counting so many food apps start with, what to write instead has its own page.
I've kept a food log for years, first in an app I built just for myself, and most of what's here comes from that.
How to keep a food diary
How to keep a food diary that lasts: write it down as you eat, one name per food, rough amounts, marks of your own, stools if you want, and a week to a page.
5 min read
A food diary template, with a stool log
A food diary template: what to write down for each meal, an optional stool log on the 1–7 scale, and a worked week. On paper, in a notes app or a spreadsheet.
7 min read
A food diary without counting calories
How to keep a food diary without counting calories: what to write instead of a number, rough amounts that stay consistent, and what you give up: the totals.
4 min read
Full disclosure: I make Digest, a food journal for iPhone and iPad. You type a meal the way you'd say it, "two eggs and toast around 8", and it reads the foods and the time out of it; a stool is a few taps, or a switch in Settings if you don't want them. History shows your weeks in colors you pick, and search lists the days you had a food, including the dishes you linked to it. No account, and no calories anywhere. It's a journal, not a medical device, and nothing in it is medical advice.