{"id":4956,"date":"2009-01-30T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2009-01-27T18:01:40","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T23:01:40","slug":"a-lovehate-relationship-with-food-journals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/01\/a-lovehate-relationship-with-food-journals\/","title":{"rendered":"A Love\/Hate Relationship with Food Journals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Melissa<\/a>Today’s guest blogger is Melissa Henriquez, a 20-something, married, PR professional and blogger on the side. Tying together her passions for writing and social media, in July 2026, she began her blog, Tales of a Disordered Eater<\/a>, to help her overcome disordered eating issues. Between traditional therapy and blogotherapy, she’s been an advocate for women struggling with similar challenges.
\n<\/em>
\nKeeping a food journal has been a double-edged sword for me.<\/p>\n

Without it, I never would have lost 35 pounds four years ago, and I probably wouldn\u2019t have kept the majority of them off. Journaling has kept me honest, held me accountable, helped me plan my day. It enlightened me about portion-control and taught me how to make more nutritionally-sound food choices.<\/p>\n

But as I maintained my weight, diligent journaling also generated disordered eating<\/a> behaviors \u2013 a taboo phenomenon seldom talked about, yet one that impacts so many people on their weight loss journeys.<\/p>\n

\"food<\/a>Although journaling was an asset when I was losing weight, as I tried to keep my weight in check, I became unhealthily obsessed.<\/p>\n

Food became all I thought about. What I\u2019d eat, when I\u2019d eat it, how much I could have, the trade-offs I\u2019d have to make if I ate this vs. that, how much time I\u2019d have to spend at the gym if I wanted \u201cX\u201d.<\/p>\n

One could say I was being a \u201cgood dieter.\u201d But there\u2019s a fine line between \u201cdieting\u201d and a food journal<\/a> dictating your life.<\/p>\n

I crossed that line.<\/p>\n

It took two years of obsessive behavior before I acknowledged my problem this summer, when I \u201ccame out\u201d about my disordered eating via my blog, TalesofA(Recovering)DisorderedEater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Food journals are still touted as one of the best weight loss and management tools, and I don\u2019t disagree; I still journal every day. However, I\u2019m less obsessive now about it, viewing it as a tool, not the be-all, end-all.<\/p>\n

Through therapy and blogotherapy, I\u2019m proud to say I\u2019m managing my disordered eating behaviors. But it hasn\u2019t been an easy road.\u00a0 So my advice to anyone embarking on a weight loss journey would be simply this: tread with caution. Even the best of intentions can yield frightening results.<\/p>\n

Guest Blog Series:<\/strong> Look for the following badge on your favorite health sites to see if they have been a featured guest blogger on <\/em>DietsInReview.com<\/em>. See other posts in the <\/em>Guest Blog series<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Diets<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please <\/em>contact us<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s guest blogger is Melissa Henriquez, a 20-something, married, PR professional and blogger on the side. Tying together her passions for writing and social media, in July 2026, she began her blog, Tales of a Disordered Eater, to help her … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[971,776,23,31,777],"class_list":["post-4956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-womens-health","tag-eating-disorders","tag-food-journal","tag-guest-blog","tag-health-news","tag-melissa-henriquez"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4963,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions\/4963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}