Hello, I'm Monica Reinagle, the nutrition diva, here with your quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

As a society, we've become sort of obsessed with gathering data about various health-related activities, like how many calories we take in, how many hours of sleep

we get, how many steps we take every day. Diet tracking apps, which allow you to log your

food intake throughout the day day are among the most popular

category of mobile apps. Chances are good that you've at least tried using an app like My Fitness

Pal to track what you eat, maybe in conjunction with an activity tracker like the

Fitbit.

There are a lot of potential advantages to keeping a diet log, but also some possible pitfalls. So today I want to share what I see as some of the

main pros and cons of diet tracking. Keeping a record of every single thing you eat definitely

increases your awareness about your

eating behavior and this is especially true if you tend to eat unconsciously or in

response to

keep a strict log are often amazed to realize how often

they eat throughout the day.

For example, you might estimate that you only eat once or twice between meals,

and then be astounded to discover that you actually eat six or seven times outside of meal times.

Obviously, if you can't even remember eating... seven times outside of meal times.

Obviously if you can't even remember eating that Hershey's kiss from the bowl and your

coworkers desk, you probably didn't enjoy it that much.

And unconscious or mindless eating is a frequent source of excess calories.

Keeping a diet log also introduces a degree of accountability even if it's only to yourself if you're only to yourself.

If you're truly committed to writing down every bite,

...