Do you struggle with deciding what to make for dinner each week? Do you find yourself making the same meals over and over? Do you want to dine out less or order less? If you answered Yes to any of those questions then you need to start tracking your meals. That’s what I did over the last year.

Since last October I’ve logged my dinners/suppers in a spreadsheet. I typed in the date, the meal, the quality of the meal, what was the main component of it and what were the sides, as well as who cooked it.

Why? I believed this could help me discover which dishes were the best, so I could resort to repeatedly cooking the same food every month. I wouldn’t have to wonder: what should I eat this week? I wouldn’t think: is this going to be any good? I could become a person who sticks to meal plan I could eat every month.

What I discovered that I was not someone who can eat the same thing over and over. In fact I was the opposite: of the 365 meals I had last year — some I cooked and some cooked by others — 2/3rds of them were unique! That’s 232 different dishes! The reasons for such variety vary. Some of that was due to eating dinner in a restaurant for one time only. Mainly though it is because I am always looking forward to having new dishes for dinner. I wish I was the kind of person who has spaghetti and meatballs every Monday and pizza for dinner every Friday, but I am not. I mostly love cooking and having new things to eat, and that shows in my logs.

What’s the star of the plate? The logs show mostly meat. Maybe too much meat. The leading meat is chicken, followed by ground meat, pork, beef and fish. It would be good to work more non-meat meals into the mix. Also more fish or shellfish.

As for the sides, it’s a range, from roast veg to potatoes to salad to rice. A nice change from when I was a kid and felt like I ate mashed potatoes every night. (I didn’t but it felt like that. So much so I rarely eat mashed potatoes now.) My goal in the new year is to eat less starchy sides and tracking can help with that.

Most meals I felt were Excellent or Very Good.  The lowest I’ve ever rated any meal — takeout, restaurant or home cooked — is Fair. I don’t think I had a Poor or Bad meal in the last year.

The other thing I discovered is the majority of meals I had were made by someone else: either my partner, or a restaurant. This has been a big change for me. For decades most of my meals were cooked in my own pots. It’s been a joy to simply sit down and enjoy someone else’s fine cooking every day.

The good thing about tracking meals like this is a) it is fast and easy to do b) it gives you a tool to think about how you are eating and change if you want. So if you want to change the way you eat, I highly recommend you do what I did and keep a log.

Good luck!

(Photo by Davey Gravy on Unsplash)