Dialy Food Log Spreadsheet

Piece-by-piece

Daily Food Log Spreadsheet Instructions

Keep track of your daily food intake via the web! You'll never go anywhere w/o your food log being readily available. Easy access for your healthcare provider, too. Best of all, you don't need to buy any software. Google provides free spreadsheets to everyone. Create your own Daily Food Log Spreadsheet by following these easy instructions. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

Getting to the Google Spreadsheets.

Go to Google. At the top, left-hand corner of the web page, you will see the word "more". Click on MORE and get a drop down menu. Select "Documents". You will have to created a Google Account, if you do not have one. Believe me, it is well worth it to create a Google Account. Many, many free features are available with such an account. Once you've created your Google Account, log in.

Creating your spreadsheet.

Click on New Spreadsheet, which is at the top left-hand of the Google web page. You will then have a pop-up window appear. In that window, you will see a blank spreadsheet. Maximize that pop-up window by clicking on the little square in the right-hand corner.

Designing your spreadsheet.

Now comes the fun part. You get to design your spreadsheet! Across the top, you'll see the Alphabet (A, B, C, etc.). At the left, you'll see numbers. (1, 2, 3, etc.) . Keep in mind, you can design the spreadsheet however you wish. Below is the way I have my Daily Food Log Spreadsheet set up. I primarily keep track of my carbs but you can add more columns, if you'd like. Perhaps you want to keep track of calories, too. Just add that column to your personally designed spreadsheet.

My columns are: A1: Day & Date B1: Meal C1: Food D1: Amount E1: #Carb Grams F1: Per Meal Carb Totals G1: Food Comments H1: Blood Sugar Comments

Saving your spreadsheet.

At this point, you should name and save your spreadsheet. Click on "Save" and you'll be able to name your spreadsheet. If you "Save & Close", but didn't mean to close it, you'll be able to click on the spreadsheet again, thanks to Google's Documents' Home page.

Input your food information into the spreadsheet.

Start using your spreadsheet to record what you've eaten and the carb totals. Place your cursor in one of the rectangles. Type. Then hit
"enter". If you own a Mac. & found you've typed in a wrong fact, just type the right information and the spreadsheet will automatically erase the typo. For a PC, you can also right click "clear selection" to erase a typo or wrong number.

Making it your own.

If you'd like to spruce up your spreadsheet with colors and bold print, go to the Edit Tab. All the editing tools are right above your spreadsheet. I like to put a blank row between each day but then fill that row in with background color.

Sharing your spreadsheet.

If you want to share your speadsheet with someone, click on the "Share" tab. I prefer to have other people just be "Viewers", rather than "Collaborators". But, that's up to you. You can only send this spreadsheet to someone, who has an e-mail address. So, if your Healthcare Provider using a corporate messaging system, you might be a bit more limited in sending this spreadsheet to that person.

Of course, you can also easily Print the spreadsheet and share it with your Healthcare Provider in-person or by FAX.

I have found the Google Spreadsheet Document system to be an organized and highly effective way to keep track of what I eat everyday. Hope you'll give it a try!

--- Sherrie