Self-tracking is great. I track everything I eat and a range of markers and symptoms. Over the last few years I've greatly stabilized my mood, sleeping patterns, and productivity. I only wish there were better tools on the market. There's a whole bunch of chemicals in my bloodstream that I'd love to track the concentration of.
If it isn't too personal, what have you learned? I'm curious if is common knowledge nutritional stuff that tracking just gave you the willpower to follow (refined carbs are bad!) or something more novel (bacon is the answer!)?
I've learned that certain refined carbs (white flour) give me an energy boost followed by a satisfying crash, whereas other refined carbs (white rice) just make me moody. I avoid refined carbs in general, but I have occasional insomnia so it's good to know which things can induce a good crash. Sweet potato yams are probably the best pure carb source that I've found for inducing sleep. Nuts and fruit help as well.
I've discovered some food allergies (soy, bananas, oranges) which have greatly eased symptoms after removal (especially digestion problems).
Magnesium and calcium have strong influences on cardiac events (skipped beats, bounding pulse, etc), but I haven't been able to leverage them to eliminate symptoms completely.
Ginkgo is great for circulation and body warmth (probably specific to my own body chemistry though, as it sounds like most people don't have any reaction to it). Ashwaganda is ridiculous (for me).
I wouldn't be surprised if nothing I've learned applied to anyone else. I don't encourage anyone to follow my specific diet (except for avoiding refined foods), but I do encourage people to track themselves. It's quite empowering.
How many hours a day do you devote to tracking? What do you do about prepared food that you didn't prepare? Do you bring weight scales? How deep in detail do you go into your tracking?
I probably spend about 10 minutes a day tracking. I keep a textfile open and have a markup language for documenting what I eat and how I feel.
I shy away from prepared food, both because it complicates analysis and because I've noticed it has a higher chance of causing negative effects. It's unavoidable sometimes though. If I have a brand or a restaurant I'll note that, but otherwise I mark the item with ???? to indicate it's uncontrolled.
I spent a few weeks measuring everything so that I could build up an intuition. I can eyeball most things reasonably well. It's not perfect, but it's a good ball park figure which is all I really need for my analysis.
The depth of the food tracking isn't too great, just food item, brand, quantity. I'm debating starting to track cooking method.
