Journaling Your Journey to a Healthy Weight

Journaling Your Journey to a Healthy Weight



In the past, I've tried and failed at a number of diets. I'm not proud of it, but I do think I've learned a lot from my unsuccessful diets. It is critical to take something away from every diet that doesn't work. The same errors will keep cropping up unless you do something about it. You can learn a lot from your blunders if you start keeping a notebook. Keeping a journal is something you should do on your own; I wouldn't recommend it to you. However, I feel obligated to tell you about the ways I benefited from keeping a notebook. To begin, make a point of recording each bite you take while you eat. Like I said before, many of us do in fact forget some of the items we consume throughout the day, particularly the smaller stuff. This may sound unusual, but it's true. If we are constantly munching, this becomes even more apparent. Is the number of Sugar Frosted Flakes handfuls you ate today etched in your memory? How many? Maybe nine was a better estimate. Accuracy is key if you want to get the benefits of this method. Don't make a note of the fact that you had "some" M&Ms. To keep track of your serving size, write down "three handfuls" of M&Ms. Get out your trusted calorie counter and tally up all those calories at the end of the day. It is up to you to decide. Can you tell me the number of calories you had? How would you rate the day? If today was a poor day, what exactly contributed to that? Is it possible to reduce that for tomorrow? Very well! For the love of God, don't fudge or cheat. Telling a friend that you maintained your diet but still put on weight while pretending not to eat that ice cream last week indicates that you have more issues than simply being overweight. If I'm being dishonest, my pals can usually tell. Being dishonest with yourself is the next best thing to being truthful with your friends. Denial is the result of not being truthful with yourself, and it will lead to constant frustration. The scale keeps track of everything you eat and displays that information when you check your weight. Having a record of your diet slip-ups is incredibly valuable information. Make sure you listen to that criticism. Your weekly problem log is an additional kind of journal entry. Only the weeks in which you did not experience a weight loss are required to be recorded in this journal. Just write down what you think are the main reasons you didn't lose weight last week (holidays, stress, brownie sales, etc.). This is an example of a log:
LOG OF PROBLEMS
In Week 3, I consumed a chocolate bunny—or two—to the letter.
THE 7TH WEEK: I mistook the chocolate sauce for low-fat.
Chocolate in Week 9. Whatever it is, I'll take chocolate.
During Week 11, there were no trick-or-treaters, and I proceeded to devour all of the fun-size Snickers since they irritated me while they were just lying there. A problem log is a good place to look for trends. Chocolate is currently all the rage. Cutting back, or cutting out entirely, on chocolate consumption is the right course of action. Life can be really unjust at times. Finding solutions to reduce your chocolate consumption then becomes the challenge. Avoiding 7-Elevens is going to be the most helpful thing I can do for myself. Every one of us has our own little hidden spot where we go to get our "fixes." Do not go to them and act as if you are in desperate need of some fruit or vegetables. Say aloud, "Yes, oh I needed this so much," while you gnaw on that carrot. First, make sure nobody is around. You won't see "chocolate" entries in everyone's trouble log. In the same way that some people consume an excessive amount of alcohol (oops... many problems), others consume an excessive amount of junk food. While some people consume as much meat in one week as some of us do in a year, others consume the equivalent of twelve cans of Pepsi daily. The objective of keeping a journal in this manner is to identify the things or occurrences that have the most impact on your weight loss efforts. Another option for documenting your workouts is to use a diary. Make a note of the kinds of exercises you do and the amount of time you spend exercising each week. Along with your nutrition, setting a weekly activity goal might help keep you motivated. You have the option to choose between calories or hours as the preferred unit of expression. The point is to keep you motivated to exercise as part of your weight loss journey. After a disastrous weigh-in, I find that writing things down helps me to refocus and get my life back in order. Just to get the ball rolling, I usually jot down whatever is on my mind. The first few words say a lot about how I'm feeling, and it's not always a good one. A few instances are as follows: January 6-So, what transpired, Johnny? Oh, hold for a second. You really shouldn't have gone to McDonald's three times in a week. When are you going to realize it's best to avoid certain areas? Do you support me? On the other hand, are you merely acting? January 27 - Allow me to make a brief statement... The four cake pieces at the wedding—what's with them? What on earth are you thinking? You had intended to limit yourself to veggies this week. For a second there, did it not occur to you that cakes are not vegetables? Next week, how are you going to avoid that junk? As of today, February 17th, this week is a total bust. In my opinion, Johnny, it seems like we're experiencing a lot of blown weeks. Also, weren't we just talking about this same thing a couple of weeks ago? I believe we did, actually. Hold on. Perhaps we have the potential to mess up other parts of your life as well. We shouldn't restrict it to diets, after all. You could say I'm being too critical of myself in my notebook notes, but the truth is that I release all of my pent-up emotions at that very moment. After a few paragraphs of self-criticism, I usually stop being so hard on myself and start making a list of constructive objectives for the next week. You can also benefit from keeping a daily notebook in which you record your dietary-related thoughts and views. Feel free to discuss any subject related to dieting. Here are some examples of potential topics: Do you normally consume eight glasses of water daily? Last night at dinner, did you completely mess up? Is your approach to dieting working better now? Every week, you should reflect on the factors that have been positively and negatively impacting your progress. Over the weekend, or whenever works best for you, go back through the diary entries from the previous week. You can use this as a starting point for your diet plan. Remove the ineffective and make room for the effective. You could be shocked by what you write in your journal when you read it back. Those three weeks ago, did you actually write that paragraph? Was that all you ate in a single sitting? Or, "I'm so paranoid, it's scary." The variety of emotions you experience will astound you. You have more than just writing space in your personal diary. As a child, I used to create pictures of restaurants that were safe for me to eat at, and now I use the same photos and lists to keep track of what I can and cannot eat, drawing a broad line between the two extremes so I wouldn't dare cross it. At one point, I even attempted to sketch an apple fritter, but the result was unappetizing. The point isn't that it looked more like an unsightly, badly styled hairpiece. It was an apple fritter, and I was already aware that I couldn't eat it. You have to figure out what works for you because that kind of stuff is effective for me. But keep in mind that keeping a journal isn't going to solve all of your problems. While keeping a food journal might help you see patterns, it is ultimately up to you to break undesirable habits. Please take note of these things, and if you find that you need to start your diet all over again (like I have done multiple times), do it with determination.