Journaling to Becoming Healthier
Ok, I know what a pain it is to write down every thing that you might eat during the day. And to add the fact of keeping track of your emotions, and time you eat, I might as well be asking for the moon. But most of us don't pay attention to what we put into our mouth. You can use several ways to record what you eat, try a special notebook, use a chat website, or a dry eraseboard (If using a dry eraseboard, make sure you keep the overall information somewhere to refer back to). Here are some good tips and items that you should include in your food journal to make it a successful one:
- Include the type of food. The amount adds things like measurement of what you put on your plate and if it is low fat, low sugar, etc..
- Include when and where you eat, Time when you eat, and what place you eat. This is a good thing to note. If I had a tendency to binge from 3 pm to 5 pm on the couch while watching T.V. and did that every day, I would be able to set some goals to change that habit.
- Include if you can emotion and fullness level, Sometimes we just eat because it is our scheduled lunch time at work. But being mindful of how our body feels just before we eat is a good start to understanding our eating habits. If I noticed that I ate cake every Friday at 7pm and I knew I had stressful deadlines at work each Friday, I might associate the two together.
- Take a few minutes each day to calculate and evaluate what you ate that day. Make some notes that will help you understand the day's events. Try to include things like how much calories you had eaten that day and even make a note of which things you feel you could have done better and why.
- After at least a week of Journaling Then try doing the following:
- Find out what your average calorie count is and evaluate where a few changes could be made.
- Plan a meal ahead, then two, then a day, etc...
- start adding a few better choices into your meals at this point.
- Set some small goals that you can achieve within a day or a week's time.
Still confused! Try using our registration form as a way to keep a journal and instead of sending it to me, send it to yourself! Keep it in a folder in your e-mail and refer back to it often!
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