You have decided that you want to start a weight loss program and you know that changes to your current habits and food choices will have to be made.
Keeping a diary or journal can be a great help. Relying on your memory to recall what you have eaten on what day is a recipe for losing control and failure. Pre-planning meals and tracking food and exercise help keep you accountable and less reliant on willpower or memory-power.
It also saves you time and stress and reduces friction and overcomplication when you make small incremental changes.
Here’s some things that you should record when starting a journal or planner:
- Starting weight and ongoing weight. You can measure weight daily and monitor it weekly.
- Starting waist measurement and ongoing waist measurement, every 4 weeks.
- Food and drink consumption, daily.
- Exercise and daily movement/activity.
- Sleep quantity and quality, daily.
- Energy levels, daily.
- Stress scale, daily.
Here are some ways that journaling will help with weight loss:
- Keeps you focused on your desired goals and ongoing progress
- Breaks down the journey into manageable chunks, say 5 kilos at a time
- Pre-plan menus and shopping lists and reduce decision fatigue when it comes to food shopping
- Pre-planning exercise and activities makes then non-negotiable
- Record what and when you have eaten, drunk and exercised for accountability
- Keep track of progress, for what’s working and what isn’t
- Develop an understanding of how your body reacts to different foods, drinks and portion servings
- Identify any emotional or unhealthy or unconscious eating patterns
- Reduce stress and worry by relying on your own personal data – how your body responds
- Identify if you have any imbalances in your life
- Make nutrition choices that work for your body
- Reduce the reliance on willpower
- Educate yourself about what works for you
- Identify problems such as stress or lack of good quality sleep
- Provide small improvements along the way so you can celebrate your success
- Pre-plan for problematic social situations
- Provides an accountability record to share with your weight loss coach
For journaling you could choose an online program, an app, or simply follow some simple eating guidelines and do it on your own. Our members (and their coaches) find nothing beats our small pocket journals we call Daily Planners.
Assume you have a goal you are working towards, and in this case let’s say you want to lose 10 kilos by Spring, but previously you had not been successful with a similar weight loss goal.
Do you think that adding journaling may help you achieve your goals, reduce stress, and improve your overall health: physical, mental and emotional.
Journaling can be effective for many different reasons and help you reach a wide range of goals. It can help you clear your head, make important connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and even reduce the effects of mental illness.
By writing down your feelings on paper, it can lift your mood and empower you to understand your feelings better. Many of us have some negative emotions concerning our past, so writing or journaling for 5 – 15 minutes a day, can clear your mind and your emotions.
If your daily journal prompts you to write a daily gratitude statement, this can help you maintain a positive mindset.
If you like the idea of starting a journal and want to expand on planning and reaching goals, whether they are weight loss related or not, why not track your outcomes every 30 days by asking yourself these questions:
- Where am I right now? Focus, challenges, both business and personal.
- What are your wins from the last 30 days? Accomplishments, experiences, learnings, and all progress made.
- What are the key wins you want to have in the next 30 days? Write down 3 x short term goals you want to achieve.
Remember this …. journaling keeps you:
- Intentional
- Focused
- Empowered
- Courageous
- Accountable
Now you could choose a structured program like Healthy Inspirations where you have your own 4-week Daily Planner that includes all the above information. You complete daily information including foods and drinks and portion sizes for each meal and snack. When you meet weekly with your coach your Planner provides the information to access your actions and results so far and help you fine tune your plan moving forward.
A completed planner not only tells you what has been working but also what has not worked. This data helps you educate yourself not only about foods and drinks, but activity, sleep, stress, and mindset.
Just like our eating plan is unique for each individual person, journaling can also look different for each person as well.
If you would like more information about how our coaches can help you reach your goals fill out the form below and we will contact you.