Lots of people ask me if I still keep a food journal and what is in it. Absolutely!! When you start with Dr. Jack he sends you some pages to use. And when I started and began sending it to him, he told me that none of his patients had kept a journal quite like mine. Ha ha…. Again, an example of how this poor man had no idea what he was in for!
I am not comfortable sharing pages from it as it is Dr. Jack’s copyrighted format. But I will tell you about it. With so many people doing bullet journaling these days, mine has actually become somewhat like that.
Just as you might expect, there is a column to keep track of your food, and how you are using calories. There is a checklist of the supplements you should take that day. I usually scribble through those as I take them so I am sure I did. There is a checklist of important things. Did you sleep at least eight hours? Did you track your water? Did you exercise and for how long? Did you take all the supplements? Do you have questions for Dr. Jack?
I usually put my water intake at the bottom of the page. Since I use the same containers all the time I know how much I am getting each time. I always shoot for 110 ounces and most days I make it. But by far, my absolute favorite column is a blank space on the right that was supposed to be about emotions that had an impact on your eating that day. And I use that column for everything.
I have used that column since day one, not as it was intended but as a place to sound off. Sometimes it is about my great day, others my challenging days. Sometimes, it is just thoughts as I reflect on my day. I include things that I do, and how I felt about them. It has no system to it, it is just whatever strikes me at the moment. Sometimes I fill it in as the day is going on, at other times, I do it at the end of the day, and if I come home exhausted, I finish it in the morning. But since day one, I have never missed a single day. There were a couple of really bad days where the column is mostly blank and other days where I need additional paper to complete my thoughts. There are happy faces, balloons and colors everywhere for special things.
The next morning, before the day begins, I read what I wrote the day before. As I am thinking on it, I get out my colored markers and put cloud puffs around the stories, or I highlight certain words. This helps me to reflect on what happened, what worked and what didn’t. Many days have smiley faces. But not all! Many have sad ones, concerned faces, flowers, butterflies, dark clouds and big questions around what I wrote.
Every Sunday like clockwork, I get up, check my super duper Tanita scale that measures everything you can think of including water, muscle mass and visceral fat. I write it all down on a chart I keep. Then I get out my iPad, take photos of every page of the last week and send it off to Dr. Jack with an email of questions. I am giggling because I can only recall one week where I asked no questions. Yes!!!!! Ten months and I am still asking about things I want to know! I have gotten my dollars worth out of Dr. Jack about twenty times over.
In the beginning, he asked me to send the journal weekly, but I still do it and I think I will for a long time even after we agree that I am on a maintenance place. Heck, I may do it forever! I have found that accountability and just what I write helps him to help me better! He sees if I am eating too much of a certain food. He sees if it has been a stressful week and it has allowed our conversations and email to be very productive because his education has helped me to spot trends and to interpret what they mean. And more importantly, what I can do about them. He can find the tiniest thing and explain it so I understand why I need cut back that food or change the pattern.
I have learned a lot about myself in the process, what triggers food cravings, what makes me go from fat burning to fat storing. I have learned to take time to be sure I am doing everything I can to help myself. People can’t believe that I still send it to him religiously, but hey, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it! And why wouldn’t I take the help?? That’s just nuts not to!
My book has shown my evolution as a person, through this process. And believe me, I have evolved. I gave gotten well, but I have also changed, so many needed changes!! So many people who start his program have told me they don’t bother, too much work. Sorry for saying it, but you are making a huge mistake!
According to WebMD…Several studies have shown that people who keep food journals are more likely to be successful in losing weight and keeping it off. In fact, a researcher from one recent study says that people keeping a food diary six days a week lost about twice as much weight as those who kept food records one day a week or less.
So, why wouldn’t you want to improve your chances of doing well? We all have five or ten minutes a day, don’t even try telling me, who works two jobs, that you don’t. When I look back and read mine, it has been an eye opening experience. I get to see who started it, compared to who is writing it now. And I can promise you, that it looks like two different people. The biggest change is not outside, but what’s behind my eyes. This whole process and Dr. Jack have changed me. All for the better…. So if you haven’t kept a journal before, think about starting!
hugs!
Chris