A Method: Tried and True

One tried, tested, and often touted method for effective weight-loss or increased exercise is journaling.  Mentioned over and over again, journaling often comes up as a typically-success-inducing technique for success in some type of goal-seeking.  While it seems simple enough, people are often perplexed about how to start, what exactly to journal, even the simple act of starting the journal can be a perplexing challenge.

It’s true, journaling can be highly effective.  What’s exceptional about journaling is that it can be totally individualized and specified to one person’s determined goal or outcome.  Likewise, there are often samples available in magazines or online, as well as pre-printed journals related to a number of topics at bookstores or stationary shops.

In this way, the confusion of trying to come up with an original method to kick off your journaling habit becomes moot.  As long as you are comfortable with the system you choose, the likelihood that you’ll stick with the process is greatly increased.

Some people (myself included) prefer the old-fashioned method: an actual notebook, filled with (gasp) hand-written entries detailing any information you want to include.   In my case, I usually track my activity for the day, followed by my meal/snack intake.  I write down specifics sometimes—“apple” for instance—and other times I go with a general description—“soup/salad/sandwich”—after the food entry, I track the calories.  Online databases are filled with resources to help you find the caloric values of nearly everything from fruit to fast food.  Many restaurants have their menu and nutrition facts posted online so that you can be fairly accurate at tracking meals that you don’t prepare yourself.  These online tools can help you calculate the totals in your notebook or journal.

If manually scribbling and figuring just isn’t your thing, don’t fret!  With the vast increase of our technology trends and knowledge, there are not only calorie and nutrition charts online, but actual sites with tools to help you track everything from fitness to food to weight-loss.  One great site, sparkpeople.com, has a tool that tracks not only calories consumed, but the specifics, too.  If you have certain sugar, sodium, fat, carbohydrate, protein, etc., goal or limit that you’d like to set for yourself, online tools make it easy to get all of those facts laid out for you.  And don’t worry about knowing the facts before you log the food or fitness numbers.  Most of the tools for tracking include their own database and has the information easily on hand.  Rather than logging an apple, going to another source and finding the specific specs, returning to the site and writing in the information, sites like Sparkpeople recognize the food and offers you choices and then fills in the information for you.  As long as you’re adamant about logging your information and intake, these tools can further your success.

While technology can sometimes frazzle us and complicate our lives, it can also be a highly functional and beneficial boost to our well-being.  Newer phone models, like the I-Phone or Smartphones offer applications that track these things, as well.  Food journaling?  Yep, there’s an app for that.  Having the tool right at your fingertips can increase the likelihood that you’ll actually log the food or fitness as it happens.  Though unplugging from your phone every so often is a great idea for stress-reduction, it is usually the case that our phones are within reach.  Having the tool on an item almost always present makes journaling that much more convenient.

What to log, you might ask yourself?  Well, the great thing about journaling is that it’s yours.  Only you need to see, read, or reflect on the information logged.  Some people prefer the basics: cornflakes w/ milk, a banana, an orange… Others might opt for a bit more specific information: one cup cornflakes (100 calories, 0 grams fat, 24 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein).  Still, some people like to keep the other nutrients in mind, as well, like sodium, vitamin C, sugars, or fiber.  The nice thing about the online and phone applications is that they do all of those counts automatically.  They can be set up to tell you how many calories/nutrients/carbs you’ve taken in, or if you’re on a plan, how many you have left for the day.

Besides being convenient, these tools simply increase individuals’ mindfulness regarding eating.  Sometimes, just knowing that we’ll have to later take the time to log the food (online or in a notebook) is enough to stop and truly examine our reasons for seeking food.  Is it because we’re bored or actually hungry?  Are the chips lying on the table as enticing to us when we know that the effort must be made to physically log them?  In other cases, logging food can bring a heightened awareness after the fact.  Many people struggle to understand why their weight-loss or maintenance efforts are consistently unsuccessful.  When the facts are concretely presented in front of our very eyes, the realization can be almost immediate.  We can finally see why our goals are yet unachieved and become enlightened as to how to attain them.  Finding out when, why, what, and how you eat can be a huge step towards victory.  Mindfulness is essential in so many areas of our life, and journaling can help harness that.

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