A weight loss journal does more than just track your weight loss. A person who is attempting to lose weight needs to realize that there is so much going on in one's mind as well as their body as they try to lose weight. Some days a person may feel great and that things are coasting along just fine. Then there are those days that you feel as if your diet is never going to succeed. On those days that you feel like a failure you would be much better off to be able to look back at your weight loss journal so you will be able to see that you are not just on another failed diet attempt. A fully functioning weight loss journal not only documents your weight but also your emotions and your daily exercise patterns. If you use a journal you will realize that you are not a failure but maybe just having a "down" day. A weight loss journal is more than just a journal, it provides you emotional support and nudges you into weight loss success.

 I have kept a journal for many years. I am not as consistent with it as I should be. I do know that it has helped me get through some tough times in my life. Back in October of 1997, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was also feeling that my marriage was in disarray and everything was falling apart. I was fighting the hardest battle in my life and I didn't want to lose. I picked up my journal and immersed myself with my writing. I reread some of my previous entries that consisted of little pieces of years that had gone by. It took me back to some of my silly teenage antics and then it skipped to the birth of my children and looking into those precious little eyes when they were born. I relived the memories of counting their little toes and little fingers. It also brought back the memories of how sweet little babies smell and how they depend on you for everything in their little lives.

I then began writing entries to document my new beginnings. I wrote about the woman that I had become and how illness wasn't going to hold me back. I thought and wrote about my spiritual beliefs in God and my surroundings. I made a promise to myself that if I lived, I would live a simple, stress free life and cherish each breath of fresh air that I breathed. I vowed to stop and smell the roses and to take time to be grateful for the little things that I have always taken for granted.

I have now been cancer free for 11 years and no longer have fears of it returning. I honestly believe that journaling through all of the feelings that you go through when everyone around you is wondering if you will be with them in 6 months, gives you a new perspective on relationships. I am not saying that my story will help anyone the way it did me, but I am a firm believer in journaling and processing feelings. Journaling helped me live to create this website. I Choose Thin is here today because I journaled yesterday. Journaling can become your friend that is always there to help you in your weight loss journey as well as your life.

Getting Started

For starters, don't let a blank page on a journal intimidate you. Just start writing and write everyday and eventually it will become a habit. If you don't know what to write, then write what is on your mind. It is your journal, you have the freedom to write whatever your heart desires. If you're more comfortable with a computer keyboard than a piece of paper and pencil then by all means type. The key to journaling is just to write your feelings down, no matter how or where you do it. Personally I love to use the computer program FitDay. I started off with the free progam and later on upgraded to purchasing the program. Whatever you decide, just start and be consistent and soon you will have a history to look back on that can propell you further along in your weight loss travels.

Keeping a journal can be your weight loss journey, grieving over something in your life, stresses in your life, or to even leave your children a legacy of your life. A journal can be a vessel for all your emotions that you can or cannot share with anyone else.

Do You Need Some Help Getting Started

Here are some basic topics to get you started:

• How did I become overweight ?
• What motivates me to lose weight?
• What would it mean to me to lose weight?
• Am I comfortable with my own feelings?
• Does food affect my emotions?
• Am I comfortable with my body?
• What I need to change ?
• Do I have long term motivation to lose weight?
• How do I handle my obesity?
• How well do I handle weight loss attempts?
• How can I reward myself to lose weight ?

Summary

I cannot tell you that journaling will take all your woes away. I cannot tell you that journaling will help make you happy and help you greet every morning with a smile. I can only tell you my experiences with journaling and the calmness that it brings into my soul. It doesn't matter if you are trying to lose 1 pound or 100 pounds. What matters is the mind set that you are starting off with when trying to create a new healthy lifestyle. It is much harder to get into shape, reach your fitness goals and to grasp onto a new healthy lifestyle if you are not sleeping, you are stressed and your emotions are riding high. Why not give journaling a try and do it for 45 days!

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