Mindless eating vs. journaling – what’s your norm?
Some of us are automatic list-makers and don’t know how they could exist without writing things down – others must be prodded to document their goals, plans and forget-me-nots.
Which one are you? Whether you’re a natural at list-making or not, journaling the food you eat every day is both about planning as well as taking a look back and taking stock of what goes into your body on a daily basis.
Keeping track of your food and beverage intake is something we should all do once in awhile. Why? It makes us more aware, which leads to better conscious choices in what we eat, especially when the goal is to lose some weight.
Because there is no “one size fits all” diet (we are all biochemically unique), I both utilize and promote a variety of truly excellent nutritional guidance and support tools with my clients, all of which are available through my website Store page.
There you’ll find mastert diet and life coach Jonny Bowden’s audio books, e-books, written books and workbooks. His Change Your Body Change Your Life audio book series and Diet Boot Camp workbook are not only educational but also entertaining, and because he has a Master’s degree in psychology and PhD. in nutrition, Bowden really focuses on the importance of addressing your thoughts and feelings as they apply to diet and weight loss.
Another choice is Precision Nutrition, one of the most comprehensive learning and implementation tools for diet and nutrition available. It’s like having your own sports nutrition expert at your disposal 24/7. Take it from me, no stone goes unturned in this system.
One of the latest expert programs I now promote and carry in my online store is JJ Virgin’s Fast Track to Fat Loss. This is a 3 week all inclusive diet and exercise program that includes weekly online classes, workbooks, what to eat, what not to eat, how and when to exercise, and, of course journaling.
To further illustrate what a positive impact planning, strategizing, and then IMPLEMENTING, a well-crafted exercise and diet plan can do for you, I want to share with you an e-mail I received from one of my fitness coaching clients just two weeks after sticking to her exercise and nutrition commitments. This mother of three had started and stopped many exercise and diet plans, coming to me to help her develop and implement an approach that would realistically fit into her lifestyle and help her reach her fitness goals. This is what she said:
“When we were talking the other day and reviewing my prior two weeks on my new plan, I just kept thinking, ‘what is this new feeling I have? Then I thought yes, it’s a kind of freedom. Then I realized that fitness now represents a kind of freedom!
“I’m starting to see that there are a lot of things I love doing in life, but have kept myself from doing them because of my appearance. This includes socializing with old friends, attending my husband’s work events,
taking part in activities like boating and water skiing, going to the beach, etc. It’s a terrible feeling to continue to avoid doing things because of how I might be perceived, or even the way I perceive myself. It’s much easier to ‘just say no’ to all of it or barely participate, making excuses. Fitness has given me freedom from negative thoughts about myself. I am seeing fitness as life itself. It may sound corny, but this is how I now feel about it. It’s about fully engaging in life!”
What a paradigm shift! This client also admitted to me that she had not wanted to try new things because of her fear of failure. She confessed that as she began to regain some of her self-confidence, new activities no longer presented themselves as potential failures. Instead, they became adventures! She no longer is concerned with being great at some things because she is now succeeding at fitness.
This life-changing attitude took place in part because of journaling, My client wanted to share this with me because they were thoughts she hadn’t explored in a very long time and she ended her email with “If I don’t write them down I might forget what it felt like before.”
Bingo!
Journaling, therefore can be a reflective, history-making tool that can mean the difference between striving for and achieving your nutrition and fitness goals, and merely giving them lip service.
This is the stuff that keeps me going–It’s why I do what I do. What keeps you going? Do you have a vision of yourself as a fit person, doing all the right things to take care of the only body you’ll ever have? If you do, let’s explore together how to get you to where you want to go.
