Sans Jounal

Affirmation: I do not eat when I am bored

This week I am without my journal. The trial one that I created was only for one month and I do not have the new changes ready to print out the new one. I can tell the difference with out it. As much as I have resisted keeping a food journal - not having the time, not wanting the hassle of writing everything that goes into my mouth, what ever the excuses were - I am now convinced that it is really a great tool for healing and recovery. Aside from the obvious of keeping me honest about what and how much I actually eat - it helps to keep my focus, helps me to see patterns of when and why I eat, and to see the excuses I have for not moving more. And it is from these that I make decisions on what to focus on each week and create my affirmations.

The food journal has become a sort of saftey net for me this past month. I can see that I will need to continue using it for a while yet. I think that the most important thing that it helped me realize is that this is going to be a long term journey for me and that it is ok. It helps me to hold on to the long term goals, but keeps me focused on the day to day choices that will bring that long term success. That long term success seems so huge and so far away, the journal, breaking it down into as small blocks of time as I want help me to recognize and celebrate the smaller victories along the way, the marking of progress that gets lost when only focusing on the final long term goal. And really these daily, even choice by choice victories are, in many ways, more important because they are what will become the habits of my life that will sustain me in the permancy of recover and health. It helps me to remember that my focus is not just the final goal of loosing x-amount of weight, but of creating a new lifestyle that is centered on health and the permenacy of that change has to be made at the lowest level, the beginning, the minute by minute choice that I make each day about how I choose to live my life. I love this quote from Oprah:

"The commitment to do well and be well is a lifetime of choices that you make daily" --Oprah Winfrey

So, I have become convinced that a food journal is a valuable tool that not only keeps one honest about what one eats, but for me it helps to see, plan and facilitate change.

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