Sample journal...complete

Date: 3/31/15
Weight: 302.4 lbs/135 kg

Meal: Breakfast
Time: 8:56 AM
What I ate or drink? Boost Glucose Control Creamy Strawberry Shake
Number of calories: 250
How much or number of ounces: 8 oz.
Where eaten or drank:  Home
Feelings and thoughts:
Right:
Wrong:

Meal: Snack 1
Time: 10:30 AM
What I ate or drink? Boost Glucose Control Creamy Strawberry Shake
Number of calories: 250
How much or number of ounces: 8 oz.
Where eaten or drank:  Home
Feelings and thoughts:
Right:
Wrong:

Meal: Snack 2
Time: 1:00 PM
What I ate or drink? 6 Peanut butter crackers with
Number of calories: 300
How much or number of ounces: 8 oz.
Where eaten or drank:  Home
Feelings and thoughts:
Right:
Wrong:

Meal: Lunch
Time: 1:30 PM
What I ate or drank: 1.5 cup Spaghetti with meat sauce, with 1 sliced homemade white bread, with water
Number of calories: 520
How much or number of ounces: 8 oz.
Where eaten or drank:  Home
Feelings and thoughts:
Right:
Wrong:

Meal: Dinner
Time: 6:30 PM
What I ate or drink?  1 cup Macaroni Salad with water
Number of calories: 300
How much or number of ounces: 16 oz.
Where eaten or drank:  Home
Feelings and thoughts:
Right:
Wrong:

Meal: Snack 3
Time:  9:00 PM
What I ate or drank: 1 cup Macaroni Salad with 1 cup pears and 1 glass of water
Number of calories: 450
How much or number of ounces : 8 oz.
Feeling and thoughts:
Right:
Wrong:

Total calories: 2070
Total carbs: 325
Total amount of drinks consumed: 6

Daily Summary or reflection: I admit that I every time I try to lose weight I either fail because it feels like I am on a diet.  I restrict what I eat oftentimes.  It isn't as if I don't know what I to do.  Some of it is because of poor choices. Sometimes it also about a fear of failure.  There is nothing fun about feeling like I am constantly afraid to fail.  The truth is, I have tried everything.  How do I overcome this fear of failure?  How do I overcome making decisions based on how much or how little I eat?  I am just tired of struggling, even with all of the help I am getting.

Food Journal questions by Jim F.

What I can include in a food journal?

• What you ate or drank: Be specific and include everything.
• How much: Size, volume, weight, and number of items.
• Time: Time of day you ate this food or drank this beverage.
• Where: What location were you in when you ate.
• Alone or with whom: Were you by yourself or with others.
• Activity: List activities done while eating (watching TV, driving).
• Mood: How were you feeling before, during and after eating

What is my purpose for creating a journal?

• If your problem is portions: focus on weighing and measuring everything you eat.
• If you want to focus on a nutritious diet: record the nutritional components (fat, sugar, salt, etc).
• (NOTE: There are some great on-line resources reviewed here).
• If your problem is habitual eating patterns: Focus on recording time of day, where, with whom, and activity.
• Emotional eating issues? Log your moods and their connections to eating patterns.

What are my reasons for keeping a journal?

• Account for all those ‘little extras’
• Many people eat healthily at mealtimes, but snack poorly in between. If you’re aiming to lose a pound a week, just a few extras (eg. a can of coke, a cookie and a packet of crisps) during the day prevents you from seeing results on the scales.
• 
  
• Writing down everything you eat demonstrates the cost of those ‘occasional’ nibbles…
• 
  
• Know when you can afford to treat yourself
• Conversely, keeping track of your food intake over the course of a day or a week gives you the freedom to enjoy a treat once in a while – guilt-free. If you know you’ve got calories to spare for the day, and no chocolate has passed your lips for six days, you can indulge yourself!
• 
  
• Be aware of when you’re eating
• Keeping a food diary highlights patterns, showing if you overeat at particular times. Perhaps you binge late at night, because you’ve been eating too little all day? Or perhaps you graze constantly? If you don’t keep a food diary because you have no hope of remembering everything you eat … you may need to change your habits.
• 
  
• 
  
• Fight ‘portion creep’
• Those of us who’ve been dieting or maintaining for a long time often get used to “eyeballing” portions rather than weighing everything out. But if your weight loss has plateaued, or if those pounds are edging back on, keeping a diary means you need to weigh your foods. That “medium” portion of pasta or rice might be bigger than you think…
• 
  
• See your habits changing
• It can be motivational to look back on a food diary from a few months or even years ago and see how your nutritional choices have changed. Perhaps you’ve curbed your chocolate habit, or maybe you now eat proper meals instead of junk-food snacks. And if you’re having a bad day, flicking back to a “perfect” week in your diary is encouraging: if you did it once, you can do it again!
• 
  
• Boost your self-control
• Knowing you have to write down everything you eat makes you think twice about that donut, or that second plateful at a buffet. Even if you’re the only person who’ll see your diary, recording your food intake is a very easy way to improve your self-control.

Food Journal Link

Sample from 12/28/15

Breakfast  8:56 AM
Boost Glucose Control Creamy Strawberry Shake

Snack 1  10:30 AM
Boost Glucose Control Creamy Strawberry Shake

Snack 2  1:00 PM

Lunch 1:30 PM
Spaghetti with meat sauce, baked
Homemade bread

Dinner 6:30 PM
Macaroni Salad

Snack 3 9:30 PM
Canned pears

Feeling: I admit to eating way too much starch and not drinking enough water.  Other that that, I don't feel so bad about what I ate.

Right:
Consumed fruits
Consumed breakfast

Wrong:
Consumed too much starch.


I admit that I every time I try to lose weight I either fail because it feels like I am on a diet.  I restrict what I eat oftentimes.  It isn't as if I don't know what I to do.  Some of it is because of poor choices. Sometimes it also about a fear of failure.  There is nothing fun about feeling like I am constantly afraid to fail.  The truth is, I have tried everything.  How do I overcome this fear of failure?  How do I overcome making decisions based on how much or how little I eat?  I am just tired of struggling, even with all of the help I am getting.

Break time

Taking a break for tonight.

Reflection on my weight loss journey

Yesterday I took a break.  I went to my nutritionist then and for the first time, I am motivated to lose weight.  It will obviously be hard.  I will be a struggle at times.  However, I finally realized that I don't have to diet, nor do I have to see my weight as my god.  What I mean by that is that I can do it. I have been so stressed out about my weight because I didn't know what I was doing.  I want to lose weight that is for sure, but I realize that I don't have to worry about jinxes or diets.  That is what is and has been wrong with me.  I don't eat much fruit or vegetables, which is not a good thing, so the change is to incorporate more fruits or vegetables in my diet.  This is where I realize that this is a non-traditional blog.

Of course, many of my blogs are non-traditional, which of course is okay.  I feel pretty good about what I ate today.  However, my portions are often too large, which is true with the cereal that I eat.  Eating more than the recommended amount takes up a lot of weight watchers points. I didn't realize this, but man do dried fruit, especially a small amount of dried cherries take up a lot of points as well.  Laying off of the cherries would be a good thing for me.  I love to snack, but I need to snack in moderation.  What change do I need to make first?  I don't know yet, but I need to know.  Is it about the fruit and vegetables first?  Should I learn to measure foods and thus eat in moderation?  Could I do those things around the same time?  Where do I begin to make changes, since I am considering a healthy lifestyle?

Dieting and following rules have been a struggle for me. I have felt bad about myself.  I could have been thinner and healthier by now.  Why is it that I have allowed myself to get to the weight I am?  I have never made excuses, but I do have a complex condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome.  It can be hard to deal with especially when I have a greater risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, which could lead to further complications, including lowering self-esteem and even other conditions such as stroke and cancer due to the risks of being overweight.  That is a lot to deal with.  I have to take my health even more seriously and worrying has done me no good.  Trust me.  I will have to promise myself that I will love myself and that whatever else I am going through, I can do it. I will respect myself enough to be healthy and stay healthy.  I also have to make a promise to myself to not allow stress to get the best of me, even though I realize that losing weight is a journey.  Life is not fair, but neither have I been to myself.

While it has not been easy, I have to remind myself that there have been, and there are others who are struggling not only with their weight and their overall health.  There are some who have struggled with their lives and still are.  I realize that I needed to have my eyes opened because I am too hard on myself.  It is time that I be honest with myself and it will not involve my putting myself down and wishing that things could be different.  I won't do that tonight.  I will make a promise to not do that especially because of the past.  I will also believe that despite the struggle, I will not consider myself a failure.  I have a long way to go, but I will make a promise that my goal will be to be healthy and have a healthy mindset.

Break time

I think that I will be okay.

Prayer about how I ate today

Father,

Help me to overcome gluttony.  My problem is that I sometimes identify my trigger foods only to lose control of what I eat.  I want to lose weight and I am not perfect, but I don't want to grow lazy and do this more often.  Forgive me for my deception and abuse of points.  I need to lose weight and it has finally drummed into my head, this fact.  I do feel a bit guilty about eating those foods despite the fact that it seems that my eating is out of control.  I need help.  I know this and I call on You for help.  Help me to change, Lord.  I thank You in advance for answering this prayer.


In Jesus' name,

Amen