Maintaining Your Weight Using a Diet Journal


How to safely maintain your new weight.

Writing can be good for the soul - and for Weight Maintenance as well! Grab your favorite pen - the one with the yellow-headed troll bouncing on the top. That's right. Next, dig out some chocolate-scented paper and let's get that roller ball working to help you maintain your weight loss.

I've always recommended that people keep a personal journal to make note of certain health problems that have impacted their lives over the years. For example, whenever a person gets the flu, or a side ache, or a toothache - it's wise to keep a record of these events. Your doctor would certainly benefit from your medical journal. A recurring toothache can indicate an ear-related problem or a sinus problem, or even head-related trauma rather than an existing tooth problem (my, that's a lot of problems!). And it's very hard as time goes by to remember those prior surgery dates.

Your Weight Maintenance Journal can be helpful in jotting down your day-to-day eating experiences. Through this adventure you may even discover that you are allergic to certain foods, such as strawberries. In addition, you will be able to quickly identify foods that don't agree with your tum tum. Most importantly, this tool will assist you in maintaining your weight because it simply 'tracks' what you eat, what you weigh, and other notes relating to your Weight Maintenance Journey. And you can view everything in a capsule! So as you can see, the diet journal comes with many positives!

Your journal, or diary, might contain any of the following:

- daily or weekly weigh-ins
- daily menus OR what you have eaten for the day
- foods that seem to not agree with the old tum tum
- foods that trigger stress
- foods that begat headaches
- dining/snack times
- general notes
- exercises & your duration
- medical facts about you, such as current cholesterol
- you may wish to track visits to your doctor

~~dietbites.com

Thank you, Dear Editor for this article, because it has great information and it reassures me that I am on the right path for myself. I have found that journaling gives me a detailed picture of what foods, exercises, diet tips, etc. work best for me. I don't know if I would have been able to reach my maintenance weight and kept it off for over a year, if I did not log my food, exercise and diet information down. I not only have a diet journal but I have a spiritual journal, as well, where I log down what I've read and studied in the bible and the prayers I pray and the answers God gave me to those prayers. The Lord let me know if I could spend time on dieting and diet related things and journaling food and exercise then how much more important it is for me to maintain my spiritual walk with Him. It's sad to say, but I had to repent for not putting God first in my life. I've made adjustments and the Holy Spirit gently tugs on my heart when I get my priorities misplaced. I'm not pinpointing dieting, only, because that has its place in God's plan for my life, but I am speaking about every area that I have put before my fellowship with the Heavenly Father. It's important that I be obedient to God in whatever He has given me to do and put everything in it's proper place. Well, I did not mean to carry on, but God is so good to me, and I must reverence and respect what He has done through His Son, Jesus Christ, on the Cross by giving Him the honor that only He deserves. He is LORD over ALL. :D

I do need to get back to journaling! When I did TLT I did a spiritual journal and it was so edifying. You have had such wonderful maintenance success and your reply shows many of the reason's why.