A journal is a written record or account of various events in your life. It's about what you feel, see, and think. By journaling on a regular basis, you can begin to discover your habits, become more aware of what, when, and why you eat, and make the connection between food and mood.

After you've kept your journal for several days:

1. Review your journal entries and note the issues or patterns that appear. For example, are you always eating a candy bar at 3 PM on days you've skipped a meal or eaten very little? Here's your opportunity to examine your behavior and begin to make more conscious choices.
2. What are the conditions affecting these repeated patterns? What are you doing while you're eating? Who are you with? How are you feeling?
3. Think about these patterns and your emotions. Consider how you are handling issues, situations, and events. When these situations occur in the future, think about making healthier choices.

By recognizing issues or repeated patterns, you can begin to move forward and discover new ways for coping with everyday stress. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Get started today by clicking on our registration process. Also, remember that you can keep a journal in any form that makes it easy for you to use it regularly. Find a suitable hardbound journal to write in or start an electronic journal online that you can edit using a computer.

Getting Started

1. Keep a record. During, or soon after eating, document what you've eaten, how long it took you to eat, and how hungry you were at the time.
2. Be yourself. Write in the style that feels most comfortable to you -- in your own words.
3. Be creative. Journals are not just for writing -- you also can include drawings, quotes, and other items that reflect your mood.
4. Note emotional ups and downs. At the end of each day, write down your high and low emotional points for the day and expand upon how each affected your eating. Connect your emotional states to your degree of hunger using a rating scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = Not Hungry and 5 = Extremely Hungry.

Optional Journal Writing Goals

1. Managing your weight loss and diet plan
2. Controlling your emotional and physical well-being
3. Examining your life and learning from your experiences
4. Developing an internal feedback system
5. Expressing your emotions
6. Increasing your self-awareness