Personal Journal


How many times have I posted about my personal journal on the WW 100+ board?  Too many to count.  But I want to share with you a tool that has really helped me in my weight loss journey. 

When I started WW on 1/5/05, I realized in a matter of days that I was becoming very emotional.  I was moody, cranky, grumpy.  I was up, I was down, I was sideways and crazy.  I had no idea what was going on.  And then to top it off, I seriously injured my toe (see here) 10 days into WW!  I was feeling guilty and depressed about it.  I was loosing my mind!  Something had to give!

I had the idea of starting a personal journal about my struggles with WW.  I kept a journal in college and LOVED it.  But I thought the idea of having a journal about a "diet" was just silly.  If I didn't have anything significant enough in my life to write about outside of WW, why on earth would I start a journal just about WW?  I even started one on my laptop and then deleted it in a fit of frustration a few days later.  Meanwhile, I was still going out of my mind.  I was totally loosing it.

I got hold of a blank notebook that I bought around the holidays.  I loved that little blue spiral notebook with the 1950s style atomic stars.  I tossed it in my bag with my lunch for work and off I went.  I started the journal with kind of a disclaimer about how lame I thought it was to be writing about "a diet."  I started writing in it every couple of days mostly when I was eating my lunch.

You know what?  It was very liberating to put down my feelings about food and WW into words.  I wrote about the guilt I was carrying around about my injury.  I wrote about when I was feeling down and what I was doing.  It helped me realize what needed to change.  I wrote about when I had a major or even a minor accomplishment.  I wrote about my goals and hopes.  I wrote about my frustrations when I wasn't doing so well.  I wrote about my struggles with starting an exercise program and struggles when I started slacking on it.

Most importantly, the journal helped me discover WHY I was such an emotional mess.  I am an emotional eater.  The food was evening out my moods.  It was comfort!  Once that was taken away from me when I started WW, I had to deal with all of the emotions.  It really helped me break the connection between food and emotions.  And I think that is one of the reasons that I have done so well.  It has given me my "hard edge dedication" to the program.

I suggest to everyone that they consider starting a journal.  Use it as a companion to your food journal.  It a great place to work out your food/WW feelings and getting control of yourself before you go off program.  It is also very inspirational when you have the chance to go back through it and read all that you have been through. 

Ok, I'll step off my soap box now.  Thanks for listening!


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