We have all heard about how journaling can help you lose weight, but what you don’t know is that it should be a tool without judgement! Mindful eating takes a different approach to journaling. It’s not something to beat yourself up with. It’s a tool to help you understand your body and it’s needs.
The last few weeks, I have spent getting rid of the dieting mentality. You know that angry little person that sits on your shoulder and tells you what you “should” or “shouldn’t” eat. It gangs up with the one that looks in the mirror and tells you how “fat” you look today. They are quite the evil duo, and I have to say good riddance! They have tried to creep up on me the last few weeks, but this Crunchy mama is laying the smack down on those two!
The next thing I want to work on is journaling when I am eating more mindfully. My relationship with food has been so awful over the years, that I almost fear being hungry. It’s completely foreign to me to forget about food and just listen for my body to tell me to eat. Honestly, I probably couldn’t tell you 100% what my hunger signals truly are. That’s why I am grabbing a journal and figuring this out!
Personally, I love my Ecojot jumbo journals for this. My favorite one has a great quote from Winston Churchill that says “Never, Never, Never, Give Up!” It gets me motivated when sometimes I feel like all this is too much work. So, I am committing for the next few weeks to attach my jumbo journal to my hip! Every time I take time to eat, it needs to be a utensil like my fork or spoon.
You can also print sheets out to journal your meals as well. I have made a free printable food journal for you to show you what is important to pay attention to. We aren’t talking about calories and fat grams, but how you feel before, during, and after the meal!
Weight loss is never the first goal when it comes to mindful eating, but if you are eating more because you aren’t listening to your body it can be a by product of your more intuitive eating approach. That’s why I wanted to share 5 ways journaling can help you lose weight on your mindful eating journey.
1. Learn Your Hunger Signals: If you have been overeating most of your life, journaling will help you recognize your hunger signals. It will also help you realize just how hungry you are. Getting too hungry is just going to lead to overeating because your body is afraid you are trying to starve it. This is a great way to learn the happy medium.
2. Learn When You are Full: Who hasn’t eaten to only realize they ate way too much? Paying attention to how you feel and writing it down will help you gauge when you should stop eating because your body is satisfied.
3.Learn What Foods You TRULY Enjoy: Binge eaters normally eat so fast that they really don’t taste their foods. With journaling, you might actually find some of your “favorites” really aren’t foods you enjoy as much as others. Learning what you truly love and crave will bring the joy back to eating, and you will find yourself satisfied eating less.
4. Learn What Motivates You to Eat: Emotional eaters eat for tons of reasons that aren’t biologically related. By journaling you are sure to find patterns when you are searching for food and you aren’t truly hungry. Journaling will help you recognize these patterns and look for other ways to cope that don’t involve food.
5. Learn How Certain Foods Make You Feel: When you journal what you eat, and how you feel afterwards, you can quickly figure out how you feel when you eat certain types of food. If your goals is to have more energy, you might just find some foods aren’t your friends when it comes to that area. You also might find new foods that make you feel alive and please your palatte.
Make sure to print your free printable food journal to help you record all of your meals!
Jenna Wood says
These are all great tips for recognizing the WHY of what we eat, and the HOW of our physical body and shape. Thanks!
Ashley Sears says
Learning the why and the how is really more important than counting calories and such. You can learn a LOT about yourself.
Jodi @ A Mom Having Fun says
Great post. I am trying to lose weight too right now. Over the years I seem to have gotten a sweet tooth. 🙁 I literally crave it! It’s awful…I never used crave sweets like this. Great post.
Ashley Sears says
Sweet tooth habits should be fostered not hated lol. Just learn to enjoy it with your absolute favorite foods. 🙂 Just eat more mindfully and I am sure your body will find where it needs to be!
Nicoyle says
I never thought about using a journal to watch the things that I’ve eaten, but I can see how it can be helpful. Great information!
Elizabeth Towns says
Thank you! I am going to try this – if nothing else I will be so busy journaling I won’t be stuffing something unnecessary into my mouth. I know two times during the day when I need to be using this to occupy my hands instead of wondering if an apple or ice cream is the right thing for me to eat.
Elizabeth Rising Early, 31 Days
Samantha says
Yes, Yes, Yes. This is where I have found the greatest success when I journal. I just have to get back with it!
Amanda says
Great ideas! I’m definitely going to start journaling so that I can be more mindful of the events surrounding my eating, as well as what I’m actually putting into my body.
Stephy says
Learning how certain foods made me feel was very important in my weight lose journey!