So today's topic is JOURNALLING. I've done some reading and it seems that it's unanimous that journalling is one of those things that is considered by people who have lost weight and kept it off, to be the main contributor to their success. Some people have found it helpful to keep track of their calories, their food intake, their exercise output and those who are emotional, stress, bored eaters also wrote out their feelings, reasons and alternatives to their compulsive overeating. Why does it work? Why is is so important? The number one reason is because it forces you to be honest with yourself and forces you to face reality. You actually ARE overeating and you actually ARE defeating yourself and allowing you to lie to the most important person in your life, you!

I journal using Spark People. I discovered this website a few years ago and it is a vast wealth of information and tools to help you along in the journey to not only losing weight but also with other forms of self-improvement and personal growth. You can sign up and just focus on well-being and personal growth, you can focus on weight loss or you can combine all their tools. I use the parts I need and leave the rest alone. It also has a great community where you can talk to others with similar goals weight wise or similar life situations, or a combination of both. There are teams, there are inspirational stories, there are Spark Pages where you can blog your success and build up a following. There is support in the form of motivational successful spark people who will send you motivational emails and check on you. And the best part, it's absolutely 100% free. A few years ago I made the commitment to never spend another penny in the weight loss industry.

I also journal here by posting what I've posted at Spark People but that's more about accountability. I will write more about that tomorrow. Knowing I have made the commitment to post here keeps me out of the ice cream aisle in the grocery store or the cookie jar. It's a great tool if it's something you need. I find that this helps me here more than if I had to post my weight loss.

Of course, getting back to journalling, a note pad and paper is as good as anything and all you really need and journaling can be a very simple thing.

So, if it's so simple and very important to success why is it that quite often it's something we rebel against doing? I think for me that's because it makes me feel abnormal somehow, I want to be a normal eater at a normal body weight and having to write everything down doesn't fit that description. But If I did eat like I should and didn't have a problem maintaining a healthy body weight I wouldn't be writing this blog or need any tools at all. So I'm fighting my resistance to journalling.

I'm going to journal, I've committed to doing so and be prepared in the next while to read the good, the bad, and the ugly in my journal posts. And some of the delicious too!

Please let me know if you journal and what works for you. Do you follow a plan? Do you use an Internet based journal like Spark People or just a notebook. And if you don't I'd like to hear how that's working?