3 Reasons Why Journaling is Essential for Weight Loss

Three Reasons Why Journaling is Essential for Weight Loss

You’ve probably seen quite a few blog posts on how journaling is wonderful, and how it changed someone’s life.  We all know that journaling is helpful, but very few of us actually do it.  When I ask my clients about journaling, the overwhelming majority do not journal before starting a weight loss program with me.  If we know that journaling is helpful - why don’t we do it?

The answer lies in the mixed messaging surrounding journaling.  What is the purpose?  How do we make it a habit?  What should even be in a journal?  It can seem like a daunting and overwhelming task.  We will tackle these questions in this three part series on journaling for weight loss. 

What Is the Purpose of Journaling for Weight Loss?

In order to make journaling work for you - you need to be clear on the purpose.  The goal of journaling is for self management and self improvement.  It is impossible to move forward effectively in your life if you are not clear on where you are now.  Just like a car needs regular oil changes and maintenance to keep it running well, your mind also needs regular maintenance.  This is the whole purpose of journaling.  There are three main ways this works:

1.  Provides Clarity and Awareness

Writing your thoughts down allows you to look at them as a third party observer.  We often believe we know what we are thinking, but we are generally only aware of approximately 5% of our thoughts.  There is a deeper layer underneath that is difficult to tap into, but needs cleaning and processing regularly.  Most people when they start writing down their thoughts are surprised by what they find comes out.  This practice gives you awareness about what thoughts are going around in your subconscious mind.  

Why is having the awareness helpful for weight loss?  Most of the time when we overeat, it is related to a thought and subsequent feeling that we have at the moment.  Many times we are not even aware of what the underlying thought is.  By journaling regularly, these thoughts come out on paper, which allows us to process them.  By knowing what our current thoughts are, we can then decide to start choosing a new thought that may serve us better.  

2.  Processes Negative Emotions Rather Than Resisting Them

Negative thoughts and feelings are a necessary part of life.  If we never had negative emotions, we would not know what a positive emotion was.  Therefore having negative thoughts is not the problem.  The way negative thoughts and feelings start to cause problems in our lives is when we try to resist them.  The human brain is wired to seek pleasure and resist pain.  So when we have a negative thought, the natural reaction is to repress it, or resist it.  For many of us, this resistance can take the form of eating a snack bar at 4pm to distract us from those painful thoughts and feelings.  

By journaling daily, we can acknowledge those negative thoughts and feelings in a healthy way and start to process them.  An example might be writing the question ‘Why do I feel sad today?” And then answering it for yourself.  Just writing down a few facts that you can look at in a non-judgmental way, can start to help you process these feelings.  Ask yourself “Do I still want to feel this way?” or “What is good about this situation?” 

Writing down your worries and fears also forces you to look at the facts.  You will be amazed how often worries seem much worse in your head, and when you see them on paper they seem so much smaller.  It also puts you in an observer role, where often new insights come to you and you find new solutions to your obstacles.  

3.  Activates Deliberate Gratitude

Most experts on journaling recommend including some form of gratitude.  This is especially important in weight loss, as so many people who have been overweight most of their lives engage in a lot of negative self talk.  There is a range in severity for this, but some form of negative thoughts about ourselves is almost universal amongst those that are overweight.  

There is a saying in successful weight loss that you need to “love yourself thin.”  We need to believe that we are exactly who we are meant to be in this moment and that we are working on becoming the best version of ourselves.  We need to cultivate a positive self image and remind ourselves of all the positive things we have.  

Most people think that a positive self image just happens.  If you are overweight now, you think “if I could just be thin I would be happy”.  The truth is that if you are unhappy with yourself now, and you lose weight, you will just be thin and unhappy.  Happiness is cultivated.  Naturally happier people take the time to deliberately think positive thoughts.  The absolute best way to do this is to have a practice of daily gratitude.  

Daily gratitude is a small thing that over time yields massive results.  Essentially, as part of your journaling, you should write down a sentence or two about what you are grateful for.  What do you like about yourself? What are you thankful for around you?  What was a great experience you had recently?  What is something new you learned that you are thankful for now knowing?  The list is endless, but the point is to deliberately focus on these thoughts every day and write them down.  By writing down the good thoughts, they become real to you and change how you view yourself in the world.  

Managing Your Mind Is Essential For Weight Loss

I cannot overestimate the benefit of daily journaling for weight loss.  By managing your mind on a regular basis you will find that your daily experience of living improves, and the urge to reach for food in order to resist emotions will decrease.  

In the next post we will cover how to start making journaling a habit.