Journaling Topic..... Its Sunday Morning...

Ive been doing alot of reading again tonight. I was wondering if any of you hear had done journaling before or after surgery and if u thought it helped. I think I would have the time when im off work post op but I cant imagine taking the time to journa all this everyday and work as much as I do. Here is what I was reading on another site. Thanks for you imput Mariah This is one incredible tool that's actually very simple. Begin a habit of writing down everything such as: What you're eating. Weigh and measure and log it in Why you're eating it. Are you hungry? Bored? Stressed? Lonely? Think about it before you eat it. Is it for fuel? What does the food smell like? What does it look like? Is it appetizing? How does it taste? Did you chew well? How did it make you feel when you were eating it? How did you feel afterwards? How long did you take to eat? Did you feel satisfied? To full? Not full? Did you discover any body signals to let you know when you're truly hungry? Or when you're truly full? Did you stay within your portions? Write down anything and everything associated with it. Even if it's just snacks. Write down everything you eat or drink. It doesn't have to be long or elaborate or even grammatically correct. This is about you, for you. Include events in your life (even if you feel they are insignificant). It all paints a vivid picture when you re-read it later. The point of this exercise is, first, to make you stop and think about what you're doing and why. Many will see patterns emerging and it will make it easier to break those habits.

I made journal entries on my profile, mostly before surgery. I wanted a place to put my feelings as I went through the process of getting approved and preparing for surgery. I didn't mind sharing these feelings, but didn't want to inflict them on everyone. I figured that anyone going to my profile wanted to learn more about me and could choose to read the entries or not. Cindy

Mariah, I keep few 'journals' of sorts. I'm suremy feminine ancestory would be shocked to see me refer to what I do as 'journals' though....lol. Welcome to the new century! I keep an Excel sheet just for me that includes my daily weights, total weight loss, and steps/miles walked. There's a column also for comments; vacation, endo, surgery, etc. I have kept this worksheet since my RNY. Ask me how much I had lost a 6 months post-op and I can go right to the date. I also have a worksheet in this same workbook for my measurements. I'm not as faithful with it. I use to do it weekly..now its more like every month or two. The next journal I keep is for my ditician because of me being hypoglycemic. It includes what I eat (including snacks), drink, exercise, sugar readings, calorie/nutrient intake. I get alot of this data from what I enter in Sparkpeople.com. On it, you can track so much! All I can say is check it out. I also have the home version of Fitday (as in Fitday.com). On it, you can log your moods as well. I don't really care to do that since my mood is pretty stable...and when it isn't, I don't punish/reward myself with food. I think keeping a 'journal', however your tracking methods are that you prefer, is a very good thing. As long as you are honest with it. It does no good to say that you are keeping within 1200-1400 calories if you munch a cookie and think 'well, I only ate one' (sf cookies are ~100 calories each!) or have 5 pieces of sf chocolate thinking 'well, it IS sugar-free) (5 pc of MOST sf chocolates are ~160-180 calories). If you don't include this little bites & pieces, then how do you know you ARE within your target? My bad habit? Getting bored at night. I only use 1/3-1/2 of my alotted calories pre-dinner. Logging this in makes it very clear that is what I do. So yes, I do think keeping a journal is a very good idea pre & post-op! But...so is measuring! I work as a scientist so yes, I believe in accuracy and I believe in record keeping/ Sherri

I have started just righting down the things that have happened from my first primary dr appointment when I asked about having wls. Then things like dietion and how that went, the visits I made for insurance to pay for the surgary. Any snages that I had along the way and how I handled getting through the snag. It will be 9 months of jumping through hoops and handling the snagges that have come up, but I have my surgary scheduled for July 6th. I have wrote down my feelings and the closer it is to becoming a reality the more of a nervise wreck I am. I hope this helps. (it will be nice to look back on and to had photo or to had journaling to your photos in a scapebook about the wls) Good Luck! Take Care, God Bless! Love, Snugglebunny