If you’re a dieter or former weight watcher/scale hopper, or even careful eater, you’ve probably been told about the importance of keeping a food journal or food tracker. If you’ve done it for any length of time you know how time consuming and painstaking it is to constantly monitor your every bite, lick and taste (BLT) Not only that, but when you think of times that you’ve eaten more than you think you should, the shame and guilt that you may have felt about overeating was probably devastating. And in a nutshell, that’s why journalling has such a bad rep. Because it makes you feel badly about yourself. Doesn’t it? It just gives your inner critic license to run roughshod all over you. But what if you used the journal and dispensed with the judgment? You can, and I’ll show you how.
http://thejuicywoman.blogs.com/my_weblog/2011/07/if-youre-a-dieter-or-former-weight-watcherscale-hopper-or-even-careful-eater-youve-probably-been-told-about-the-importance.html
Behind every binge is an intense emotion, either positive or negative, that is uncomfortable to the binge eater. It may take a little practice to learn to uncover that emotion.”
-Gloria Arenson, Ph.D.
Food journalling. If you’ve been in the habit of keeping track of what you were eating for any length of time you know how painstaking and frustrating it can be to constantly monitor your every bite, lick and taste (BLT) But beyond that, if you consider yourself to be an emotional eater, you can probably relate to feeling horrible every time you’ve eaten more than you think you should.
For many people, conditioned to think as dieters, overeating is almost considered morally wrong. We often judge ourselves as shameful, feeling guilty and out of control. Can you relate to feeling tempted to just want to sweep the incident under the carpet and forget about it? I can and that’s why I stopped keeping a food journal years ago. I thought that it was enough to just forgive myself and let it go, but now I realize how food journalling can be your best friend. Let me tell you what I learned.
Recently I was doing research to answer a question for a woman in my Juicy Woman Yahoo group. My search led me to a book that I had read years earlier. In the book, “A Substance Called Food: How to Understand, Control and Recover from Addictive Eating,” author and psychologist, Gloria Arenson discusses the value of using a food journal to gain awareness of one’s eating patterns in order to transform from a binge eater to a healthy eater.
Dr. Arenson is one of my most beloved go-to experts because she really understands what it takes to overcome emotional eating. Having worked in the field of eating disorders for over 30 years, specializing in the treatment of bulimia and compuslive overeating and as a former binge eater, herself, she gets it. As the former president of ACEP (The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, an international organization dedicated to establishing and promoting the practice of Energy Psychology tools, such as Emotional Freedom Technique around the world) Dr. Arenson ranks in my book as a hands down expert on the subject of how to end emotional eating.
In her book, “A Substance Called Food,” she outlines a multi-dimensional four level plan she uses with her clients to overcome the problems of compulive eating, binging, purging or starving. She credits this system with creating change on the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels for the individual.
Dr. Arenson explains how a binge is our body’s way of crying out for help because most people who abuse food are not conscious of the connection between emotions and their tendency to overeat.
In the first step of her self help program for change, Dr. Arenson describes the importance of keeping a food diary for a week. Just one week. This is intended to show what, how much and when the client eats.
My Experiment Keeping a Food Journal as a Committed Non Dieter
As I mentioned in the previous post, in the past I’ve had a tendency to be incredibly obsessive in my quest to keep track of my food intake. Back in my dieting days, it was almost like a perverse badge of honor to be so rigorous in my pursuit of staying in control of what I was eating, the amount of water I was drinking, how much I was exercising and the fluctuations in my weight. It pretty much became a full time job to be so compulsive in my record keeping. It was no wonder that it was the first thing to go when I stopped dieting.
I was certain that food trackers and journals were things of the past, evil tools designed by the diet organization intended to make you feel badly about yourself. All kidding aside, I did realize that they do have a positive intention, but it was far too difficult to observe the potential benefits of journalling because I was so stuck remembering all the negative aspects of trying to keep myself under such rigid control.
I’ll be the first to admit that because I was still stuck in the all or nothing thinking so commonly associated with a dieter’s mentality, I was unable to recognize the benefit of food journals until recently. Dr. Arenson’s fresh perspective on journalling helped me to see the light.
I began keeping the journal a couple of days ago and I am surprised by what I am discovering. To be fair, I’ll wait to share my new insights after I’ve kept the journal for a full week.
But I would like to encourage you to consider keeping a journal as Dr. Arenson recommends. Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind:
It’s not personal – Despite how you may feel, nobody but you is looking over your shoulder. The important thing to remember is that you are doing this for yourself in an effort to understand what drives you to eat when you’re not hungry.
Embrace your emotions. Write down some of the thoughts and emotions that you are experiencing along with the food you eat. This is what you will need to refer back to when you review your journal when you want to better understand the why’s behind your binges. Knowing this information will give you insight into what kinds of situations cause you to reach for food when you’re not hungry. By paying closer attention to how you feel, it will also uncover all the hidden emotions you are experiencing when you sit down to a meal.
Be curious, not critical. This new tool is a gift for you. It’s not a punishment. It can only help you to nuture yourself more deeply and love yourself more compassionately.
If you find yourself struggling with any disempowering thoughts such as feeling unworthy, fearing failure, judgment or any other negative emotion, I’d like to invite you to come join my Yahoo group. There as your guide, I’ll show you how you can use Emotional Freedom Technique and other energy coaching tools to wipe away those old limiting beliefs. Here’s the link to join:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejuicywoman
Andrea Amador, The Juicy Woman, Gloria Arenson, food journal, food tracker, food diary, overeating, compulisive, emotional eating, A Substance Called Food: How to Understand, Control and Recover from Addictive Eating,