Health

Daily awareness of what you put in and on your body, your exercise routine and your attention to the power of right-thinking are the keys to inner and outer beauty.

Journaling Your Way To A Custom Diet

We’ve shared about the benefits of positivity, nurturing good habits through journaling and planning goals, nurturing healthy relationships through self-awareness and the importance of developing our creative self-expression. We will also be exploring journaling your way to a sustainable exercise plan and a continuing series on personal care and outer beauty prompts. Although, diet and exercise go hand-in-hand, this post is focused mainly on integrating diet into your day by design. Our intention and goal has been to show how journaling can be an effective tool for designing your of life. The inherent problem with dieting is two fold; 1) Extreme diets are mostly short term and unsustainable 2) the objective or goal is most often an extreme and miraculous weight loss attempt. We don’t want to spend too much space here talking about the contemporary backlash of fad dieting or weather or not “everything in moderation” is a valid approach. Instead we want to focus on using our journals to develop a goal which is not flawed from the get-go, a plan, and ways to stay on track long-term. Dieting might be the best example of how we structure our goals can be the difference between success and lack thereof. Ask yourself which is a better more sustainable goal: 1) Lose 30 lbs in 90 days OR 2) Design a diet (and exercise program) which I can sustain long term which will become a way of living. What’s the goal? Maybe that’s the issue with dieting? What if the goal was instead, “Design one day of healthy living which I can repeat and will add up to a satisfying life”? For example: Everyday I:
  • • Write my dreams down
  • • Drink lots of water
  • • Be mindful of the product ingredients I put on my hair and skin
  • • Limit my coffee intake to black, 2 cups a day
  • • In an attempt to reduce as much as possible processed foods, carbohydrates and sugar from my diet, write in my journal, preferably before I eat, exactly what carbs and sugary foods I eat.
  • • Unplug when I eat and eat at regular times
  • • Limit dining out to 2 lunches and 1 dinner per week
  • • Exercise for one full hour a day, 6 days per week, and not go online or answer my phone during exercise time
  • • Observe people around me and look for the opportunity to be of service
  • • Note any awkward or frustrating encounters which I could have responded better to
  • • Limit my TV time to 2 hours per day and online time to 1 hour per day at home
  • • Devote 1 hour to a project or hobby
  • • Unplug by 10PM
  • • Write in my journal 20-30 minutes before bed
  • • Express gratitude for my day and my life
  • • Set my intention for my dreams or read until I fall asleep
  • • Get 6-7 hours of sleep minimum
In the above manner we are designing an entire day, an entire life. Not a fad, not obsessing, not trying to compensate for years of unhealthy living in a few days but improving our health one day at a time. Now we have integrated the daily diet step of, “In an attempt to reduce, as much as possible, processed foods, carbohydrates and sugar from my diet, write in my journal, preferably before I eat, exactly what I eat” into a the context of a sustainable, daily balanced lifestyle. It’s important to enter your “slips” into your journal because soon you will find yourself thinking, “Well if I eat that I’m going to have to note it in my journal, then I have to deal with the guilt and disappointment later. It’s a lot less drama in my head if I just don’t eat that stuff. I know I’ll just feel better physically and mentally if I just don’t eat that unnecessary stuff. Besides a chicken breast would be more filling anyway.” In this manner we starting to think about the consequences in a different way. Maybe there is still a little self shaming here but it’s more about realizing it’s a whole lot less work and drama which is an actual benefit unlike self-body-shaming which has no benefit whatsoever. Also notice that when we substitute the chicken breast for empty carbs and sugary snacks the “law of substitution” is again put into full effect. Total abstinence or “cold turkey” never yields the success of substituting better things for unhealthy things. Overeating or unhealthy eating is usually just a symptom of compulsive, obsessive behaviors or as a substitute for coping with the difficulties in life, thus the term “comfort food”. If we don’t look at our overall day and address what is causing our compulsion with food, our dietary goals are doomed. The human body has evolved over thousands of years. Our bodies are not capable of handling the processed foods, sugars and carbohydrate which have become mainstays in today’s consumer packaged foods. Diabetes, obesity, and heart disease are all caused primarily by unhealthy lifestyles. Physicians agree the only sustainable way to address these problems is with comprehensive “lifestyle treatments”, such as the example above.