Food/Exercise Journal

lilieslosinit

I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this before or what people's opinions are on it. I fully believe, as I know a lot of people do, that I am addicted to food. I've learned how to keep it under control, for the most part, by calorie counting. I try to convince myself that my bad decisions are made out of convenience, but I think they're usually made out of a social setting where I feel funny if I order healthy food or emotional eating. Also, my breaks at work are strategically planned so that I eat every 4 hours. Sometimes I switch this up depending on the rest of my schedule or if I'm annoyed with something I'll give myself a break a little early. I find that since I always eat on my breaks, even healthy food can be attached to emotional or addictive eating.

Example: I'm really frustrated because my cells are once again contaminated (I work in a research lab). Take break with intention to not drive myself crazy by thinking about the cells, but I have to eat my snack so I'm not STARVING later (and I can't eat "at my desk" later because eating at the lab bench isn't allowed). Eat food. Mood increase. This is pretty much the definition of emotional/addictive eating.

So, since I can't really change the circumstances much, my idea to try to identify whether I'm eating emotionally and also work through it if I am, is to carry a small notebook with me and write a quick sentence about how I'm feeling and why I'm going to eat what I'm going to eat. After I've eaten, I'll write another quick sentence about how I feel. I'm not expecting these journal entries to be long, but I'm already telling myself "This is ridiculous Jenna. It's going to be a pain and you won't follow through with it." Which, of course, means I should probably do it. I think it'd also be a good idea to do this for exercise so I can prove to myself that most days it does actually increase my energy, put me in a better mood, and help me sleep better.

Sorry this got kind of long. Thoughts?