Diet Survivors™ newsletter
January 2006
The newsletter for normal eaters
Journaling your beliefs
Do you journal already?
Journaling simply means writing something down about yourself. Do you keep a journal?
People have all kinds of reactions, favorable and unfavorable, to journaling in reference to food. You may have a particular idea or picture in mind when someone mentions journaling. Here are a few reactions you might have to the thought of journaling:
- I journal my food intake every day.
- Journaling my feelings has helped me avoid emotional eating.
- I resist the idea of journaling, as it reminds me too much of my dieting days.
- Journaling is a waste of time.
- I don't want to go back to my childhood.
- I've been journaling for years, but I still overeat.
- I hate to write. I'd rather talk to somebody.
- I'm a guy. Real men don't journal.
A new kind of journaling
You might guess correctly that journaling food and feelings helps some folks and not others. Moreover, there are as many ways to journal as there are people. But most folks who try it end up either journaling their food or journaling their feelings.
There's a third kind of journaling that may be less familiar to you. It's a more intellectual approach rather than a feelings approach. Barring a distaste for writing, this form of journaling might work for you, even if you're a guy.
It's called journaling your beliefs. This form of journaling emphasizes thoughts, not feelings, allows you to stay in the present day, and avoids the "diety" feel of journaling your food.
Journaling your beliefs takes only a few minutes, but you might be surprised at the ah-ha moments it unearths for you. That's because many of us make decisions based on faulty beliefs of which we're not even aware. With awareness, we can change our beliefs. This method can help you get unstuck from those vicious cycles of thinking that seem to take over your actions.
While journaling in general has a wider appeal among women, journaling beliefs may appeal more to men than traditional journaling does. Let's describe what Harold does with his journal.
Harold journals his beliefs
Harold is seventy-five pounds overweight. He has never journaled before, and didn't exactly see the point of writing something down that nobody would ever read. But as Harold learned more about cognitive therapy journaling, he began to warm up to the idea.
Harold has learned the ABCDEF method of cognitive therapy. He understands that it's a practice, not knowledge. Once reassured that he need not delve into his childhood memories (which he'd strongly prefer to forget), Harold is ready to try journaling his beliefs.
On the first day, Harold writes down some initial thoughts about food and dieting. He discovers from re-reading what he's written that he has a nice piece of work ahead of him. His writing is free-form, but after he looks it over, he distills it down to a few beliefs he's been harboring:
- I don't have will power like "normal" people, and that's why I'm overweight
- Working on myself won't help. I need a diet, and I need to stick to it
- Food shouldn't matter so much and that's what I have to change
- If I could just get in the habit of going to the gym again, I could lose this weight
What's wrong with Harold's beliefs? We'll dispute each one:
- It's quite possible that the reason folks get addicted to diets instead of giving up is because they have more than their fair share of will power, not less. As Harold contemplates his will power, he thinks of many examples in his life in which he exerted tremendous will power, such as the time when he stuck with a low-carb diet for a whole year. He starts to wonder if maybe a lack of will power is not really the problem.
- Diets have a strong allure in our culture. They fit so nicely with the "quick-fix" mentality. And rightly so, because there really are many quick fixes available to us that do work. But Harold thinks about his diet failures, and begins to doubt that a diet will really help after all. They've failed before, and he can't think of what he could have done differently. Harold begins to wonder if he might need a shift in his thinking instead.
- Where in the world do we get the idea that food shouldn't matter? Food is entrenched in culture, religion, and family life. It' been this way since the beginning of time. Harold ponders the possibility that it will always be this way, and that this is okay. He's started doing some reading about normal eating, and realizes it's probably a mistake to blame the food. He learns that food was meant to be enjoyed after all.
- Harold thinks about how his exercise routines always increased his appetite, and how few calories are burned by normal exercise. He starts to wonder if his real problem is overeating.
As Harold disputes his beliefs, he doesn't make a quick changeover. Instead, it's a slow, organic adjustment as he ponders and considers the truth of these new beliefs. He ultimately decides that he would really prefer to believe the second list rather than the first, simply because the second list appeals more to his rational mind. Harold prides himself on being an intellectual and a truth-seeker.
As he does a little more reading about normal eating, Harold is shocked by the beliefs that have controlled him in the past. He wonders how he ever expected to lose weight with such defeatist self-talk.
Harold could not have transformed his thinking easily without journaling. Journaling your beliefs requires self-honesty, a quiet atmosphere, and a little time for reflection. Some mood music doesn't hurt either. Going deep into our psyche requires a little concentration.
Notice that Harold didn't have to do "feelings" work, or "find his inner child." He could stay in the present because it doesn't much matter where his beliefs came from. What's important is that he is now taking responsibility for what he believes. The work lies, then, mostly in realizing what our beliefs are, and applying our rational minds.
Harold is pleased with the results, and tells his friends about this new intellectual approach to self-improvement.
For more about the ABCDEF method of cognitive therapy, you can read Chapter 1 of Dr. Michael R. Edelstein's book, Ending Your Self-Inflicted Pain, for free.
Copyright © 2006, Linda E. Moran. All rights reserved.
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