Magic Notebook Day 5

For many people, recording mental thoughts or actions each day provides valuable insight. It also serves as an outlet for emotions and struggles around weight loss efforts. If you enjoy writing, experiment with tracking your daily calorie intake and exercise. Feel free to write one sentence or many pages. If you don't find it helpful to write things down, then don't do it. But do keep something handy to quick jot down ideas for manging your eating plans.

Just because you are thinking about that peanut butter cup, doesn't mean you have to eat it. If you get a craving for a certain type of food, write it in your notebook. By writing it down, it may help you take it out of your head. When a food thought crosses your mind, remind yourself that you don't have to act on it. Instead, write down the name or even a description of the food and then anticipate the pleasure of eating it sometime in the future.

Practice the skill of observing food cues, then letting them go. When you walk into a movie theater, notice the smell of popcorn, and then forget about it(gosh, that is hard!). Tell your self, or record in your notebook, "That popcorn smells good, but I'm not going to eat any right now, I'll simply postpone till another day."

Today's Assignment:

• Whenever you think about a particular food you want, write it in your notebook.
• Plan that you'll eat it at another time, if you wish, add the amount you'll have and how often you'll fill it into your program.
• Stretch the times further apart for eating that food. You may discover that after a while, certain foods, don't seem as important to you as they once did.