DailyQuickie: It’s Not What You Eat… But Why (why a food journal can help you figure it out and stop those emotional splurges)

Where: my Office (at home)

When: Wednesday, Nov 30th

Why: I’m not hungry. But I want to Eat.

What: I have a Food Journal. It’s hard to understand WHY you’re eating at the moment. Hindsight is 20/20.

Why: It’s less about what you eat, and more about why you ate it. I keep a food journal and it isn’t just some lame way to record my daily intake, it’s also a place to track my feelings toward food: Did I eat that because I was upset that I saw my ex with his new girlfriend, so I ate an entire pizza. But after I ate that pizza I felt even worse about myself? Writing down my depression/anxiety/celebration/whatever- induced food foibles and feats forces me to fess up to myself, facing the facts of my food issues, and illuminating what drove me to inhale a dozen chocolate chip cookie last night, when the night before you felt fulfilled after just one.

Food & Mood Journal Components:
a. So… What happened?- (ran into my ex with his new fling at a bar)
b. Your post-incident response- (balled my eyes out over a box of ready bake cookies- before even baking them!)
c. Post-response response- (felt fat and out of control…balled my eyes out again) 
d. Rewrite a better “b” for next “a”- (went for a run to make my butt look better than that chick’s)