by Nicole Hogsett

Created on: May 16, 2009   Last Updated: May 22, 2009

Dieting isn't temporary. For many, once you make the conscious decision to go on a diet, they are making an extreme life change - one that involves portion control, daily exercise and changing eating habits. This is a big commitment, but with the right support and motivation anyone can make these changes and be on their way to a happier, healthier life.

Many people who begin dieting keep a journal. It might seem odd to write down, day after day, what you ate, how much you exercised, how you feel at any given moment, etc. but it is truly more cathartic and helpful than one might imagine. Keeping a journal during dieting can undoubtedly be beneficial to the diet. It is a private and personal look at how the dieter is doing with their weight loss and an excellent way of providing the motivation needed.

Losing weight cannot, and will not happen overnight. It is a process, one with a varying timetable for every person who begins a diet. Journaling throughout one's weight loss journey is a way to get the motivation and support you might need from yourself. Don't feel like exercising one day because you're too tired? You might feel differently when you read how great and refreshed you felt after yesterday's workout, a truth that probably looks more enticing on paper than as a thought in your head.

Another benefit to writing a weight-loss journal is when you write down, literally, everything you eat in a given day, seeing it stare back at you in list-form is the ultimate motivator for portion control. When you eat out of boredom, sadness or just for the sake of eating, you consume so much in a short period of time that you do not realize what it has accumulated to. If you write down everything you eat, not only do you get a clear picture of what you have eaten on any given day, but also where you made your mistakes and get a grasp on your healthy and unhealthy eating habits.

Most times dieting comes hand and hand with feelings of frustration. If on any given day the scale does not say what you were hoping it would, or if you eat more than you thought you should, feeling emerge, and sometimes that causes dieters to give up hope. Having a journal is a healthy outlet for those feelings.

Usually when a person begins a diet they have a mission: they want to lose so many pounds in so many weeks. Whether or not their goal is realistic or unrealistic depends on each particular case, but having a goal, an end point to keep you motivated, is essential to successful weight loss. Constantly seeing on paper the goal and how close you are getting to it, pound by pound, is the ultimate incentive to keep going, even if it seems impossible because you will see, right in front of your eyes that it's not.

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