Journal Your Progress

You cannot manage what you don’t measure. So keeping track through a journal or diary is essential. You can keep this simple or you can get fancy. I keep track on my computer. But when I’m on the road, I carry a little notebook in my purse. It's especially important to journal your progress if you're in the process of recovering from an addiction. Your journal will help you to see where you're doing well and what you need to avoid to do even better.

Here are the things that I write down every day:

*the date and my morning weight

*the amount of water I drank during the day

*What I ate, the amount I ate, and the time I ate

*What kind of exercise I did–strength training, aerobic, or stretching and how long I did it

*How long I meditated

You can also measure other things like your mood, your level of energy, your mental clarity, your motivation, or your stress level. I find it easiest to use a simple one to ten scale with ten being the best and one being the worst. I also like to give myself a little smiley face if I did well that day. Positive reinforcement can be just that simple.

There are a number of free online journal sites. I like several formats at Bella Online.

At first I found it a bother to journal. Now it takes less than 5 minutes a day and it keeps me on track. I highly recommend it!