You probably have heard why journaling is so good for you for a variety of reasons. It’s therapeutic to work out your emotions, helpful for interpreting dreams, & essential for any weight loss program. Keeping a food log & progress chart is not just handy, it keeps us all accountable. Shaklee makes a Cinch Daily Journal that records a week worth of activity. We also have a standard copy of a food log & progress chart each that you can request from us, but many versions can be found online to download. Any diary or notebook would work too! (When my sister, Amanda, lost 65 lbs. with Cinch in 2008, she said the most important thing was the diligent journaling she did. Just look at that stack (below) of her records she keeps to remind her of her journey!)

The most important part of journaling is that everyday you write down everything you put in your mouth and the calorie content so that you can add up your total at the end of the day. You should include whatever physical activity you do and how many calories are burned. This is the basic calculation you are following whenever you want to lose weight. With Cinch, remember, you will be retaining your muscle mass, which weighs more than fat, so though you will be dropping pounds (of fat) as you go along, it’s not the heaviest part of you and the scale won’t reflect the total picture. But the inches you lose will! That’s where you should notice the most difference. We all have fluctuations in water weight as well. Speaking of water, making sure to drink plenty of it consistently throughout your day will help flush that fat out. Back to journaling, another reason it will help is that often we do “mindless acts of eating”, small little snacking here and there that we don’t even notice, yet they add up. Being able to see all those small differences contributing to your calorie count for the day, will make a big impact on changing your behaviour. (I know this fact very well personally, yet still fall prey to it.) Also, being able to see your achievements each day, week, month, etc. (like avoiding the snacking temptation) will keep you going strong towards your goals.

Let’s talk about goals…soon we will be sharing profiles of those participants interested and what their goals are in this program, as well as our own here at Robert L. Ewing, Inc. We all are at our starting point, now is the time to create the vision of our ending points. We will be collecting everyone’s “stats” like height, weight, and chest, waist, and hip measurements. Age is optional. And so are sharing your “before” photos. (Though we hope you will be proud to show off any “after” photos when our program is complete at the end of the year!) What are your short term & long term weight loss goals? They can be included each week in your journaling to keep your focus clear and within reach.

Personally, I am setting my intentions this week right here: My short term goal is to lose those first few pounds until my wedding ring fits on the proper finger again. My long term goal is to lose enough weight to feel comfortable about getting pregnant (and not being “high risk”) at the end of next summer. So I congratulate all our participants who are setting their goals right now as my husband and I just last night on our 2nd Anniversary toasted to a new baby Marasco in the near future! (That must be why Amanda was so excited at our Launch Party event (above)-she wants to be an auntie again!)