Hi Lookilou

I certainly wouldn't advise going any further ahead than step 1 until you get the journal down. I was resistant to it for a long time, but I actually love to see my little books getting full and needing to buy some more of them.They are all stacked in a pile on my back window sill in my living room, and I love them!!!

The way I got through my resistance was by using it as a regular journal as well as a food journal. I had always admired people who had the "staying power" to keep a journal every single day I often got bought them as gifts as a teenager and started them on January 1st and then probably stopped by January 2nd!

So, now, I write down anything that I think is significant from the day as well as my food, things that have happened to make me happy, sad, whatever, and I get to read them all back whenever I like. It's like having a scrapbook or photo album of memories.

Journalling doesn't just have to be about seeing "bad" things and judging ourselves. I know that in the beginning, there was way more negativity in mine than positive (I was severely depressed at this point) but even so, there were little things that gave me glimmers of hope. If someone did something nice for me I always had the ability to appreciate that person for doing that, and at least that could be something nice to write about.

Try it and see. If you already do a non-food journal you could try combining it with the food journal, at least until you get "into" it?

Hope that helps

Love

Jane
xx

: I can't believe how incredibly slow
: my progress is going with this
: program. I mean, I discovered this
: program 10 years ago!!! In one
: way, I guess it's a good thing
: it's going slow because the
: changes I am making are more
: likely to stick, but man, I feel
: like molasses running uphill
: sometimes, and wonder whether I
: will ever reach my ultimate goal.

: For example, I knew I needed to
: eliminate coffee from my morning
: routine. It took me probably close
: to 2 years to actually do it and
: by the time I gave it up, I had
: thankfully gotten to the point
: where I could see exactly how
: coffee affected me mentally, as
: well as physically.

: But then, I started drinking hot
: chocolate in the morning! Still
: caffeine, although not as strong
: as in perked coffee. Still affects
: me physically and mentally,
: although not in the way or to the
: extent that coffee does.

: It took me a few months to give up
: the daily morning hot chocolate.

: But am now drinking chai tea latte
: (powdered mix) on a daily basis.
: Does it have less caffeine that
: hot chocolate? I don't know. I
: sure hope so. It doesn't seem to
: affect me the way that caffeine in
: coffee and hot chocolate was ....
: yet!

: Through all of this, I have continue
: to have morning sugar (besides the
: sugar in my hot chocolate and chai
: latte).

: Even though I've don't journal, I am
: trying to work on Step 3. I do my
: 3 meals a day at more or less
: regular times, but always within
: an hour of getting up. B'fast been
: 5:30 and 6:30 M-F, and between 7-9
: on weekends, depending on when I
: awake. Lunch between 11:30 and
: 1:30, depending on when I had
: breakfast and supper usually
: between 5:00 and 6:30, again
: depending on when I had lunch and
: how long it takes me to get supper
: ready.

: I have protein and brown at every
: meal, and am trying to incorporate
: fruit or veggies to my b'fast.
: Veggies when I have leftover
: veggies, fruit when I don't.

: My baby step that I want to work on
: is eliminating sugar from
: mornings, as it seems to have a
: domino effect. The more I have in
: the morning, the more I want and
: have during the rest of the day.

: I just don't know when I will get to
: that point, considering the slow
: progress I have made on my other
: goals.