Fit Over 40

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"Keeping a journal will absolutely change your life in ways
you've never imagined." - Oprah Winfrey

Why is it so important to keep a journal?

Here are just a few of the benefits
a personal journal will provide you:

* A journal will remind you of your goals and the actions you are
taking towards them every day. Your are writing down your goals,
right?

* It allows you to factually track your progress as you head closer
towards your goals. Here is an example. Suppose you had
set a new goal to lose 20 lbs in the next 3 months. Record your
weight in your journal each day, you will now be able to see
trends in your weight loss that you would not have seen
without the journal.

* It provides detailed information such as dietary changes,
calorie reductions, fat reduction, and so on.

* It helps build your self-esteem because you are reaffirming the
positive benefits you are achieving as you get closer to your
goals.

* It helps to paint the picture every day of who you are becoming.

* When you see positive results as they happen, you will become
energized with optimism.

Here are a couple of simple journal tips:

Keep a simple, short log , it's easy, and it usually only takes
1 minute of your time. Each day, make short entries into your
journal, list such things as your attitude, emotions, diet, weight,
responses to situations and conditions in your life.

For example, if having a healthy heart is one of your goals, you
will want to keep track of your cholesterol levels, your blood
pressure, your weight. (Obviously, all of this data would not be recorded daily,
but some entry would be recorded each day)

Try this simple little exercise.
Get out a note pad or a sheet of paper and a pencil. Look at your
watch. When the second hand hits 12, start timing yourself as you
write down the following information:

11/8/02 Fri.-Felt great all day. Started habit 52. Weight 135
pounds. Walked briskly for 20 minutes. Had healthy almonds and
nuts for snacks.

More then likely, you completed writing down the information in
approximately 1 minute. Yet, in that 1 minute, you created an
important snapshot of important data in your life. You now have
historical data you can refer to as time goes by, to help you track
your progress as you move towards your life goals.

I know how well this works. For the past 7 years, I have kept a
simple, yet informative log of every day of my life. I can tell you
exactly how I felt on Wed., July 25,1999, or any day since. I can look back
and see how I reacted to issues in my life and what helped
me overcome an illness, injury or stressful period in my life.

It generally takes me less then two minutes to record the log for
any day. It is a habit that has become a part of my life; it is now
second nature for me. If you have a computer, I recommend typing just
three to four lines of descriptive text into a word processing program
each day.