By: Gloria Samuels

As a long-term successful lap band patient, and mentor to other lap band patients I often receive inquiries about journaling asking if there was a proper way to journal.  What a great question!

There are a lot of different ways to journal.  I don't believe there is a right or wrong way.  The key is to find what works for you.  There are some great on-line tools, if that is your preference.

Despite the fact that I seem to have my Blackberry surgically attached to my body, my preference is to carry around a small spiral notebook and physically write down everything I eat right before or right after I eat it, so I don't forget.  This requires knowing the approximate calories, grams of protein and serving size for everything I put in my mouth.  (Please note that some practices discourage you from tracking calories; my doctor believes in "knowing" or being aware of the calories consumed; please always follow your doctor's advice.) I do not track water, because water is not a problem for me.  I always drink at least 100 oz of water a day, and did before my band.  If you want to try my approach here is what I suggest.

Pre-work if you want to journal manually

Make a list of the things you eat and drink regularly.  Look up the calorie counts, grams of protein, and portion size for all of those foods.  One website that I use to find this nutritional information is calorieking.com; there are many other great tools on the web.  Practice measuring the portion sizes so that you know what a portion looks like.  You can type this up and print it out and staple it inside your journal for reference.  If I eat something that I don't know the nutritional info for, I look it up and track it ASAP.  Also keep in mind then when you are going out to eat, most chains have their nutritional info on-line so you can plan ahead.

Journaling

Each morning I start a new page in my journal.  Here is what I track:

• Time of day that I eat
• Everything I eat, accounting for calories and grams of protein
• Exercise
• Anything unusual about my day

I use one line per item for everything I eat at that meal.  I record serving size and what the food is; on the right-hand side of the page I make 2 columns.  The first column is for calories; the second column is for grams of protein (I usually don't bother tracking small amounts of protein in vegetables such as the 1.5 grams in the ½ large onion on this sample journal entry.) I usually take a subtotal after lunch so that I know where I stand for the day.  At the bottom of the page, I often record if there is something unusual about the day like, I'm traveling to CA today; or have the flu, going to a wedding, etc.  I also recommend recording exercise each day, specifically what exercise and for how long.

Journaling has really proved to be a very important tool for me.  When I mentor people who are having a difficult time, I always ask them to journal for a few days.  Journaling can be very revealing.  I really don't believe that there is a right or wrong way to journal.  This is how I journal and it works really well for me.

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