Hey everyone! I’ve been on a little hiatus, busy with school and life and all the things! But I wanted to share something with you all that I have learned this year. As I have said before healthy living is a journey, sometimes there are bumps in the road. Stress happens, life happens, so many things can throw us off course, but the good news is that just like a road trip where you take the wrong exit you can get turned back around!

Last year was very difficult for my family and I. I fell off track with my goals and my nutrition. I exercised regularly, but I was not fueling my body. In January, I decided I was going to get back on track! Overall I am doing so much better however I had not seen results. There has been no added weight, but there has been a tug of war going on.

I started a nutrition plan the beginning of April that is helping me to see where I am going wrong. I am an emotional, or stress, eater. I eat sweets and junk when I am stressed because the sugars give me that happy feeling that I crave. I struggle with anxiety and depression. I go between not eating due to my anxiety to overeating. This is not a new behavior it has just been brought to my attention.

I say all that to say that I want to share with you a little bit of the insight I have learned from the past 21 days of food journaling. What is food journaling you might ask? Food journaling is the process of writing down not only what you eat but taking time to reflect on your emotions surrounding food. Now some of you will probably click on to another web page about right now, and that’s ok! Everyone does not have a negative relationship with food.  

For those of you that are still with me, this is how you get started! Step 1 get a notebook. Step 2 follow this plan every day for a week. Then reflect, you may want to continue this process daily, you may not notice any pattern, but you may find that you are eating a sleeve of Oreos every time your mother calls.

I partnered this practice with a nutrition program that includes a journal to get you started, recipes, meal plans, and a fantastic coach that helped me dig deep into what I am eating and why. If you are interested in learning more about that you can hop on over to Instagram and shoot me a DM @msangiecalcote or drop me a note on the contact page of this blog.

However you choose to move forward, I challenge you all to try this practice and find out for yourself what is holding you back from your goals! Tag a picture of your food journal, it can be the cover or maybe a part of your daily entry, either way, post it to your Instagram and tag me, @msangiecalcote!