Journaling
If you need to manage your health via diet, lifestyle and alternative remedies, you need a health journal. In it, you will record important information about your daily habits, such as what you ate and your ongoing symptoms.
This is an important health tool and if you have a chronic condition or just serious health goals, you shouldn't be trying to manage without it. But don't be intimidated by the idea.
Very early on as an adult newly out of my parental home, I bought a tiny little book to carry in my purse. For thirty days, I wrote down every penny as I spent it.
I've never done that again. I've never needed to.
Doing that taught me something and permanently altered my relationship to money. Simply recording where all the money went gave me an important awareness and understanding of some things I could not have achieved any other way.
Similarly, a few years back, I had a Posterous account that I updated a few times a day. One of the things I used it for was tracking my diet and my medical symptoms. I used Posterous (a now defunct service) because it was free, user-friendly and easy. I could update it via email and that worked for me at that time.
These days, I only write stuff down when it's really significant and I want a record of the event and the thought processes related to it. I no longer write about my health every single day.
I also frequently hash things out with my sons verbally. They both have lived with me the entire time I have been on my healing journey and they both are very aware of my habits and symptoms, sometimes more than I am.
So such conversations are very valuable for me. If you don't have a similar support, it might help you to keep more written records, but don't feel burdened by it.
It's a record by you, about you and for you, so you can do whatever works best for you.
You should carve out some time regularly for at least a few weeks, but the primary point of doing it daily is to teach you something. You don't necessarily have to keep daily records forever and ever if you don't want to.
You should do it daily for a minimum of one month and probably longer. Then plan to make more infrequent entries "as needed" when you want to note an important health event and/or do some writing to mentally hash out what is going on now with your health to sort things out.
If you succeed in getting yourself healthier in the face of a chronic condition, it will remain a moving target and your maintenance routine will have to be periodically revisited to stay on track.
One of the reasons you should keep a journal, at least for a time, is because if you have a chronic illness and you manage it by taking maintenance drugs, your mind will tend to place a strong emphasis on "drugs" as "healthcare." You may see those as synonymous and it's a bad habit you will need to break.
Drugs are emergency management and should be seen as such. They shouldn't be viewed as the be all and end all of healthcare.
Instead, you need to learn to see diet and lifestyle as foundational. You need to strengthen your mental relationship between diet, lifestyle and health and weaken the mental emphasis on medication as "healthcare."
Medicine and healthcare have become synonyms in the minds of many modern peoples, but they really aren't the same thing. Thinking that they are is a mental model that leads you astray.
I am not anti-drug. I'm pro-nutrition and prevention. It's not the same thing, even though if you follow that path far enough, it tends to lead away from the regular use of drugs because it leads to better health.
So you need to work on wrapping your brain around diet and lifestyle as your first line of defense. You need to get your priorities in order here and that's one of the reasons you should keep a journal.
Changing how you think is a process and it takes time. It won't happen overnight. If you are like most Americans, you probably have a lot of de-programming to do to get away from equating "healthcare" with "medication."
Step one is to start a food and health journal so you can start focusing your mind on the importance of food and lifestyle in your health. Also, read labels, read labels, read labels. You need to start understanding what is in your food.
Food chemistry is a big part of my head space these days. Not all "bread" is created equal. Not all "salt" is created equal. Et cetera.
If you aren't already reading labels, you should start making that a habit. It will help you start learning what the contents are of the things you are putting in your mouth.
Making changes to your diet and lifestyle can come later. First, just get some idea of where you stand currently.
Your initial goal for having a journal and for reading labels should simply be awareness. Using these tools effectively can come later.
But if you are starting a food and symptom journal because you are also starting intervention immediately during a crisis or after the fact, as is often the case, just start. It's a moving target anyway and your understanding will grow over time.
Don't stress about when to start or what to do with the info. That's putting the cart before the horse. The important thing is to just keep a health journal of some kind if you need to manage any health issues.
See also:
This is an important health tool and if you have a chronic condition or just serious health goals, you shouldn't be trying to manage without it. But don't be intimidated by the idea.
Very early on as an adult newly out of my parental home, I bought a tiny little book to carry in my purse. For thirty days, I wrote down every penny as I spent it.
I've never done that again. I've never needed to.
Doing that taught me something and permanently altered my relationship to money. Simply recording where all the money went gave me an important awareness and understanding of some things I could not have achieved any other way.
Similarly, a few years back, I had a Posterous account that I updated a few times a day. One of the things I used it for was tracking my diet and my medical symptoms. I used Posterous (a now defunct service) because it was free, user-friendly and easy. I could update it via email and that worked for me at that time.
Make health journaling easy. You are more likely to actually do it if it is easy.You should try to make the process of journaling as easy on yourself as possible. You are more likely to actually do it. Posterous no longer exists, but you can do the same sort of thing with any number of other services these days. Just go with whatever is familiar and easy for you.
These days, I only write stuff down when it's really significant and I want a record of the event and the thought processes related to it. I no longer write about my health every single day.
I also frequently hash things out with my sons verbally. They both have lived with me the entire time I have been on my healing journey and they both are very aware of my habits and symptoms, sometimes more than I am.
So such conversations are very valuable for me. If you don't have a similar support, it might help you to keep more written records, but don't feel burdened by it.
It's a record by you, about you and for you, so you can do whatever works best for you.
You should carve out some time regularly for at least a few weeks, but the primary point of doing it daily is to teach you something. You don't necessarily have to keep daily records forever and ever if you don't want to.
You should do it daily for a minimum of one month and probably longer. Then plan to make more infrequent entries "as needed" when you want to note an important health event and/or do some writing to mentally hash out what is going on now with your health to sort things out.
If you succeed in getting yourself healthier in the face of a chronic condition, it will remain a moving target and your maintenance routine will have to be periodically revisited to stay on track.
One of the reasons you should keep a journal, at least for a time, is because if you have a chronic illness and you manage it by taking maintenance drugs, your mind will tend to place a strong emphasis on "drugs" as "healthcare." You may see those as synonymous and it's a bad habit you will need to break.
Drugs are emergency management and should be seen as such. They shouldn't be viewed as the be all and end all of healthcare.
Instead, you need to learn to see diet and lifestyle as foundational. You need to strengthen your mental relationship between diet, lifestyle and health and weaken the mental emphasis on medication as "healthcare."
Medicine and healthcare have become synonyms in the minds of many modern peoples, but they really aren't the same thing. Thinking that they are is a mental model that leads you astray.
Life is chemistry.Medication needs to stop playing the starring role in your mind. Life is chemistry. Everything you eat, drink, touch or breath impacts your health. You need to start working on wrapping your mind around that fact as the primary approach to managing your chronic medical condition.
I am not anti-drug. I'm pro-nutrition and prevention. It's not the same thing, even though if you follow that path far enough, it tends to lead away from the regular use of drugs because it leads to better health.
So you need to work on wrapping your brain around diet and lifestyle as your first line of defense. You need to get your priorities in order here and that's one of the reasons you should keep a journal.
Changing how you think is a process and it takes time. It won't happen overnight. If you are like most Americans, you probably have a lot of de-programming to do to get away from equating "healthcare" with "medication."
Step one is to start a food and health journal so you can start focusing your mind on the importance of food and lifestyle in your health. Also, read labels, read labels, read labels. You need to start understanding what is in your food.
Food chemistry is a big part of my head space these days. Not all "bread" is created equal. Not all "salt" is created equal. Et cetera.
If you aren't already reading labels, you should start making that a habit. It will help you start learning what the contents are of the things you are putting in your mouth.
Making changes to your diet and lifestyle can come later. First, just get some idea of where you stand currently.
Your initial goal for having a journal and for reading labels should simply be awareness. Using these tools effectively can come later.
But if you are starting a food and symptom journal because you are also starting intervention immediately during a crisis or after the fact, as is often the case, just start. It's a moving target anyway and your understanding will grow over time.
Don't stress about when to start or what to do with the info. That's putting the cart before the horse. The important thing is to just keep a health journal of some kind if you need to manage any health issues.
See also:
