21 Day Emotional Eating Journal Challenge Day 15-21

If you are finding this post before you find Day 1-Day 7 hop on over here and Day 8-17 hop on over to this page to read those prompts before continuing on with day's 15-21. Each of these post build upon one another. So make sure that you do them in order.

Journal Prompts Days 15-21

Day 15 Thoughts & Journal

Day 15 Thoughts:

This one will be quick: After you emotionally eat what feelings and emotions do you have.

This journal prompt is strictly about the feelings not about the thoughts that you are having about yourself. What do you feel: Angry, sad, shame, guilt, indifferent, self-righteous...name them all that you feel after you are finished emotionally eating.

Day 15 Journal:

It depends on the situation but my emotions after emotionally eating run the table. I can be angry with myself, sad, shame and have guilt.

But there are times when I feel indifferent to what happened and even sometimes self-righteous; like so what I worked hard this week I deserved that. {But that is really more of a thought...which we are getting to}

Day 16 Thoughts:

You all ready to dig in and get REAL uncomfortable. This is it. This is the home stretch 5 more days of prompts and this is where you get into the ugly. Your brain is going to tell you to stop. It is going to tell you that no matter what you do nothing is ever going to change. And your brain thinks it is doing its job. Because when we are uncomfortable your brain FREAKS! Your brains job is to protect you. And when you are uncomfortable your brain thinks that is because you are in danger. You are not in danger, but you are on the brink of freedom.

Freedom from the anxiety, overwhelm, shame, guilt, worry. You are on your path to living your best life where you don't have to use food as a way to comfort you. You don't have to use it as a way to mentally check out because you don't have the tools to deal with it.

This is it, going through these prompts this is the first phase of you getting the freedom from food that you desire! I can say this because I'm here, I'm standing on the other side of that pain that food brought me.

And you guys IT IS AMAZING! If you are willing to go through some HARD and some UNCOMFORABLENESS!

Remember your feelings come from the thoughts you think, your feelings determine your actions and your actions give you the results you are currently getting. I have been having you write down the feelings you before you emotionally eat, during, and after. Now I want you to look at those emotions you have and determine what is the thought that is creating the emotion.

I can almost guarantee that your first reaction is going to say "I don't know." You do know, you just have never thought about it before. Again, you have feelings because a thought has created it. Feelings do not just appear, feelings happen because you have a thought and that thought creates the emotion.

Day 16 Journal:

Guilt & Shame:

You did it again, you said you weren't going to do that again. See you can't be perfect. You can't follow through with the goals that you sent. You are unmotivated. You must not want it bad enough. How come so many other people can do it. Why cant you do it?

Sadness, Anxiousness, & Overwhelmed:

Why is this so hard for me? I'm never going to get this? I'm always going to struggle? It is taking so long to get to my goals? Am I ever going to be free from this? I can't do it? This must just be how my body is suppose to be.

Self-Righteous & Indifferent:

Screw it, I don't even care. I don't want to think this much about it. I just want to enjoy my life. I don't want to be consumed by thinking about this all the time.

Day 17 Thoughts:

Today I want to make you aware of how your thoughts really create your feelings and how those feelings inspire a type of action in you.

Today I want you to find one time in the day that you had a positive emotion. You get to decide what the definition of a positive emotions is but happy, proud, excited, joyful, and content might be a few. Once you identify the feeling. I want you to do some digging to determine what was the thought that created that feeling in you.

Next, determine how that thought followed by a "positive" emotion created an action in you. What did you do when had those thoughts and feelings.

Just a heads up for tomorrow if you are doing this along side me. Tomorrow you will do this exact same journal prompt but you will be using a "negative" emotions that you had {Remembering that negative is by your definition not mine}

Day 17 Journal:

Today I experienced the positive emotion of joy. Braylon and I have ECFE class on Tuesday mornings; Kailen goes to sib care and it is this really nice time for me to just enjoy Braylon without the distraction of older brother needing me as well. I get to give my full attention for 45 minutes of play time with Braylon. He gets the full attention of his mama and he gets to dictate what we do and where we go in the room.

We were participating in circle time today and he was singing along with his teacher hiding different things behind his back while sitting on my lap. I remember just feeling joy wash over me as I watched him watching her so intently, following along, smiling, and his face lighting up each time he pulled the object from behind his back.

As I step back to look more closely at the thoughts I was thinking during that moments these are what come to mind.

"I helped create this sweet boy."

"What a blessing he is to my world and life."

"I love his smile."

"I love his laugh."

"Look at how much he is learning and understanding."

"How did I get so lucky."

"Savor this moment."

I reacted to these thoughts by kissing him, smiling back at him, laughing along side him, watching him and taking this moment in along with him. At the end of the song praising him for his participation and asking him if he enjoyed singing the song in which he responded "I like that mommy."

Day 18 Thoughts:

Today is similar to yesterday but today is looking at a negative emotion. You get to define what negative means for you. But for me I think of a negative emotion as one that does not serve me or benefit me.

I've shared a lot on this page that I believe that your feelings are because of thoughts that you are having. And the actions that you participate in are based on those feelings. The actions we take get us the results.

So working backwards if you don't currently like the results you have, you need to change your actions. Most of us know this but we get stuck on the next part. We don't know how to change our actions. Or what we have done is willed ourselves to change for a certain amount of time but is not sustainable. And the reason it is not sustainable is because we haven't actually changed anything.

You have to change your feelings and you change your feelings by changing your thoughts.

However, once again. It is impossible to change your thoughts if you first do not become aware of your thoughts and if you don't even know what you are thinking in the first place.

Today I want you to become aware of a negative thoughts you had. Determine the feelings you had, what thoughts created the feelings and then how did you react to it?

Day 18 Journal:

I woke up this morning pretty critical of myself. I was picking apart my body pretty badly. Pointing out all of the imperfections I perceived, fixating on how far I still had to go, struggling with thoughts of "What is the point." "Why is this taking me so long." "I'm never going to get to that place I want to get."

I was having feelings of frustration, overwhelmed, allowing comparison to steal some of my joy, and really FEAR. Fear can be so sneaky like that. It masks itself in different ways. Self doubt, worry, anxiousness. But when you get to the bottom of it, it is really just fear.

In all of these negative thoughts I was having this morning it comes down to a thought I tell myself that I'm not doing enough. Its a FEAR that I will never reach my goals, that I will always struggled, that this will always be hard.

But even FEAR is just a thought. And I can change those thoughts. So how I reacted. I did a workout. I let those thoughts just be. I reminded myself that I might not be at the place I want to be...YET, I might still just see the jiggle, I might not see the abs and tone that I think I should...YET!

But just because I'm not there YET, doesn't mean I will NEVER get there.

Day 19 Thoughts:

Today is about recognizing that you have tried to fix this problem of emotional eating before. However, there is a BIG difference between fixing a problem and solving a problem.

Most fixes are temporary. A fix is almost as if you are putting a band aid on the problem. It addresses the immediate problem. However, it doesn't address why the problem started in the first place.

In order to find the solution which is permanent that requires more time and more work.

I've spent almost the entirety of my life trying to fix my problem. I've used food as a way to cope with my emotions since I was 10 years old. I've tried every diet, every approach, every trick in the book. I've tried to fix my issues with food.

However, I've never looked for the solutions. I've never done the work to find what my problem was, until I started following the program that I created to help me obtain FREEDOM from using food as a way to cope.

What have you tried in the past. What fixes and band aids have you tried to place over this only to be left right back where you started?

It might be time to try a different approach. An approach that solves your problem for a lifetime, not just a season.

Day 19 Journal:

Oh heavens have I tried it all. I have been dieting since I was 10 years old. I've done everything and then tried everything again only to fail at it for a 2nd time.

I've tried counting calories, counting macros, Weight Watchers, 21 Day Fix containers. I've tried just recording my food, I've tried not caring about what I eat, I've made myself throw up, and I've restricted to dangerous proportions.

21 Day Fix is the one program that taught me how to eat a balanced food, it taught me about clean ingredients and unprocessed foods. I learned how to portion my food and it helped me to ensure that I had the right amount of food.

However, 21 Day Fix did not help with my over desire for food. It did not address how I used food as a way to emotionally cope with what was going on in my day. It didn't give me the food freedom. There were times where following a plan and program gave me immense freedom. Not having to think about it, having boundaries. But then there were other times I had extreme guilt and shame if I ate of the plan.

I had to find something that gave me the structure of a plan but helped me deal with the feelings and how to cope with them without the use of food.

Day 20 Thoughts:

One of the BIGGEST things I work with my clients who coach with me 1-1 through their emotional eating is helping them to change their thoughts.

Yesterday I shared with you that your thoughts are what are creating your emotions, your emotions are what create that action in you to eat, and the over eating because of your emotions is what is getting you the RESULTS that you currently have.

If you want different RESULTS you have to change the thoughts. You can try to will your actions for a certain period of time but eventually your thoughts are going to catch up with you and you will be right back to where you were.

So today. Try this easy modification for your thought that tells you eating is going to make you feel better. Did you notice any changes?