Ruby is inspiring women to journal as she loses weight

Many people are finding inspiration in the story of Ruby Gettinger, the woman who once weighed more than 700 pounds and has been sharing her weight-loss journey on the Style Network’s show “Ruby.”

Ruby has her own page online where she tells her adventures and challenges – including her current sadness following the death of her father and a favorite pet – and shows readers how she is using journaling to lose weight and make important life changes. Her past journals have been fashioned into a book, Ruby's Diary, which is coming out next month.

I often suggest journaling to my clients who are motivated to make changes in their lives. I really believe that journaling is an amazing tool that can help people change more quickly; Research studies have show that people who journal before going to bed often sleep more soundly because they’re not thinking about distressing issues; they often feel less stress or depression due to this outlet.

People may journal on various topics as they move through the psychotherapy process. Sometimes I give specific assignments and sometimes I just say: write about what is important to you.

One valuable journaling exercise is The Feelings Journal. The Feelings Journal is actually a three-part list where you can observe a specific feeling, the situation in which your feeling shows up, and the action you take to deal with that feeling.

For instance, you might notice a feeling of sadness welling up within you. The situation is a movie that you are watching about two characters that are in the process of divorce. The action that you take is that you cry. Or you walk to the refrigerator to look for a snack. Or you tell a joke to your roommate that has nothing to do with the movie.

After keeping The Feelings Journal during a period of time, you’ll begin to notice valuable patterns about what feelings you have, in what situations and what you tend to "do" with your feelings.

Ideas for journaling

Comment on your insights, feelings and “aha” moments after a psychotherapy session or another healing-oriented session.

Set a personal growth goal and comment on your progress toward that goal on a daily basis.

Read an inspirational reading from a spiritually oriented book and write how you personally relate to the reading.

Read a self-help book about a topic that interests you and journal how you relate to each chapter at the end of each
chapter.

Discuss a current problem that you are experiencing and identify possible solutions and ways of dealing with it.

Journal in the morning to record your night time dreams, plans or goals for the day, food plan and other thoughts.

Journal in the evening to observe how you met your goals, your important feelings and experiences that day, the blessings that you received for the day, amends that yiou may need to make to others or issues that are troubling you.

There are many books on journaling that give more specific ideas on journaling. Some focus on specific topics such as grief and loss and others are general guides to making the most of journaling for personal growth. There are also hundreds of online resources that will give you more ideas.