Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Behavior Calendar


Another useful tool I’ve been using is my hand dandy behavior calendar. Every day, at the end of the day (meaning right before I got to bed) I record the number of calories in, the number of calories burned by exercise, whether or not I binged and purged, and the names of the three people I had positive interactions with. If I ate normally, I highlight the day and it counts towards my monthly goal.
I think having a behavior calendar can be extremely useful. First, it helps you figure out what kinds of things occur on a day when you eat poorly. I noticed that on days I was binging I was less likely to have positive interactions with people. So I changed my behavior accordingly to integrate more positive interaction, and it helped.
Second, it helps you to realize how often your behaviors occur. Just seeing it in simple colors is really powerful.
Third, it can be motivation. I mean, not much motivation, but highlighting a day at the end is kind of nice. And seeing a mostly highlighted month is a good feeling.
I think it’s a good tool and I recommend it to you.
Below are two examples of months (april and February) that I am keeping/kept track of with a behavior calendar. 


5 comments:

  1. That looks great! I love things like this. A visual reminder can make such great motivation.
    xx

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  2. I think I am going to do this with work-outs! it would be good to see that I am actually sticking to it for once!

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  3. wow this is astounding!!!
    i think i always go back and assess and reflect anyone but this calender thing sounds great to be honest. i might do it on an Excel sheet when i get home. it does sound like something i can use to help me in the future. besides, there are so many things that you can track. i'd also recommend mood (for me, mood plays an important factor) and quite a lot of ED people have anxiety issues (i'm one of them) and i noticed that on days where im anxious im less likely to eat which makes me very likely to overeat after my anxious phase is over with (i'm trying to keep a consistent pattern to eating). which made me create this idea of an average calorie intake per day
    basically on an anxiety day, if i undereat by let's say 100 calories so i intake in at 1 540 (my intake is 1 640), i can add that to my intake tomorrow and i can eat 1 740, which helps with the whole 'overeating when im happy/undereating when im not' cycle.
    ^_^
    its amazing identifying triggers though. you really begin to understand yourself.
    -Sam Lupin

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Thanks for commenting! I appreciate it :)