We’ve heard it all our dietary lives: “keep a food diary, it will hold you accountable for what you eat.” That advice always failed me, the best I could keep a food diary was during breakfast, I did not want to leave a written record of my eating behavior.

But there was once in my life that I wrote a diary, words and feelings written on the page. That diary chronicled the first year after my weight-loss surgery. The weight loss surgery experience is profound. It is a physical and emotional Mount Everest. I dare say that there is no other change that a morbidly obese person can undertake that is as emotionally significant as weight loss surgery.

There are two reasons for journaling: first, to have a release from your thoughts and feelings; second, have a record of your experience. For many people it is less painful to be honest about our feelings when we write them than when we express them. If we write them down we don’t have to listen to them out loud. If we write them down we are not vulnerable to sharing them with another person. For me, writing my feelings on paper was like sweeping the floor: I could pick up the rubble and throw it away, I no longer had it in my mind.

Second, as a record, your journal will be invaluable. We may not be able to measure our growth, strengths, and courage on a daily basis as we experience the transformation of weight loss. But if we have a benchmark we can deliberately and honestly measure our progress. We can turn to the journal when we feel defeated and relive important moments that we have recorded. One of my best moments during weight loss was wearing size 12 jeans. Picture it: size 12! I never want to forget that moment, and I won’t because it’s in my diary and it’s a hit that I visit often. Record those magical moments to relive them later, it’s well worth the time and effort.

A journal can be a beautiful bound writing book, a simple stenography tablet, a computer document, or even an online blog. It is now possible to keep a video diary to share with so many free video sharing websites available. In the diary, you can commit to daily entries or write whenever you feel like it. You can share your trip log or keep it hidden and private.

Some patients choose to keep a weight loss scrapbook and document their transformation with pictures and captions. What a wonderful pastime and celebration of weight loss, recording the transformation in pictures and words. Others use log sheets to mark progress, specifically fitness log sheets. They start the first day by recording their walking distance and speed. Looking at a log sheet is an excellent measure of progress. It can be used to identify trends and spot problems. It is certainly a place to record achievements and highlight new records.

Do what is good for you. This is your experience: please do yourself the favor of recording your trip.