How to Start a Health Journal

For me, the word “journal” immediately conjures memories of seventh grade, locking myself in the closet, crying and scrawling in a notebook about how broken I am. Thankfully, this is not the kind of journal we’re talking about today.

One of the best ways to get to the bottom of a big, complex health puzzle is to take notes and look for patterns. You can do this on your own by starting a health journal. This gives you a chance to track your symptoms and activities over time and find correlations. Honestly, the only way to know your body, and know how it reacts to food, supplements, sleep, exercise, stress and more, is to keep track of it. Our bodies are all different, and are constantly sending us messages through our symptoms. However, since most of us have a lot on our plates, we don’t always remember what we had for dinner last Tuesday, or which day it was when that migraine popped up. This is where your health bullet journal shines.

There’s no doubt that this can be challenging, it’s not for the faint of heart. You probably won’t see connections right away; it usually takes a few months of daily logs for patterns to emerge. And it can be difficult to remember to enter your information daily, and to motivate yourself to do it when it doesn’t seem like you’re getting anything from it.

But I promise that your efforts are worth it. Now that you know where those stumbling blocks are, you can start your journal and not get tripped up. Before you start randomly writing things down though, give some thought as to what you want to track, and how to lay it out.

What Are Your Symptoms?

Step one is to decide what symptoms are worth tracking. If your health is mostly good and you’re just dealing with a few, related symptoms, this should be pretty straightforward. For example, if your only noticeable symptoms are intermittent gas, bloating, and constipation, just track these 3 symptoms. Bam, you’re done!

However, you might be dealing with gut issues, hormonal imbalances, migraines, joint pain, skin rashes and occasional anxiety. Should you track all of these? Choose a few? Somewhere in between?

Honestly, any one of those options could be the correct answer for you. I recommend starting by making a list of all your symptoms. Then take a close look at them. Are some much worse than others? Are there a few that are related? Which ones happen often, and which are just occasional. Also consider how much time and brain power you want to dedicate to this process. Answering these questions can give you the answer of how many, and which symptoms you want to focus on.

Here’s a personal example. I’m currently in treatment for Chronic Lyme and SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth). My most severe symptoms are chronic constipation and bloating, but I also deal with fatigue, nerve pain, irregular periods, abdominal pain, and mood issues. And those are just the symptoms that come up almost daily. I also sometimes get headaches, dizziness/lightheadedness, palpitations, and other weird things. And boy – that is just too many things for my sometimes brain foggy mind (oh – did I forget to mention brain fog as a symptom?) to keep track of every day.

So for me, I picked 6 of my daily symptoms (bowel movements, bloating, abdominal pain, body pain, energy, and mood) to track and rate daily, and I leave a little space to take notes if other, less common symptoms are noticeable in any given day. Depending on your specific symptoms and their severity, you may choose to pick less or more of them, but I’d say as a general rule, 3-8 major symptoms is about right for most of you.

What Habits Are Affecting Your Symptoms?

It’s true, you can’t track every single thing you do in a day – you wouldn’t have time to actually live your life! But there are some habits, lifestyle practices, and other things that can have a big effect on your health. 

Some examples: your food and beverage intake, herbs/supplements/medications, exercise (type, intensity, time spent, etc.), sleep quality and quantity, self care practices (meditation, sauna, hot bath, etc), bodywork (massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, etc.).

A few of these are things that I recommend everyone track, like your food and beverage intake. Get specific about food, listing each ingredient (i.e. salmon, coconut rice, kale) instead of just the name of the dish (i.e. pizza). I promise you won’t be able to remember what was actually on your pizza when you look at your entry 2 months from now! And beverages can say a lot too, alcohol and soda consumption, how much water you’re getting, caffeinated drinks (don’t forget to list what you put in your coffee or tea), all have a big effect on health.

You’ll probably also want to leave space in your journal for health interventions, whether that be doctors appointments, self care, meds and supplements, and/or bodywork.

Other than that, what habits you track should be based on your symptoms and your hunches on what could possibly be affecting them. For example, if fatigue is one of your main symptoms, tracking things like sleep, exercise, and caffeine intake will be high leverage for you.

You can also consider creating a habit tracker for any positive habits you’re looking to reinforce. Let’s say you want to start drinking 8 glasses of water every day. You can make a place in your journal to mark your water intake to keep you accountable and mindful.

What’s the Best Layout For You?

Now that you’re clear on what you’re tracking, it’s time to figure out how to track it. This is where I turn to the Bullet Journal world for help.

To keep your information organized and easy to find, I recommend that the first page of your journal be the index page. Every section in your journal, including each month, should be included on the index page, along with its page number. 

Next up, a key. Not to unlock your diary, but to list all abbreviations and symbols. Using symbols and your own shorthand will make quick work of your daily entry. To keep track of it all, utilize your Key page. Some of the abbreviations I use are: B: breakfast, L: lunch, D: dinner, CD: cycle day, BM: bowel movement, BSC: Bristol stool chart, Acu: acupuncture, M: massage, ESB: Epsom salt bath. Once you start making your entries, you’ll see where this key is super helpful. Feel free to continue adding to it as needed.

Most health bullet journals will include a 2 page layout at the beginning of each month. Here you can include goals for the month, charts and graphs of your progress, supplement lists, and whatever else you can dream up.

Some ideas for other pages include a supplement list by date, dates of health practitioner appointments, or anything that you think would be helpful to keep track of. I keep these pages in the back so that they’re easy to access when I need to add to them.

Now comes the fun part: all the charts and graphs to keep track of your information. I recommend keeping your symptoms and habits in 2 different charts, but near each other so you can compare notes. How you decide to layout your charts is up to you, but 2 common ways are color square charts and numbered graphs.

My goals, supplements and habit tracker in a color square chart.

A color square chart uses colors (duh) to track your information in a pretty, visual, easy to read chart. First you pick the colors you want to use, then code each color. For example, I use a color square chart to track my habits, utilizing pink, orange, yellow, green and blue highlighters. I create a key for, say, hours of sleep per night. Pink = 6 ½ hours, orange = 7 hours, yellow = 7 ½ hours, green = 8 hours, and blue = 8 ½ hours. I have each habit set up this way, and prefer to use cooler colors to represent my ideal, and warmer colors as I get further away from my goal.

To set it up, list all your habits or symptoms on one axis, and the date on the other. Now the only thing left to do is fill in the chart with your chosen color squares each day. In my case, the more blues and greens I see on my month’s chart, the better I did at maintaining my goals.

My symptoms chart in numbered graph form.

A numbered graph is a slightly different way to lay out your information. I use these to track my main symptoms. For example, I have a whole chart just for bloating. One axis is the date and the other is numbered 1-5. Each day I rate my bloating on a scale of 1 (flat tummy all day) to 5 (look 6 months pregnant with lots of abdominal pressure). I just place a dot in the correct place in the chart, then draw a line between the dots to chart progress over time.

Gather Your Supplies and Get to Work!

While any old notebook and pen will do to get started, you may want to consider upgrading. Supplies that you enjoy using will help with motivation, and also make it look pretty! 

I prefer a hard cover Moleskine-like notebook with graph paper to make it easy to create charts (I’ve actually found that I like the brand Leuchttrum1917 even better). And while you’re at it, grab yourself some colored pens and markers. This helps to break up your information and make it easier to read at a glance.

Feel free to have fun with it, decorate, draw, and adorn your journal as much as you feel inclined to, and enjoy getting to know your body on an intimate level.

Author:

Dr. Elizabeth Williams, DACM, LAc, is an acupuncturist, herbalist, and Doctor of Chinese medicine. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Movement, an online community of women dedicated to improving their health naturally. Her work includes reproductive health, gut imbalances, mental health, complex chronic illness, and the ways these interact uniquely in each individual.