October 29, 2026
I have hundreds of journal entries where I was recapping what I ate, why, and vowing to be better tomorrow. But did all this journaling actually help me change my eating habits?
Today we’re talking about…
Does journaling work to stop binge eating?
What the research says on journaling for eating disorders
Journal prompts to stop binge eating
And I’ll even be reading you entries of my personal journal from 6 years ago with my reflections on it now!
Does Journaling Work to Stop Binge Eating?
Before we get into my personal journal entries, let’s look at what the research actually says about journaling and its benefits. This can help you understand what you might expect if you decide to start journaling to work on your relationship with food.
There are a few interesting studies that show how writing about your thoughts and feelings can help you feel calmer, understand your emotions, and potentially make different choices around food.
1. Naming Your Feelings Can Calm Your Brain
The first study I found was one by Lieberman at UCLA in 2007. Researchers found that naming your feelings can help calm your brain.
In the study, people were put in a brain scanner and shown photos of angry or scared faces. When they picked a word for the feeling, like “angry,” the amygdala, which is like our brain’s alarm center, calmed down.
What does this mean for binge eating?
When we can put a name to our emotions and say, “I’m feeling angry,” “I’m feeling sad,” or “I’m feeling frustrated,” it may help calm our brains.
And this is important because having a calmer brain means we have more access to the higher part of our brain that knows we don’t want to binge and can help us handle our emotions in a different way.
It’s usually when we feel so overwhelmed and disconnected from our bodies that we go in and binge.
If we can write down, “I’m feeling lonely right now,” that may help turn the emotion down a little and buy us back a few seconds to choose what we actually want to do instead.
Sometimes, those few seconds are all we need.
2. Writing About Your Feelings Can Support Your Mental Health
There was also a popular study by Pennebaker that goes back to the 1980s.
College students wrote about a painful experience for 15 minutes a day, four days in a row. Afterward, they visited the campus health center about half as often.
The group that benefited the most wrote about both what had happened and how they felt about it. Their mental health improved.
This is worth thinking about when you journal about binge eating.
You can write down what happened, but you can also explore how you felt before, during, and after the experience.
Instead of only writing, “I ate this, and then I ate that,” you can ask yourself what was going on emotionally.
Were you lonely? Frustrated? Stressed? Were you trying to avoid something you didn’t want to feel?
Getting those thoughts and feelings out of your head and onto paper can be a useful starting point.
3. Being Kind to Yourself After a Binge May Help You Eat More Balanced Meals
The last study I want to share is one of my favorites.
Researchers asked 270 people to think about a recent experience with food that had left them feeling upset. Maybe they had eaten a whole sleeve of cookies or stopped for drive-through food on the way home from work when they had promised themselves they wouldn’t.
The participants were split into two groups.
One group wrote to themselves with kindness, the way a good friend would. The other group wrote to figure out what happened and what it meant.
The second approach is what many of us naturally do. We write down what we ate, why we think it happened, and what we think it means about us.
Both groups felt a little calmer and more confident afterward. But the group that wrote to themselves kindly felt less down and less depressed.
Something else interesting happened. Over the next two weeks, the kindness group reported eating a more balanced diet.
So being kind to yourself after a binge may help you approach your next meals differently.
I know many of you think that if you go easy on yourself and are nice to yourself, you’ll lose control and motivation.
But research suggests that kindness can actually help make the coming meals easier.
How to Start Journaling for Binge Eating
You don’t need a fancy notebook, an hour of free time, or a perfect journaling routine.
I want you to just start somewhere.
You can begin with five minutes of writing. You can even start by writing down just one feeling you’re experiencing that day.
The students in the Pennebaker study wrote for 15 minutes. You don’t need to make journaling complicated to get started.
Here are a few ways you can begin:
Write down your thoughts about food. What thoughts came up around your meals or the foods you wanted to eat?
Add your feelings. What were you feeling when those thoughts came up? Try to write down both what happened and how you felt.
Name one emotion. Even writing one word, like “angry” or “lonely,” counts.
Start small. You don’t need to write every detail of your day. Something is better than nothing.
Writing down your emotions may help you slow them down and become more aware of what’s happening when you experience an urge to binge.
Journal Prompts for Binge Eating: 50+ Prompts to Help You Understand Your Eating Habits
To help you get started, I created a free gift with over 50 journal prompts that I personally wrote based on the prompts inside my Confident Eater journal.
You can use these prompts to start exploring your thoughts and feelings around food instead of trying to figure everything out on your own.
You can grab your free journal prompts right here.
If you prefer writing in a physical journal, you can also purchase a hard copy of my journal on Amazon for around $12. I’m not making money from it. The price is there to cover Amazon’s fees and get the journal to you.
You can choose whichever option works best for you.
My Personal Journal Entries From Six Years Ago
Now for the part I promised you. I’m going to share some entries from my own journal from 2020, when I was still struggling with binge eating.
Looking back at these entries is interesting because I can see how much I wanted to change. I was trying to understand my eating habits, but I kept finding myself in the same cycle.
My February 4, 2020 Journal Entry
Here’s what I wrote after a binge:
“Here we are again, writing after a binge. I could have stopped so easily. I was truly satisfied after those two chocolates, but I kept going and going and going.
Here I am again, extremely full, feeling gross and bloated, head hurts with sugar. I wanted to numb my feelings.
I heard my higher brain saying, ‘Just stop now,’ because I didn’t want to deal with the emotions.”
I also wrote about feeling worse, having even more problems and emotions, and wanting to document my story so I could learn from it and help other people.
Reading this now, I can see how much pain I was in. I wanted to understand why I kept bingeing, and I wanted to help other people who were experiencing the same thing.
But there was also a pattern.
I looked back at the entries from the week before and even the day before. I had binged then, too.
Throughout my journal, I kept writing the same things. I would explain what I ate, describe what happened, and vow to do better next time.
I tried to remind myself how painful binge eating felt, hoping that remembering the pain would stop me from doing it again.
But it kept happening.
My April 5, 2020 Journal Entry
A few months later, I was still writing about similar experiences.
Here’s part of what I wrote:
“Just binged. Was slightly overfull from after dinner at Dad’s house. I knew from the start that a whole hamburger with fries was going to be too much food for how physically hungry I was.”
I went on to explain that I ate most of my meal and an oatmeal chocolate ball because I felt bad about not eating all my food.
I compared myself to my brother, who didn’t eat any of the oatmeal balls because he listened to his body.
I wrote about what I could have done differently, such as saving the rest of my meal for later or saying that I was full and would have the food another day.
When I got home, I felt guilty about eating the chocolate ball. I could feel an urge coming on because I was uncomfortable and wanted more sweets, even though I was already full.
I wrote that if I had an urge, I would distance and distract myself to leave space for my higher brain to kick in.
Again, I was acknowledging what happened. I was trying to learn from it and plan for the next time.
But I wasn’t really making changes. I was mostly feeling mad at myself and trying to figure out how to do better next time.
Why My Journaling Didn't Change My Eating Habits
Looking back at those journal entries, I can see that I was trying really hard to change.
I was documenting my binges. I was reflecting on my emotions. I was making plans for what I would do differently next time.
But years went by, and I was still writing about the same things.
The point I want to make is this: nothing changes if nothing changes.
I didn't do anything different. I was just trying harder.
There are a few reasons journaling alone might not be enough to change your eating habits.
1. There's No Accountability
You can buy a fancy journal, use it for a week, and then forget about it until you find it on your bookshelf two years later.
This happened to me a lot. I would journal for a couple of weeks and then stop. I wasn't consistently moving myself forward.
Having a journal can be a great start, but it doesn't automatically mean you'll know what to do next or how to make changes.
2. You Might Keep Writing About the Same Things
Journaling can feel really good because it allows you to get your thoughts out of your head. As the research suggests, it may also help you feel better.
But if you're writing about what happened without understanding how to change the pattern, you might find yourself writing the same things over and over again.
That was what I was doing.
I would binge, write about it, promise to do better, and then find myself in the same situation again.
I didn't know how to turn those reflections into a different way of thinking or responding to food.
How to Use Journaling to Understand Your Binge Urges and Food Thoughts
Later, when I started healing, I learned a tool that helped me change my thoughts and feelings around food. It's also an excellent journaling tool.
Inside my Confident Eater program, I help clients look at their thoughts and feelings around food instead of simply recording what they ate.
One of my clients recently shared that journaling was her favorite tool so far. She explained that having one section for binge thoughts and another for food helped her compare what she was thinking and feeling during meals versus when she experienced urges.
This is an important distinction.
You aren't just writing down what you ate. You're learning to notice what's happening in your mind and how your thoughts and feelings change depending on the situation.
Using the Four W's Food Diary
I also have clients complete something called my Four W's food diary, which I review and provide feedback on.
The two-week food diary can help identify patterns and opportunities to make changes. I've worked with over 100 people, and I often notice similar patterns that I can point out to clients.
There are research-backed strategies around when and what to eat, and the food diary helps me see where a client might benefit from making adjustments.
We're not counting calories, points, or macros. I'm looking for specific patterns so I can give clients feedback that's relevant to their situation.
My client also shared that the program made her feel hopeful and empowered. Instead of relying on willpower without knowing what to do, she felt like she had tools and a direction.
She could verbalize her binge urges, understand what she was thinking, and ask for feedback when she wasn't sure what to do next.
That support can make a difference when you're trying to turn your reflections into meaningful changes.
Why Support Can Matter When You're Journaling for Binge Eating
Journaling can bring up a lot of emotions. That's part of the point. You're getting things out of your head and onto paper.
But sometimes, you might not know what to do with the feelings or thoughts that come up.
Food is connected to so many areas of our lives. You might start journaling about a binge and realize that you're also dealing with stress, relationships, loneliness, or other challenges.
When those bigger things come up, having someone to talk to can help you work through them and figure out your next steps.
That's also why I do life coaching with many of my clients. Our relationship with food doesn't exist separately from everything else happening in our lives.
Can Journal Prompts Help You Stop Binge Eating?
Overall, journaling can be a great tool, especially because it's free and accessible.
If you know that private one-on-one support isn't something you can afford right now, that's okay. There are plenty of free resources you can start with, and journaling is an excellent place to begin.
The research suggests that writing about your feelings, naming your emotions, and treating yourself with kindness can be helpful.
But journaling also has limitations. As I learned from my own experience, writing about what happened isn't always enough to help you change what happens next.
You may need to learn how to recognize patterns, work with your thoughts and feelings, and decide what to do differently.
Can journaling get you as far as having support? Maybe, maybe not. Everyone's experience is different, but it can be a useful first step.
If you want to start journaling, you can grab my free journal prompts here! There are over 50 prompts that I personally wrote to help you explore your thoughts and feelings around food.
You can also purchase the physical journal on Amazon if you'd rather write in a hard copy.
Start wherever you are. You don't need to have all the answers today.