Friends, I hate “one simple trick!” stories, but this really is one simple trick.It’s not even a trick, really.
I discovered it by accident.
To tell you about it, let’s go back to 2014. I was starting to get serious about finding out what worked for me.
At that point, there were a lot of things I was researching: leaky gut, SIBO, whether a naturopath would be a good idea, if I could tolerate eating dairy.
I was also busy living my life. Appointments. Grocery shopping. Bus schedules. Jury duty. Friends and family. Overtime at work.
At a certain point, I was making notations on my Google Calendar so I didn’t forget.
“7:15 am Tuesday—weird poop. Did I eat cheese last night?”
It was getting hard to keep track of everything that I had done, and what might be contributing to my Crohn’s symptoms.
So I got a notebook.
They say that keeping a food journal helps track your gut’s ups and downs. I decided to try it—and I wouldn’t just track food, I’d also write down my meds, results of lab tests, and any advice that I got from my doctor.
Keeping it all in the same notebook meant that it would always be in the same place, where I needed it.
So the next time I went to see my doctor, I brought my notebook.
He looked at the notebook, and looked at me.
“I see you came prepared,” my doctor said.
Then we sat down to a deep conversation about my health. I asked questions that I’d never asked before, partly because I was confident—knowing that he was paying attention.
I’ll be honest. After a while, I stopped using that notebook. While having a dedicated health notebook seemed like a good idea at the time, it wasn’t a sustainable method for me.
(If you’re interested, check out what I use to track my health now.)
But I will never forget how much that little notebook changed the tone of that doctor’s appointment.
Where once I was talked at, I was now talked with.