Shannon Hammer — The Positive Portions Food & Fitness Journal

Overweight since childhood, Shannon Hammer spent most of her life unsuccessfully attempting to lose weight and keep it off by following endless diets, joining numerous gyms and health clubs, and ingesting shakes, pills, teas, and supplements, all promising to melt off pounds. Sadly, Hammer’s efforts turned out to be ineffective (and expensive) solutions that led her not to permanent slimness but to the “yo‐yo” pattern of losing and gaining large amounts of weight in short periods of time. Eventually, Hammer’s weight crept up until it reached her top weight of 230 pounds.

Desperate, in 2003 Hammer picked up a new tool—a food and fitness journal. Every morning she began planning out and writing down her daily meal plan. This gave her the structure she needed to make good food choices and the accountability to stick to her plan. Hammer learned portion control by weighing and measuring her food on a kitchen scale to ensure she was eating the proper amounts. She learned how to identify healthy portion sizes, which eliminated overeating at restaurants.

Along with physical benefits, using a food and fitness journal also brought Hammer emotional and behavioral benefits. Having a written down plan allowed her to curb impulsive eating, which then helped her identify underlying emotions that drove her to food, such as stress, anger, and fatigue. She was then able to replace mindless, impulsive eating with healthy behaviors such as exercise, meditation, and calling supportive friends and family members. After three years, Hammer lost her excess weight and gained physical fitness, high‐self‐esteem, and healthy ways of coping. Using her wealth of first‐hand experience, Hammer wrote The Positive Portions Food & Fitness Journal to be more than just a diet diary or exercise log—she wrote it to be a support group in a book. Along with allowing users to document their daily calories, fat, protein, carbs, and activity levels, The Positive Portions Food & Fitness Journal also contains a six month collection of inspirational daily readings.

Shannon Hammer currently lives in Redondo Beach, California, with her husband Mark Christopher (MC) Hammer. She continues to write down her food to this day. The Positive Portions Food & Fitness Journal can be ordered from www.positiveportions.com.