I usually post in the 20 something's thread, but I thought I would check you guys out since I will be hitting the big 30 this year... In July actually.
My name is Tracy.
I am a weight watcher member and in the last year and a half have lost 67 lbs in that time.... The problem I have is the last 3 months or so I really can't stand to write down/track my food intake. I just HATE doing it... I feel like I can't be bothered to take the time to do it... I know my weight loss has slowed down because of inconsistent tracking and every week I start with a new goal of just keeping track, but I don't do it completely.... I usually get breakfast and lunch in before it dies off! Ugh!! I have tried rewarding myself with a sticker each day I write all the food down, it worked for about 2 weeks, but stickers lost the appeal.
In my defense, I am super busy! I am in accelerated nursing program that has no real schedule. we are at the school's beck and call for classes, labs, and clincials and assignments, readings, and papers galore! I am also a newlywed, four months now. I have trouble fitting the gym in too, but I am better at that then keeping track of my food intake. LOL
Do you all have any tips or tricks you use to track what your eating? What are you all doing?
i personally plan a whole week ahead. every friday evening i plan my shopping list, saturday morning is shopping day, and then i spend an hour after that planning the whole week until the coming friday. every single meal.
of course, this system is not everyone's cup of tea
Hey there,
First of all welcome! I'm turning 30 in April and found I just fit in better here than with 20 somethings (nothin against the 20 somethings!). And congratulations on your loss so far - that is fantastic! What part of Michigan are you from? The only reason I ask is because we have a summer home in South Haven.
I used to use FitDay to track and was pretty religious about it. Now I'd say I generally eat 90% foods that I already know the stats on and I keep a running total in my head throughout the day. Granted, I'm crazy and have memorized all that nutritional info, but it's been working for me.
Good to meet you and feel free to stop in anytime!
Last edited by Silverstar33; 03-27-2010 at 08:04 PM.
I plan my meals one day ahead. Every evening I sit down and plan what the next days's meals and snacks are. I always make sure though that I have basics on hand for dinner(frozen veggies and chicken breast) and a freezer full of homemade meals ready to pack for lunch.
I also keep a very anal food journal and write down EVERYTHING that I eat.
Do you all have any tips or tricks you use to track what your eating? What are you all doing?
Hi Tracy! to the 30-somethings! Good to have you here.
My sister did the accelerated nursing program and while she was frazzled most of the time, I think she made the best decision. Good luck with it! And congratulations (belatedly) on getting married. It's been 7 years for DH and I-- we're still on the honeymoon phase (we don't call each other by our first names, only "honey" and "baby") even though we do have our disagreements and our issues.
As far as not writing things down, I'm pretty bad about that too. We've got a daily accountability thread where we post our calories and what we've eaten for the day. I also post mine on My Fitness Pal so I can keep a running total of what I've eaten and how much I've exercised. I don't plan a day in advance- I'm not that good! I change my mind all the time depending on my mood: a chicken salad can become tuna and egg on crackers or a steak and veggie dinner can become a lamb salad at a moment's notice.
I find it's way easier to track online than writing it down in a diary somewhere; I don't have to worry about losing my diary (which I've done before) or taking it with me on holiday (can log in anywhere).
You just have to say to yourself that if you REALLY want to lose the weight, you need to write it down. It's the only way I've been able to lose just over 11 pounds in the last 12 weeks.
I'm going to do a little pimping now! The 30-somethings are having a 12 week challenge coming up in the next week (5 April) if you want to join up!
I agree that you should track in some way. I for one cannot count calories, at least right now. I tell myself I must, then do it well for oh, a week or so and then fall back into really, really not wanting to do it. And for me that ends up in very poor eating for a few days or more until I get my crap back together and try again. It makes me crazy. I am tired of that cycle so for now I am just not going to count. But I find that I'm still keeping myself in check somewhat by just writing it down and keeping it out there where people can see it, like in the Accountability thread. I can't say right now that this is helping lose weight, but I am definitely not gaining weight. I plan to keep going with it for the next month or so and see how it goes, if I have no progress then I'll reevaluate and maybe go back to counting calories. But even if I'm not making a lot of progress like I think I should or could, I am staying sane!
Hey! Well, I got a book (The Ultimate Diet Log) that lets me track my food and is actually already split up into Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and is nicely split up into where to write food and also two focus areas. It also has a section for how much exercise I have done that day. It's working very nicely for me.
I use LoseIt! on my iphone and I love it. I've had to add a lot of my own foods, and sometimes their calories are off so I have to adjust it, but I think it is awesome. I tried doing it online, but for me, it is a lot easier to add it all on my ipod right as I eat it.
I'm actually really bad about tracking my food. I've never ever counted calories and I don't keep a food journal. The only thing that concerns me about my food is if what I'm putting into my body is healthy. It's been working for the past few months so I don't intend to change it. I do however measure my food to make sure that I'm not overdoing it by just "eyeballing" a serving size. I'm also a big time label reader, so nothing even goes into my shopping cart unless I'm satisfied w/the nutritional information and I feel it will be a positive addition to my everyday diet.
I plan as much as possible and hope that i can balance it out for the week. You can do it! Good Luck The ladies here have great advice- just don't hesitate to keep trying until you find something that works for you.
I have done ww in the past and found that the food journals, while nice to have on paper in your purse, are annoying because you have to write everything down every day from scratch. I like fitday, because I can go to the recent meals and just pick and choose from things I have eaten recently and check them off. Fitday calculates it all for me. I can still edit quantities if I need to. I will admit that I am not a big fan of thier database, though. I frequently use caloriking.com to look things up and then transport them back into fitday. Once you do the initial work (creating your custom foods, logging in a week or so of foods), it's really easy to maintain.
It's nice to "meet" you and I am looking forward to getting to know you on our 30-boards!
For about a month I used My Diet which is associated with Facebook. (If you use this and don't want your friends to see diet info about you then be really careful about setting up privacy!) I found that it was really slow though.
Hey all.... thanks for sharing what works for you! I use to do online tracking, but then switched over to paper journals.... I did well for a while with online tracking, I might go back and give it another try. This week and tracking did not go so well! Next I hope to be better!
How do you keep track of what you eat?
to the 30-somethings! Good to have you here.
