[AllAmericanBeauty]

Hello Ladies,

I have been on this diet rollercoaster for about 6 months now. My highest weight was 190-somthing and my lowest (for this dieting period) was 173. I have been doing all a lot of things in my effort. Lots of exersize of course, lots of water too. And the food. I had been journaling - EVERYTHING. The food item, the portion, calories, fat, protien, carbs and fiber. I would do really well for about 5 days and then "fall off the wagon".
I felt like if I didn't put everything in the journal then it was worthless and so I would stop doing it all together, then I would splurge a little here and there and then I would feel so awful for the little splurge that I would basically say "F it!! I quit!" and then there I was again back at square one. This would lead me to again re-commit to journaling and a healthy diet and through the whole cycle again.
Another thing I am experiencing is I feel like I spend entirelly to much time in my day focused on food - planning the meals and snacks, looking up the nutritional content, logging it in, standing in the grocery isle comparing this soup to that, reviewing the days intake. Sometimes when I work out I watch the Calories Burned section of the display mentally figuring out what food product I just burned off.
I feel like for a person who is supposed to be focusing less on food and more on total mind and body health I am failing! I feel like all I ever think about is food!
Am I journaling wrong? I must be, because it certianly isn't working!
Should I just stop?
What about all of you? What do you do? Does anyone else ever feel this way?
Please ladies - lemme know what you think.
Thanks!!!
Krista

[katia]

I used to spend a lot of time thinking about food, I had to relearn how to eat because I had never paid attention to portion size so I was constantly measuring things and trying to make sure that I had the right amount of calories.

It's gotten a lot easier to eat well just because I spend more time planning now and less time obsessing over choices. On the weekend I pick a few recipes for my lunches and dinners for the week, make a shopping list, go to the store and buy exactly what I planned on, and then do prep work for the week (washing fruits and vegetables, chopping things up). I do keep a food journal on Fitday, I just update it once a day to show what I really ate.

The other thing I had to get over was worrying about trying to make up for splurges. If you eat too much once in a while, it's really not the end of the world and you can't let yourself obsess about it or you won't get anywhere. You have to move on and just stick with your plan the next day. I never expect to be perfect, I'm happy if I eat well 80 - 90% of the time and get most of my exercise in. It may take me a while to lose these last few pounds, but I'm not driving myself crazy in the process.

I think it definitely gets easier if you have a good system in place to keep yourself on track and if you just move on after an off day. It took me 6 years to gain all the extra weight, it's not going to come off overnight and it's not going to all comeback overnight just because of one unhealthy meal.

[AllAmericanBeauty]

katia -
Thank you for the advice. Sometimes it just helps to know that someone is listening.

krista