This is one of the things I’ve seen advised on many weight loss sites and forums: logging one’s daily food intake. And it’s something I’ve been doing, more or less regularly depending on the moments, but I have to admit that I really don’t like it… not because I want to keep a blindfold on my eyes and not acknowledge what I eat, but because I’m not enough of a geek to be thrilled by the idea of logging stuff for more than a few weeks. I’m already bored enough noting down the money I spend and balancing my checkbook, so anything added on top of this quickly feels like a chore.
I’ve been using the online logger/calculator at FitDay.com, which is great, yet I systematically end up running into the foreign country problem: I can’t find all of my usual foods, because the US versions and the French versions aren’t similar. I waste time regularly trying to figure out the exact composition of what I eat to enter it as custom food, and when not enough data is given on the food package, the calculator tells me it can’t create the custom food due to an error/lack in the info I’ve fed it with. Tough. Of course, once it’s done, it’s done. The only thing is that if I don’t have the data under the hand when I need to log the food, and it’s at a moment when I don’t have much time to search for it… I give up and don’t log it. Beginning of the downward spiral for the rest of the day, and I’m yet to find an appropriate tool specific to France.. It’s not what is going to stop me. it’s just annoying, and causes me to drop out on days where I’m really not motivated at all, which is precisely the moment when I’d need to log the most. If this makes sense.
I keep a paper log, too. It’s great for when I don’t have an internet access under the hand. The downside is that it only allows me to note down food, not the exact calories, and it’s easy to fool my brain this way, especially in places such as the restaurant when I can’t weigh what I eat to calculate it later on. Besides, it bores me to learn by heart how many calories are in this-and-that food. I’m a human being who wants to enjoy her meals in a simple and normal way, not turn into a calories counter every time I approach a plate and a table. This kind of feeling is exactly what tends to make me wonder what the hell I’m doing, and whether it’s so worth it. It’s a dangerous thought.
In a nutshell: for me, it IS worth it, since I don’t want to remain fat for the rest of my life, but I really need to find a better balance between not caring at all and caring too much, to the point where I’ll just throw everything out the window due to being fed up, which would be a point of turning-back, I know it.
So, yes, I do it. I try to keep logs of my food intake as much and as often as I can and remember it. The fact is, though, I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life. I want to hope in a day where I’ll be NORMAL enough again to have a NORMAL relationship with food, and not need this crutch of a logging software or notebook. Isn’t this part of the goal to be of a normal weight again? Learning to eat healthier and better, without having to resort to diets and theories?
I wonder if I’ll ever be able to do that, to take cereals in the morning and tell myself “this will be enough to sustain me till noon” without needing to weigh the quantity or note it down in case I forget what I’ve already eaten…
* sigh *
Tags: food | logging | weight loss
November 13th, 2005 at 14:26
I know what you mean, Kery.
Logging food is hard. I found it to be time consuming, but as you say it can be beneficial when you’re trying to lose weight, because you can see where you’re going wrong.
Some Dietitians will ask you to write down a food diary which is just the paper version of what the fitness and diet software do.
I think that keeping some kind of food log is probably one of the best strategies someone can use because it keeps you honest, focussed and provides an insight into what is happening within your diet and your lifestyle.
At some point though, you are right, no one can go through their entire lives, writing down that they just ate a cracker etc. etc.
I found that when I lost my weight (about 10kg) that weight maintenance was fairly easy as long as I didn’t go back to my old habits of eating sugary biscuits late at night and forgetting to drink. But everyone is different, and will depend on each person’s own physiology and ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
So you’re not the only one that hates logging food, Kery.
November 13th, 2005 at 20:02
Again I’m with you. I feel it would be in my BEST interest to update my fitday but I get frustrated. I really hate it when I have something like a smoothie and I have to figure out everything I put into it. Sometimes I just log something as similar as I can think of. Also Ilike getting dunkin donuts wheat bagels with the inside scooped out but can’t figure out what that would be in fitday…1/2 a bagel? 3/4 a bagel?
I really should start it again…I love your blog
February 15th, 2006 at 19:45
[…] I’m not exactly sure of what road I should go, these days. I want to get kicking in again, I want to resume the weight loss. I don’t want to lay down my arms and claim that I’ll never do it, and I also don’t want to resort to too many of these tricks that, while being efficient, are still things I do automatically but don’t “integrate” as having to be part of my life and of myself until the end. Take the food logs, for instance. The idea is great, and I regularly come back to it, but it just doesn’t work for me. I end up bored, and as soon as I stop/forget writing in them, I revert back to the old, bad habits. Why is this? Why can’t I learn to eat well without relying on such a crutch? […]
March 14th, 2007 at 23:36
I can’t eat most of things with my eating lifestyle. I eat by low glycemic guidelines. Are there any other foods? WBR LeoP