Does the way your categorize your food give you useful information?

MolassesCoveredTurtle

Hey there!

I sort my foods differently than most. I find I can see and understand my caloric spread better this way.

Whadda think?

Wanna try it?

~M.C. Turtle

monikker

More info?

bulbadoof

not really. im thinking about lumping it all into one category.

kayeiam

If your talking about the diary food labels (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack's etc) I see you have processed foods, whole foods etc) For me your way would not work. I want to see what I am eating per meal in calories, carbs, fiber and protein. I am diabetic and need to balance out my carbs/protein. I labeled mine Meal1, Meal2, meal3, Meal 4 etc to Meal 6. This way if it is a snack or lunch, it doesn't mess up. I may eat breakfast and 2 snack meals, and other days, breakfast, snack, lunch snack. So it all works out for me.

MolassesCoveredTurtle

My food diary is public. Anyone can check it out.

It didn't help me to have it sorted by meal...that gave me no info on what kind of foods I was eating during each meal.

I then tried sorting by time and divided 24 hours into 6 even chunks of time. But eventually realized that my problem was not when I ate...because I was trying to get more in tune with actual hunger it was important for me to eat when I was actually hungry...which could happen anytime.

Then I decided to label categories as: Whole Foods, Low Processed, High Processed, Emotionally and Overeaten, Vitamins, Meds and Supplements, and Beverages.

This has, by far, given me the kind of information I'm seeking in terms of what kind of food I'm putting in my body most often. I can easily see how beverages can quickly fill me up with calories that I would have rather had with a more filling food. I can see how, when I eat emotionally, I am keeping myself from making progress with shedding the extra pounds I'd like to remove.

I try to be consistent in how I sort the foods and have my own reasons for why certain foods go into certain categories. Overall, I have found it very helpful.

I figured I'd share because it seems most people I've met here do it by meal or time and this is yet another way that less people use.

Take care!

~M.C. Turtle

PearlAng

That's a very unique concept! Personally, I like to group foods by meal, and I pay little attention to what's processed and what's not because I usually have a pretty good balance of each, but perhaps your way could be beneficial to others.

I also noticed the emotionally eaten foods section, which I think could be a good tab for those looking to recover from binge eating. It might put things in perspective for them.

MolassesCoveredTurtle

@PearlAng Thanks.

Yeah, the emotionally eaten foods is a hard one to do because you need awareness and honesty. I'm pretty solid at being honest...it's my awareness that is difficult.

Sometimes I go back later in the day, review my categories and see if there is anything that should be moved there.

I'm an emotional eater - a hangover from childhood abuse.

I also had to add "overeaten" to that heading because as I've gotten better at eating for hunger, rather than comfort - I still am not that tuned in to my sense of fullness.

~

PearlAng

MolassesCoveredTurtle wrote: »

@PearlAng Thanks.

Yeah, the emotionally eaten foods is a hard one to do because you need awareness and honesty. I'm pretty solid at being honest...it's my awareness that is difficult.

Sometimes I go back later in the day, review my categories and see if there is anything that should be moved there.

I'm an emotional eater - a hangover from childhood abuse.

I also had to add "overeaten" to that heading because as I've gotten better at eating for hunger, rather than comfort - I still am not that tuned in to my sense of fullness.

~

Honesty is the best policy, as they say. I think it's better to honestly log foods that you've overeaten and be honest with yourself than to not log them and pretend it didn't happen. Sounds like you know what you're doing, and I wish you luck on your journey

leggup

I don't know that I would get anything out of that technique, personally. I break mine up into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snack, where snack is anything eaten outside of a meal. I wouldn't even know how to start defining processed or high processed. All of my veggie burgers are "processed" aka pulverized vegetables. Some use soy derivatives, some are black beans. Since both have the same protein %, I don't get anything out of grouping them separately.

I tend to consume 150-250 calories for breakfast, 450-600 calories for lunch, 100-300 calories for a snack, and everything remaining for dinner.

Lounmoun

Interesting method. It is great that you figured out something simple that helps you.

I pre-log my food for the whole day and tend to eat at predictable meal or snack times so the default diary categories works for me. Planning ahead is what helps me.

MolassesCoveredTurtle

britishbroccoli wrote: »

I wouldn't even know how to start defining processed or high processed.

Partly the reason I do it this way. It increases my awareness to the nutritional value of what I'm eating. There is a lot of "health" food (even organic, vegan, veggie, paleo, whatever) that when I really evaluate, it's not what I want to be eating.

Glad your way works for you though!

Pre-logging wouldn't work for me because as a recovering emotional eater, I am really trying to get in tune with my true hunger and my true desires for eating foods I enjoy and make me feel good (in healthy ways as often as possible).

If I logged I was going to eat a cookie for a snack but then ended up wanting sunflower seeds instead...I don't want to stick to a cookie just because I pre-logged. Vice-versa would also be true...the hard part for me is truly determining what it is I want.

Years (if not decades) of eating for comfort or following "rules" of dieting or eating or even rules of the diets that call themselves "lifestyle changes" but are really just some form of arbitrary dieting...has really hurt my ability (and I'd guess many people's abilities) to actually feel hunger and determine what their body needs.

It's something I'm struggling with daily and feeling good about the progress I'm making.

Thanks for the input. I totally understand why others do things differently. Again, just putting this out there in case others may resonate with it. When I found it...I definitely new I was on the right track to healing.

~

Panda_Poptarts

MolassesCoveredTurtle wrote: »

britishbroccoli wrote: »

I wouldn't even know how to start defining processed or high processed.

Partly the reason I do it this way. It increases my awareness to the nutritional value of what I'm eating. There is a lot of "health" food (even organic, vegan, veggie, paleo, whatever) that when I really evaluate, it's not what I want to be eating.

Glad your way works for you though!

Pre-logging wouldn't work for me because as a recovering emotional eater, I am really trying to get in tune with my true hunger and my true desires for eating foods I enjoy and make me feel good (in healthy ways as often as possible).

If I logged I was going to eat a cookie for a snack but then ended up wanting sunflower seeds instead...I don't want to stick to a cookie just because I pre-logged. Vice-versa would also be true...the hard part for me is truly determining what it is I want.

Years (if not decades) of eating for comfort or following "rules" of dieting or eating or even rules of the diets that call themselves "lifestyle changes" but are really just some form of arbitrary dieting...has really hurt my ability (and I'd guess many people's abilities) to actually feel hunger and determine what their body needs.

It's something I'm struggling with daily and feeling good about the progress I'm making.

Thanks for the input. I totally understand why others do things differently. Again, just putting this out there in case others may resonate with it. When I found it...I definitely new I was on the right track to healing.

~

From a fellow emotional eater, I thought I'd toss out a suggestion :-)

I pre-log my main meals, but don't submit my food log. I have a category for "snacks and drinks", which are all logged together. This is because I, too, over-drink and over-snack.

I find that by pre-logging, I am more committed to eating ONLY what I said I was eating. However, if I do have a little less, or a little more, or change up a component (e.g. swapping green beans for asparagus!) I can definitely go back and edit, since I haven't submitted the food diary yet.

tomatoey

Oh, no I don't do that. I have breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack 1 & 2, supplements. I do sometimes check out the nutrition report mid-day to see where I'm up to.

Lounmoun

jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »

From a fellow emotional eater, I thought I'd toss out a suggestion :-)

I pre-log my main meals, but don't submit my food log. I have a category for "snacks and drinks", which are all logged together. This is because I, too, over-drink and over-snack.

I find that by pre-logging, I am more committed to eating ONLY what I said I was eating. However, if I do have a little less, or a little more, or change up a component (e.g. swapping green beans for asparagus!) I can definitely go back and edit, since I haven't submitted the food diary yet.

When I pre-log my day, I don't complete the entry until I go to bed for the night.
I also make adjustments as well if things change during the day. I'm boring and am fine eating the same things for breakfast or snacks pretty often. Having everything entered makes it easier to see how different choices fit my calories and getting enough protein, fiber or whatever.

Do whatever works though.

SilverRose89

MolassesCoveredTurtle wrote: »

Hey there!

I sort my foods differently than most. I find I can see and understand my caloric spread better this way.

Whadda think?

Wanna try it?

~M.C. Turtle

While in general your way of categorising wouldn't really work for me, I'm actually interested by the 'emotionally eaten' category.

My biggest issue is eating when I'm not really hungry and just out of habit/emotion. So I'm tempted to add this one to my diary and see if having to put foods into that category might make me rethink my choices.

At the moment such foods just go into 'snacks' alongside the snacks that I've actually allowed for and fit my day and hunger. Maybe they should go somewhere else...