Struggling to do this everyday. Tips anyone?

1shauna1

I work full time and also have a second job. I have made myself a priority. I eat much more healthily than I have been (I love to search Pinterest for easy recipes) and I try and prepare some food, especially for my lunches, on the weekend. I make time in the evening for working out (can you set, say, three hours a week, specific days/times, for exercise?). Having a plan really helps. Eventually it just becomes part of your everyday routine, and then it's almost easy!

juliet3455

I can't remember who said it but I Quote: " I log everything, good, bad or ugly, every day. The thing to remember is, your body logs all the food you eat, whether you choose to put it in your diary or not. So there is no reason not to log it. Your food diary is a tool to help you keep track of what you are eating, with an aim toward achieving your goal ( a calorie deficit if trying to lose weight vs. maintain or gain). The only way that this tool is useful is if you record everything you eat as completely and accurately as you possibly can.
The trick is to start...and then to continue."

I was using MFP for a good 6 months before I found these posts so it is a bit of a personal mission of mine to pass them on to other people who are just starting/struggling.

My standard suggestion/tip is to do some reading and always use a scale to weigh your food!!!
Considering your struggles with scheduling and building winning Habits my first suggestion is to visit this link about building Habits. This is a multipart blog - Read all of them!!!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ihad/view/the-power-of-habit-part-1-why-habits-matter-688130

arditarose and blankiefinder‌ Nailed it when it comes to Logging accurately and selecting food using the search feature.

arditarose wrote: »

Weigh your eggs and find the appropriate entry. Two eggs at 50 grams is typically 140 calories. If you cooked them with olive oil, add that as well.

Don't log 2 eggs as it is a subjective number, where 50 gm. is very concise.

blankiefinder wrote: »

if I haven't found an entry that lists the grams, I keep looking for a different entry. This [ Enter Food ] item is already listed a bunch of times. Better to edit and correct one that is already there than add to the database mess that exists now.

JPW1990 wrote: »

Go to the database and look up something like poptarts or doritos. You'll see an asterisk before the first letter of every food on the list. When you look up something like tomato or chicken breast, there should be at least one entry without one, that's official from MFP via the USDA site or similar, and a bunch of others entered by users that start with the asterisk.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

When creating or editing a Food item from the existing database my Personal Bias is to Edit an existing Entry and enter the nutritional values based on grams ( 100 gm ) as it makes the portion size math easy. Especially when you use a scale and WEIGH EVERYTHING. Re-train/calibrate your mind as to what a portion size is..
You will be surprised how small some portions look when you start to weigh them out. The average cereal bowl I have in my kitchen will hold 2-6 portions.

For Nutritional values start with the values from the product label and confirm it with the un-biased nutritional information from the USDA web site at 100 gm.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

Visit the Eat-Train-Progress group and read the pinned topics. If you click on the little STAR you can bookmark the topic for future reference.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress

Read the information at these MFP post. They have links to multiple very good reads.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/getting-started

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1069278/acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6/p1

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/the-next-step/

Some of these links will show up in the other Groups and discussions.
There are lots of other good groups and discussions with really good information and some with a more Social aspect.

truelight_photo_craig

lbedilion wrote: »

Nobody is finding time, you have to MAKE time. If you're serious about getting in shape, then you will MAKE time to eat better, exercise, and log into MFP if that helps. It's not easy, but you have to stick with it and be dedicated in order to see results. Sounds cliche, but it's true. Good luck!

This...

lesliewalker108

Its funny the only thing that works for me is believe it or not is when I buy those weight watchers smart ones or lean crusine( what evers on sale that week , shop rite is good for it).I add a spoon of chia seeds as reccommended by my nutrionist once a day to one meal.And for snack I might get weight watchers ice cream bars or some other low calorie icee bar, or dannon oikios triple zero.Preparation is the key , without that you setting yourself up to fail.Do you have a refrigator at work and microwave? If you do keep some at work so you wont get tempted, for chinese or other take out.I havent had chinese in about 2 months..
And dont get me wrong , I eat pizza (sometimes with vegatables) , but just one (ok ok Im lying maybe two if I work out lol) . Pizza believe it or not that bad.

melanieknight

jellybeanhed313 wrote: »

Use the app on your phone or just write down what you eat throughout the day on paper and log it when you get home. Or you can pre-log your food for the day and stick with your choices. I find that I do well if I plan my meals and log them before eating. Then I can see how it looks and make changes as needed. Good luck! You can do this!

Thank you. I'll try this.

melanieknight

Wow, well I didn't expect such a huge response. There's some really helpful tips in there, thank you.
There's also some not so nice people who felt the need to be rude. That's disappointing, they must get off on making people feel bad.
I have always resisted planning of meals, as it's the only spontaneous bit of my life left. As a working and studying single mother, EVERYTHING is planned and organised. I see this will help, so I'll do it. Thanks to all the nice positive people out there who left comments. I'm off to do lots of planning and logging of my meals.

inked_Calimom82

You just have to make time! I find meal prepping helps a lot. I gather a meal plan of what I'm going to make for the week, meals and snacks included. Make a grocery list of what I need and every Saturday me and the hubby go to the store and every Sunday we make our meals for the week, labeling his/hers. We freeze most of the weeks meals and just pull them from freezer to fridge as we need them. I also try to workout around the same time every day. I have a weekly calendar schedule I follow for workouts and meals. Organization helps a lot for me. Good luck

inked_Calimom82

acorsaut89 wrote: »

lbedilion wrote: »

Nobody is finding time, you have to MAKE time. If you're serious about getting in shape, then you will MAKE time to eat better, exercise, and log into MFP if that helps. It's not easy, but you have to stick with it and be dedicated in order to see results. Sounds cliche, but it's true. Good luck!

So True! It's easy to be lazy and make excuses. Been there done that. Now my mind is set and I'm all in this, making the time to get it done!! It gets easier as time goes by too.

melanieknight

inked_Calimom82 wrote: »

You just have to make time! I find meal prepping helps a lot. I gather a meal plan of what I'm going to make for the week, meals and snacks included. Make a grocery list of what I need and every Saturday me and the hubby go to the store and every Sunday we make our meals for the week, labeling his/hers. We freeze most of the weeks meals and just pull them from freezer to fridge as we need them. I also try to workout around the same time every day. I have a weekly calendar schedule I follow for workouts and meals. Organization helps a lot for me. Good luck

Thanks for the tip. I do try. I did it today. Planned it all out. I will work on being more disciplined!

dubird

I don't actually plan my meals. I have a collection of recipes that I know will be ok for me and HSpoon to have, and we'll pick one that sounds good that night. It takes a while to build up a stack of recipes that you like, but once you do, you can still be spontaneous about your meals and be within your calorie goals.