Diary Trick - Tonight's Dinner logged for Tomorrow

ArmyofAdrian

I just discovered a diary trick to help me hit my calorie and macro targets. My problem has been that I never really know what the wife will serve for dinner from one day to the next, so I can only guess what to eat/not eat for breakfast and lunch during the day. Not to mention the occasional snack when I get home or whatever. So now, I just log my dinner for tonight into tomorrow's diary entry. That way, I can figure out what to eat for breakfast and lunch tomorrow in order to hit the right goals for the 24 hour period (tonight's dinner through tomorrow's lunch). Then I start over again with tomorrow's dinner going onto the next day's diary. It's much easier for me to control what I eat for breakfast and lunch, so I base those meals on whatever I ate the night before.

I've probably not written the above explanation very clearly so I apologize if it's confusing but I wanted to share it b/c it's been helping me stay within my calorie goals.

Have a good day.

usmcmp

That's actually a really good idea! I'm in charge of the food choices for the most part, but there are times when it might be beneficial to consider something similar.

queenliz99

Nope, I get it! Cool idea!!

jemhh

That is a really good idea!

RoseTheWarrior

Makes good sense! Good thinking!

Anaris2014

That's a brilliant idea. I was doing something similar for a while (but not disciplined enough).

I would enter my evening meal as "breakfast" and count each day as the period between the beginning of my evening meal one day and the beginning of the evening meal the next. Depending on the time I ate dinner, it meant that some days were shorter than others, but it seemed to work for a while.

pebble4321

I get it too - you are shifting your "food diary day" to 6pm Monday to 6pm Tuesday (for example) instead of 12:00 am Monday to 12:59 pm Monday.
Good idea.

puffbrat

I do something like this. My husband and I typically make 2 dinner meals for the week and eat leftovers from those 2 meals the other days. So for instance, the meals are planned and shopped for Saturday. One gets cooked Sunday, eat leftovers Monday, cook other meal Tuesday and alternate leftovers from both meals for the rest of the week until gone. This means some nights I know what will be for dinner and pre-log it to help me plan the rest of my day. Other times, if I'm not sure which will be for dinner, and particularly if they have vastly different macros, then I will pre-log the higher calorie option. That way I can be sure I am saving enough room in my day, and may have room for snacks or dessert later. Our dinners typically range from 300-650 calories per serving.

ridge4mfp

I agree, nice idea. I am lucky, hubby and I plan each night after the weekend grocery trip (he is the cook). I always know what is coming up.

tiffkittyw

That's great you found what works for you. I guess I'm lucky because I create our dinner schedule and have us eating the same things each week so it's easy for me to pre-log an entire week.

rosecropper

Clever!

Jessie24330

I'm the cook so it's not really a problem of not knowing what I'm going to make, so much as how much I'm going to eat! This is an amazing idea and I think I'm going to start logging my dinner as breakfasts so that I know how many extra calories I have to "play" with for the 24 hour period. Will help me a lot from ending up with too little at dinnertime (higher calorie meals sometimes) and either going over my calories or going hungry. Thanks!

Rickster1967

very clever!

newheavensearth

Good idea! In your entries do yoy have your meals labeled by time, like hours (6pm to 8pm for example) instead of "dinner" for example? I've seen that work for people as well. As long as it all falls in 24 hrs it's cool. My downfall is the evening hours.

Thanks for sharing this great idea!

Sunshine_And_Sand

Great idea!