When did it become a habit?

hneagle1

How long did it take you all for logging food to become a permanent habit? I'm curious how long it was until you all got that ahh-ha moment and never quit. I have been going 30 days so far Already feeling happier!

richardgavel

Probably about a month. But I logged EVERY meal, spent that first month on habit reinforcement so that they would become ingrained quickly.

beastmode_kitty

At least a month for me. Now I feel weird if I dont log.

Ninkyou

beastmode_kitty wrote: »

At least a month for me. Now I feel weird if I dont log.

Yeah, pretty much this.

I get kind of antsy if I haven't logged something.

emdeesea

Maybe a month to six weeks. Now it's just second nature.

cwolfman13

Permanent habit? Never. It was just a tool I used for a given time to learn how much I needed to eat. I actually became a little overly and unhealthily obsessed with things for a bit so I stopped logging...haven't logged anything in over three years. I primarily focus on good livin' and treating my body right...getting solid nutrition and regular exercise.

emmaprocopiou

I have been on the mfp carousel a few times now but, logging just clicked this time.
I think because I was really serious about doing it properly ( no fads ,no cutting out food groups , just portion control)
I enjoy logging I don't find it a chore .
I think it gets easier the more you do it as there are more saved foods, more recipies you create and can just tweak as necessary .
I'm rubbish at eyeballing and being small and busy but often tied to my work bench , so sedentary , its easy to eat over maintence and the pounds creep on over time .
Logging and weighing makes it easier for me to eat what I like and still keep trim

Need2Exerc1se

Never. I quit after about a month (m/l)

VintageFeline

After about a month. I think exercise took a little longer (because inherently lazy despite actively enjoying exercise).

I am able to not log though, I think it's important to learn how to do that too or you can get into some tricky territory with unhealthy behaviours.

I need to log though, I am very much prone to calorie creep. I find I can eat at maintenance pretty well now but when losing weight I have to log.

bmayes2014

Its definitely a habit for me now. I'm on day 294. (Now, if I was in a caloric deficit 294 days I'd be much further along, but that's a story for another post). Anyhow, logging does make me accountable.

Like someone else stated, I have been on MFP a number of years and logged and stopped off and on. I never set out to create a streak, I was just committed to logging and seeing a change this time around. Fitness and weight loss is the first thing I think of when I wake (I work out first thing in the a.m.) and the last thing I think of before I go to bed (I think of my little one and I pray as well) but, in general, I am prepping for my morning gym session.

To answer your question, I am not quite sure exactly 'when'. Sometime in the midst of the commitment to weight loss. Maybe a month or two in I suppose

cross2bear

Been at it about 6 months - I think this is one obsessive behaviour that is actually a good idea for me. Its a reinforcement that I am on the right track. I like getting that kind of instant gratification and positive feedback.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

It took around 7 months to make it a habit.

nordlead2005

It wasn't a habit for me, it was a decision. Jun 1st 2015 I decided to track calories and did it every day. There was no trying to make it a habit, I just did it since it was a tool/method I decided to use. It took until Jan/Feb 2016 to hit my target weight and then I went a little further in the push for abs. Over the last 2 months I got super relaxed about it though as I didn't care and was maintaining. I now want to do a last minute cut to get more defined abs before the summer so I'm logging more carefully now.

Alidecker

Never for me, I dread it to this day. When I started I did it all with pen and paper, you would think this would be easier and less of a pain, but I still dread it. There are times when I am really good about it, but then I start feeling obsessive.

akf2000

I find pre-logging the most valuable aspect; planning the week's lunches ahead of time and logging them so I can buy all the bits and pieces and there's no surprises.

endlessfall16

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Never. I quit after about a month (m/l)

Haha...short and direct, but I like it. Good to know all sides.

OP, I logged fine (in first 2 months). It's easy (within certain confinement). No ahh ha moments. However, gradually I ran into "uh oh" moments a lot.

My friends and I ate out at small restaurants a lot. Even when I ate out alone I got conscious about how many cups of cokes I drank or how many chips I ate (Rubio's). I got tired of guessing or trying to remember. I stopped logging and developed another strategy.

Not what you are asking, but I advise that you keep refining your strategy. That's a sportsmen mentality.

Seffell

Several weeks for me. The problem now is I don't know if I'll be able to stop when I'm done.

TheCrawlingChaos

As most have said, it was probably about a month for me, but I've lately been VERY lazy about doing it and have for all intents and purposes, stopped logging. I log my breakfast and lunch weekdays (vaguely... usually i'm not following recipes well enough for them to be accurate), and rarely anything when I get home from work. Weekends I'm lucky if I log anything more than breakfast each day. I think this is mostly because eating healthy consistently has become a much stronger habit and have gotten a "feel" for how many calories of the common foods I eat are worth. I still wish I was better with logging just because I know it's going to come down to a time when my loss stops being consistent and it would be good to be able to point out where my problem was when that happens. I need to re-instantiate the logging habit.

ballyshea

I started trying to lose weight last October. I tried to keep a mental note of what I was eating each day. That didn't work, so I tried paper and pencil. That didn't work either.

In February this year I started using MFP and Fitbit. I was so motivated and found logging so much easier to what I'd done before that it became a habit straightaway. I especially like the food barcode scanner.

Machka9

hneagle1 wrote: »

How long did it take you all for logging food to become a permanent habit? I'm curious how long it was until you all got that ahh-ha moment and never quit. I have been going 30 days so far Already feeling happier!

It's not a permanent habit because I certainly do not intend to keep doing it forever, and in the last 18 months, I've taken 2 fairly lengthy diet breaks where I stopped logging (1 month and 6 weeks).

But when I started logging in February 2015, with the exception of those planned diet breaks, I have logged continually and consistently from Day 1. That's what I'm here for. If I weren't going to log regularly, I wouldn't have bothered signing up for MFP.

Plus it probably helped that I've logged every single kilometre I've cycled since April 29, 1990. I love data.

deniztuzu2

It must have taken couple of months, but I know it is a permanent habit for me now because I just keep logging like second nature, I don't even know my logging streak...(had a look, its 571).

LivingtheLeanDream

I actually got into the habit of logging food very quickly, less than a few weeks.

I am maintaining now 3+ years and only stopped fully logging 6 months ago, which is working great for me. I made new and lasting habits when it came to the foods I ate and quantities, it took about 2 years for me to feel I could eat this way for the rest of my life.

I cut out no foods, logging initially helped me with portion size and which foods were high calorie etc. I eat everything but in moderation.

Derpy_Hooves

It became a habit as soon as I realised it worked (back in 2011). And became pretty obsessive with it too LOL.
I logged for about a year I think, then I stopped logging but I did check in every day, kept the app on my phone just as a little reminder -I'd lost the weight at that stage. That did the trick.
Eventually about a year ago, I deleted my profile and the app. Could do it without MFP.

And guess what, I'm back now.

JeromeBarry1

gebeziseva wrote: »

Several weeks for me. The problem now is I don't know if I'll be able to stop when I'm done.

You're not supposed to stop when you reach goal. That's when you switch to maintain. You still must be mindful with your consumption to actually maintain without gain.

Sharon_C

A month or so. I've been logging for 4 years and have no intention of stopping. I need it to keep me on track and honest or I'll convince myself that piece of cheesecake really wasn't that bad Because I've been doing it for so long it's super easy now and takes me a few minutes every day. My food list is pretty extensive

JustAnotherOneOfThoseGirls

almost instantaneous for me, although I was keeping a hand written food diary from the age of about 12 (I was a competitive athlete), which was very time consuming and arduous, so discovering there was an app that made it so much easier a couple years later was a godsend

2011rocket3touring

For me it didn't take long. My brain thinks this is some kind of video game, where the goal is to try to match the calorie/macro number each day and my "level" is the amount of weight I lose.

Seffell

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

Several weeks for me. The problem now is I don't know if I'll be able to stop when I'm done.

You're not supposed to stop when you reach goal. That's when you switch to maintain. You still must be mindful with your consumption to actually maintain without gain.

I said "when I'm done", not "when I reach my goal".

SezxyStef

gebeziseva wrote: »

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

gebeziseva wrote: »

Several weeks for me. The problem now is I don't know if I'll be able to stop when I'm done.

You're not supposed to stop when you reach goal. That's when you switch to maintain. You still must be mindful with your consumption to actually maintain without gain.

I said "when I'm done", not "when I reach my goal".

so what does "when I am done" mean then?

Shells918

It was immediate for me. I tracked my food from my weight watchers days so MFP was a relief to have online and on my phone. I love seeing what I ate, the macros, and seeing what I can fit into my day. I don't see myself stopping, because when I stopped paying attention, I stopped eating correctly.

sunnybeaches105

It never has become a habit. I use it as a tool when I need to and I still dislike it, to be completely honest. It is very effective though and sometimes we all just have to suck it up.