Keeping Myself Accountable

MFPfriend

I did it! I finally found a way to keep myself accountable for my actions.
First, a little background: I have slight OCD, which is good in this case. I used to print out my food diary EVERYDAY and glue it into a spiral notebook. I lost 40 pounds when I was doing it. It forced me to look at the numbers in a tangible sense. And since I'm slightly OCD, having an empty page in the notebook would bother me like no other! I can see why it helped me lose 40 pounds- I had to be accountable for everything that I put in my mouth.

Well, a few days (maybe a week) ago, I posted a thread asking for help in keeping me accountable. Seeing the numbers on the screen didn't bother me. I didn't really care. I soon felt myself losing motivation... thinking "Hey, it's a helluva lot easier to stuff a cheeseburger in my mouth than it is to prepare a healthy dinner and log it." I had to stop doing the notebook trick because it was a huge waste of resources and money (Grrr at those darn ink prices!). I've been up all night thinking of a way to hold myself to my numbers.

I finally found a way to force myself to look at my numbers (without a huge cost).
Here it is:



I calculate the amount of calories I should be eating weekly (I add my exercise), then get a nice number to look at.
After that, I write down (daily) how much I ate. On day 7, I add up my weekly calories that I ate.
Then, I subtract my weekly total from my weekly maintenance (14000) to get a weekly calorie deficit.
I divide my weekly calorie deficit by 3500 to get a projected weight loss total.
Then I weigh in, and look at the projected number and the real number. If there's something wrong, I go and look at my diary to see what could be the problem, and I learn from it.

Sorry for the huge ramble, but I'm super excited!

P.S.- If you can't tell, I'm a numbers kind of person.

EDIT- changed the picture so it is no longer backwards. Stupid webcam, lol.

Naokoheart

It looks complicated I was never a math person,lol

MFPfriend

It looks complicated I was never a math person,lol

Haha, sorry.
I just realized the whole page is practically numbers, lol.
I can't tell the difference between the numbers and the letters, haha.

MrsBattousai

Hey!

I love that, I'm like ocd as well I'm so obessed with the food dairy and ways to change it to make it better for me. I'm going to try that out tks alot that great!

funkyspunky871

I've been doing the same thing for a couple of weeks, so I guess I'm a little OCD too. Except.... Well, maybe a little more than you at this rate. I calculate my deficits for each day like over and over and over to make sure they're right and then I add them up as the days pass by (over and over) , and add extra exercise to my days to make the calorie deficit a little bit larger if I know I'm not going to eat very well the next day... (Excuse me, july 4th! :drinker: ) I just experiment with my deficits like for an hour at a time. "If I stay at 1300 this day, and go to 1400 hundred the next, I can still get a total of 7000 at the end of the week"

It's fun though. Keeps me entertained!