Icing and BBQ Ribs

cheyeneinthesprings

So I always get frustrated when I can't log accurately. Long story short...I woke up this morning, made myself a salad with feta, strawberry, chicken thighs...all weighed portions. I entered it into myfitnesspal and life was good. But then entered the curve-ball into my day. There was cake at lunch so I had a piece and mostly ate the icing. Then, my husband calls and says he wants to barbecue ribs tonight for dinner. I have NO idea how to log these two items. The package of the ribs will be gone once I eat them and who knows about the icing.
How does everyone stay as accurate as possible? Or are you accurate on some things and not others? Maybe everyone is 80% accurate and this is enough to win the game. I'm just interested in what others do in this situation. The frustration makes me want to quit.

lennyz2014

Never quit

cwolfman13

For the ribs, you can weigh your portion and then weigh the bones after the fact and the difference would be the weight of the food you consumed which you can look up in the database...probably something like "USDA ribs cooked".

Personally, my deal was to be good enough, not perfectly accurate.

AliceDark

Being 80% accurate over a long period of time is far better than trying to be 100% accurate (which is impossible, btw) for a very short period of time, then quitting and being 0% accurate.

steveko89

I'd be lying if I said that not being able to weigh things gives me anxiety. I dislike eating out or at friends' houses as a result; I'm not looking forward to this coming weekend when we'll have four-five meals outside of my control (dinner party, out of town wedding, mothers' day activities) that won't be weighed portions.

That being said, you have to understand that sometimes life is just going to happen. I make a concerted effort to weigh spot-on, plan and pre-log as many meals as are in my control and try to not let my anxiety get the better of me when I can't. When I can't, I just make a best guess based on what looks comparable in the database and will often err on the side of higher calories/bigger portions.

It took a little while to get on the same page as my wife (who isn't about weighing, logging, etc.) to have a plan for dinner each night that morning so I knew what I had to work with for breakfast and lunch, and to remind her to weigh pre-cooked portions of protein if she was the one preparing dinner. I'm also boring AF and eat roughly the same amount of the same things for breakfast and lunch, and vary dinner very little compared to most. If it bothers you as much as it does me, mention it to your husband that you want to try to be better about planning dinners at least by that morning so you can set your day accordingly.

Regarding the ribs specifically, I would take the meat off the bone and weigh your portion, do some digging to find calories for cooked pork/rib meat and take a swing at it that way rather than the typical database entry of "3 bones"

wastatem0m

The online records are tools to use but shouldn't create stress nor a feeling of wanting to quit. I lean towards OCD and can easily get frustrated if things aren't "just so!" I just keep reminding myself that this is a helpful tool to track my food, drink, and exercise consumption and it helps me to remember that it's all about being conscientious of the food I eat and not about being perfect. I make entries the best that I can and let go of the rest. I also think that it's important to know that this new way of eating is forever. Diets don't exist unless you like your original weight and even want more once eating "normally" again. Proper nutrition is forever and as long as I'm conscientious about my eating, I'll be able to live this new way of eating forever. Dips and valleys of success is the way of life. Embrace them and remember that you too deserve a break!

midlomel1971

Your weight loss journey will ALWAYS have curveballs. You can't avoid them, so just accept that it happens. Just log it best you can and move on. If you quit you will like reverse all the progress you've made. It's better a tiny step back instead of a giant leap. Plus, the occasional icing and ribs are not going to derail you unless you let them.

kimny72

Find Duncan Hines frosting in the database and log one serving. Will it be accurate? Maybe not. But it will be closer than not logging it at all.

As someone else mentioned, you can weight the cooked ribs and then weigh the bones after. If you were eating at someone else's house, you could guesstimate, or you could find a chain restaurant ribs entry and use that.

Once you get more experienced at logging it gets easier to handle the curveballs. I also find prelogging, or at least thinking about how I would log this, often keeps me from random, hard to log snacking like office cake

Hang in there!

dsboohead

Not perfect??? Heck who is?! You make the best and true to youself choice with the mfp food log entries that are presented to you....NO EXCUSE OF QUITTING!!!

cheyeneinthesprings

Thanks for the advice. I logged what I thought was correct. I know I will get better over time!