Menu Planning

Elisabeth928

I would like to preplan my daily food in the same setting as the diary. I suppose I could put what I plan to eat in the diary but i wish there was a way to indicate "this is what I plan to eat." Then I could adjust and check what I actually ate that becomes the diary. The diary feels like past tense. Indicating as preplanning then a chance to indicate I did eat what i planned would be huge psychologically because it would it would show to myself I did what I said I would do.

LorieJCall

How about naming one of your custom meals something like "Planned"? All your food items would first go into the Planned meal, then as you eat them, you edit the item to change the meal. Whatever's left in Planned at the end of your day wasn't consumed, which you may or may not want to reflect on.

Another possibility might be to put them in the appropriate meal without setting the timestamp when you plan, then set the timestamp after they've been eaten. Similarly, whatever doesn't have a timestamp at the end of your day may or may not need reflection.

These possibilities might not be as elegant as what you had in mind, but they might be good enough for a while. Good luck to you!

lornamarie57

I like your idea a lot. If this was a tool available I'd use it

goal06082021

What about pre-logging your day doesn't work for you as-is? Is it an issue of not remembering whether you ate exactly what you planned and only that, or is the physical act of checking things off a list just really motivating for you? (Valid if so! Just asking.)

If it's the first thing - I made a plan but I'm not sure if I followed it - you may find it helpful to look into meal prepping techniques. Even if you're just portioning out your planned snacks, like in little containers or baggies, doing that may help you build mindfulness in this way. In addition to pre-logging my whole day in advance like a prix fixe menu, I also have my breakfast and lunch (and occasionally dinner) already prepared and portioned out; all I need to do is pick up the package and eat the contents, I've already accounted for the calories.

Elisabeth928

Prelogging I like. I would like a checkbox that I did eat what I said and could check the box and it becomes the actual diary entry. The act of checking the box is the motivation because I kept my commitment to myself.

shinigan

I agree this needs to be a feature. I'm a longtime Spark People user and there, you plan your food for the day/week, then checkbiff the food as you eat. The food isn't "logged" until you check it. I also like that they have a shopping list feature, so you can plan a week or two ahead, print out a shopping list, and check off the food as you actually eat.

Hudson

I'm a big fan of pre-logging too, so this would be a cool option to have. It helps me get an idea on making sure I'm hitting my goals without needing to make those decisions in the moment. Hopefully product agrees with us!

AnnPT77

I can see how this would be helpful for some.

If they decide to do this, I hope it wouldn't be the only way it could be done. I pretty much never pre-plan (for the whole nearly 7 years I've been here!), so checking things off after adding them would just be an extra step.