What is your gameplan for the day?

KDApellidoAqui

Do you plan out your day? Does this help?

AnnPT77

To some extent, I think that this is related to a person's personality.

Many people here pre-log their day, or even some longer time period like a week. They're basically creating an eating plan for themselves. Some probably stick with that plan quite strictly, but based on reading posts here, I know that others will modify the plan somewhat based on what really happens on the day. Some variation on pre-logging may be the most common way here, but I'm not sure.

Frequently, people who like to pre-log will recommend pre-logging to new people on MFP because it has worked so very well for them.

In contrast, I don't plan out my days, at least not mostly. That's been true since I started here over 9 years ago (for weight loss followed by maintenance). Especially early on, I would sometimes pre-log my last meal of the day to make sure my calorie/nutrition totals ended up where I wanted them. After a while, I rarely needed to do that.

I don't eat the exact same things daily, but I have general eating patterns that I repeat, and I have reasonable intuition at this point about whether I'm not likely hit my goals. Also, now (after a long time of successfully maintaining my weight in a healthy range), I don't worry about a truly rare day here or there when I don't hit my goals by a lot, let alone a more common day where I'm close but not exact.

That's a drop in the ocean, and my daily routine habits are the ocean. The majority of my days will determine the majority of my results. At first, I was more careful, because I was still working on finding the best habits/patterns for me.

I do some very general planning (not detail food logging). For example, if there's a big food-centric holiday coming up, I might eat a little lighter for a few days ahead to "bank" some calories that I can "spend" on the holiday meal. If I have a restaurant dinner coming up on a day, I'll probably go with a lighter breakfast/lunch that day, maybe even think about including a bit more active fun earlier that day if that seems good and works with my schedule. I do tend to look at restaurant menus online ahead of time for unfamiliar places, so I'm not making quick impulsive decisions at the restaurant.

But that's just what works for me. Here, I'm going to come back to that personality idea. I'm pretty much a hedonistic aging hippie flake, impulsive about what I feel like eating. It's not unusual for me to be making dinner, and change my mind about what I'm making - I was thinking enchiladas, but head for making stew as I start pulling out ingredients and prepping them, for example. That's part of what keeps me happy. (It would drive some other people crazy. )

Other people will feel more happy and confident with a plan mapped out, even if they modify the plan a bit when the day/meal arrives. They like knowing the menu plan. It helps them grocery shop as well as helping them hit calorie/nutrition goals.

You may have an idea already about what would be most suited to your individual style. If so, try it. If not, experiment.

One option that's somewhat popular here is to spend a week or two just logging what you eat now, without trying to change anything. For many of us - me included - some easy, positive changes jumped right out from doing that.

For me, for sure, it was immediately obvious that some foods "cost" too many calories for the enjoyment, nutrition, fullness, etc., that I was getting from them. Those were easy things to reduce (portions or frequency) or eliminate. Then I just kept tweaking from there to find those new, happy permanent routine daily eating patterns I mentioned above.

I think you can figure out what works best for you, if you experiment, try things, discard what doesn't work out, try something different until you dial in a good personal routine. Even things that don't work aren't a personal failure, they're just helping you cross off tactics that don't work so you can go on with finding ones that do work. Recognizing things that don't work is a productive part of the process.

As long as you keep working at that patiently and persistently, I predict you'll succeed. Only giving up the effort results in actual failure. So keep going!

I'm cheering for you to succeed: The results are worth the effort.

Corina1143

I can only answer for me.
I am a night owl.
It's easy for me to check the fridge at night and come up with all kinds of good things to make out of what's in the fridge. In the early morning, I can barely figure out how to get a glass of water. Not a morning person.
So I check the fridge at night and log what I "could have" tomorrow. Not what I should have or what I WILL HAVE. It helps me a lot. I will usually reach for what I have logged instead of chips, crackers, or just something until I wake up enough to think about what I really want.
Same thing when I'm overly tired. Like when I travel. I log frozen dinners or something easy before I leave on my trip for 3 days after I get home. It's not written in stone, but it's an easy way to keep me out of mcdonald's drive thru cause I'm just too tired to think about cooking.