how to stick to this logging and willpower

colleeg

hi all
just giving this another shot! how do you all keep on logging and not lose interest?
I find logging dinners tricky when there is lots of ingredients, I do a fair bit of mindless eating and forge to log it, then my day is ruined!
Any tricks for logging and keeping strong, what about if your out, its so easy to blow your calories.
thanks.

Joannesmith2818

I think after a while logging becomes easier, once you have those recipes down!

I just remind myself why I am doing this and how important keeping track is. Also I have forged some great friendships on here, so I also don't want to let them down.

So now its just part of my routine

nicoleisback

I find logging my meals just before I eat them allows me to keep in mind what I am eating.

One of my major weaknesses is mindlessly eating while I am on the computer, so I make an effort to not eat unless I can concentrate on what I am doing. Sometimes if I feel like crunch anyway, I eat ice chips at the computer. No calories that way

beachlover317

I keep logging and doing what I am doing because I am not willing to quit. I get up every day, plan my meals, and then get in the gym. At first, I didn't feel like it some days. Many people on MFP said - just do it. Just do it. So, I just did it and it has finally become "part of me". It's about building habits. The only way to do that is to make yourself do it.

When you are ready to lose weight - you will.

Whiskeytub

Hi!

You're right, it is a huge adjustment to log and track eerything, but you have to look at it in terms of the payoff. The first couple of weeks for me were awkward and unpleasant as I struggled through getting into a logging routine, and more importantly, learned which foods were filling and low-cal vs ones which were high in calories and burned off quickly. They're often surprising. For instance, cereal is very high in calories without being very filling at all.

My advice: Do log everything.
-When you're out and about, keep a notepad to write down everything you eat. Everything. I don't have a cell phone, but if you have a smart phone, you can get a MFP app for it which is even better because then you can see how many calories are in what you're about to eat BEFORE you eat it and then make the choice. One of the ways that logging all of your food helps you to eat less calories is the simple fact that logging is a slightly annoying effort and sometimes that's enough to let you know that you weren't actually as hungry as you thought.

-Put your recipes in to MFP before you cook the food. That way, you can try to adjust the recipe to lower the calories by using less oil for cooking or swapping out ingredients, for a lower calorie substitute if necessary. If you're eating out a lot, look at all of the ingredients that are in the food and remember that restaurants are MUCH freer with fats than people who cook at home. It makes the food taste better which keeps us coming back.

-Excersize. Logging your excersize will give you more calories to work with. It's a good thing.

-Be patient. It will take you a couple of weeks to adjust to this style of eating, but if you can get into a groove with it, it's really not so bad. Learning which foods are calorically more worthwhile takes some time, but it's worth it to go throught he process.

Edit: Most importantly, be honest. MFP is not here to judge you, it's a tool. The only effects of not logging are negative effects. If you don't log everything, the program won't work.

_Zardoz_

Have your scales on the kitchen side and weigh as you go along. I use my tablet to enter stuff. It takes seconds. If you can't enter as you go use a piece of paper. After a short while it's just habit and you will have the most common recipes entered to make it easier. I also find the majority of things I use daily are under the most frequent tab.

You can't keep motivated all the time no one can and you need to accept that. What you do though is get so used to it that it's habit and doing any other thing would be wrong. The only thing that can motivate you is your self and the positive long term change this will make for you

lauren3101

Ultimately, logging is a very small part of the commitment to weight loss.

Once you have built up a few weeks worth of food it will get easier, as you can select them from the list MFP saves for you rather than searching for items. Also, save recipes for things with many ingredients.

As for the mindless eating, the simple solution is don't mindlessly eat! Pre-log your day, work out your meals and snacks, and stick to that.

colleeg

thanks so much to all of you that have replied!
you are all so motivated and seem to have made this a lifestyle change, I think I just need to give it some time, I like that you can use the app on your smart phone when out and about.
I know a fair few people that have done this and make it work, just want it to work for me !
thanks again for your ideas :happy:

rondaj05

The data base in MFP is huge! Depending on where you eat you might find the food is already in the data base. I haven't eaten out yet since I started, I haven't run into that problem yet!

Do you log with a computer or your phone? I use both, the phone app has a bar code scanner, it's a great tool!! If I'm eating something I haven't eaten yet or can't find in the data base I scan the bar code and adjust the serving if I'm using less/more. My job is office/desk work, I'm the computer all day so have MFP on my work computer too. I rarely have time to eat before I leave home so I eat and log both breakfast and lunch at work. I also plan in advance what I'm going to eat during the week, since there's not always a lot of variety in what I eat it's usually pretty simple for me to enter my foods bc they're already in my diary when I go to enter them.

Good Luck!! :flowerforyou:

mcibty

I just do it because I am serious about my weight and health.

tilliefarie

I like the ideas of prelogging your day and or logging before you eat, thanks to those who shared! Iwant to share something a friend of mine did and some times i use: after a week of daily logging and meeting calorie goals, allow yourself a day off of logging food. Still make those healthychoices, but relax a little. I feel like after all the work i did, its ok as long as i use what i have learned about eatting even if i didnt log it. Careful though not to fall into the trap of not logging anytime it is convienet! For me it is only sundays and only if i met my calorie goals all week! Good luck!

Billybegood

I'm on day 13 now but am finding pre-logging my food a brilliant way of doing it, it's keeping me on the straight and narrow cause i know i can have things at certain times xx

Francl27

I log everything before I eat it... it's just habit at this point. That way I can't 'forget' to log.

For dinner, if I do a recipe, I enter it in the recipe calculator and use it. Nobody's going to do it if I don't, and it's my weight loss... I'd only be sabotaging myself if I did it half a**ed.

karenjefferies50

Just remaining focussed is the hardest part.
I find that by logging everything I eat during the day makes me think twice before I reach for a biscuit for example. It makes me stop and think "do I have enough left in my calorie intake for this" or "how much exercise am I going to have to do to burn this off".
A wise friend once told me that it takes 21 days to form a habit - just keep at it.....