Hi

happy2312

Hi, new here. Joined today and ready to start this. I have plenty of weight to lose but plenty of life to gain. Bit about me- 35, SAHM to one bub, exercise atm is walking, hoping to start yoga, skipping, weights and frisbee again soon! Looking forward to this challenge, where is everyone from? I live in Australia, about half hour out of Sydney!

happy2312

Feeling a little lonely in here!! I think logging food is going to be hard and tiresome but I feel I am up for the challenge. I just have to remember to weigh foods before cooking them or putting them into my mouth. I have already had a play around weighing food, going to take a while to remember to weigh everything, although maybe not, I have the scales on the bench where I prepare food so hopefully I will remember to use them!

michelleneli

Hi, I'm Michelle. I sent you a friends request. Good luck to you.

lizwizCYLS

I'm from Canada EH! & have been working straight midnights since August of 1989.

You won't find logging foods you commonly use difficult at all....you weigh it once then the handy-dandy Recent & Frequent lists that MFP generates with your data means you can just click it to add it to any meals

One trick I learned was to always try posting my food before I eat it....if I don't like what it does to my daily totals it helps me to resist actually putting it in my mouth in the 1st place....I do lots of deleting LOL

Also depending on your weight do be really carefull about skipping or any other activity like running that pounds that weight into the ground through your knees & hips....all that pounding destroyed my knees & now I'm waiting for the stem cell solutions to get out of human trials so I can regenerate

Lammo_UK

Hi & good luck with your journey.

There is some good advice on the boards to help you on your way.

The logging is worth the effort & the idea of logging before you eat it is a great idea, I think I will start that before I put more cake into my mouth!!

lizwizCYLS

Hi & good luck with your journey.

There is some good advice on the boards to help you on your way.

The logging is worth the effort & the idea of logging before you eat it is a great idea, I think I will start that before I put more cake into my mouth!!

ya...I did that before having my Peanut Butter & Cheez Whiz on Whole Wheat Brown as a "snack"....it took up 430 of my remaining 434 calories for that day....drank a couple of cups of water instead to tide me over 'til I could get to real food for my 3rd meal after sleep....was worth having that scare eh!

motormouse81

Hi happy, I'm in Oz too I totally agree with liwiz's advice, I log before I eat too. It helps me plan my day and helps me figure out if I can afford to have x y or z. If not, then I need to get some exercise in, then maybe I can afford it!

The logging can be daunting in the beginning but I find it fun and makes me feel like I have some power over my food for the first time. And its not a perfect science, so don't beat yourself up if you find yourself approximating foods etc, use it as a guide.

Feel free to add me, hopefully we can help each other stay motivated!

happy2312

Thanks to those who replied.
Thank you lizwiz for your heads up on skipping, I guess I hadn't thought of what all this extra weight could do to my joints. I used to skip almost daily in 2012, I was 30kgs lighter then so I didn't have a problem with my joints being jarred!

Logging doesn't seem so bad after hearing from you all, and having foods in a list that is quick to go too does sound handy. I think this is going to be very achievable. :-)

Chelseraptor

Hi, I'm Chelsey! I sent you a request!

OperationZoe

Hello! I also log everything for the day before I eat, so when I'm out and about I know if I fancy something whether to have it or hold out till I get home.
Good luck with your journey I've been going this just over a week now and things are ever so slowly clicking. Zoë x

lemurcat12

I think logging food is going to be hard and tiresome but I feel I am up for the challenge. I just have to remember to weigh foods before cooking them or putting them into my mouth. I have already had a play around weighing food, going to take a while to remember to weigh everything, although maybe not, I have the scales on the bench where I prepare food so hopefully I will remember to use them!

Welcome! I'm in Chicago and a relative newbie to using the site actively, but an enthusiastic one. I kind of thought the same as you say here about logging at first too, and started by basically just estimating stuff (didn't have a food scale) and figured it was too much work to get precise. Now I really like both the logging and the weighing. It's interesting and second nature.

It helps that MFP makes it really easy. The database is great, although it has quirks that you will learn (there's a really good post about how to weigh your food around somewhere), and also once you log something you can make it a favorite or just find it in recently logged foods.

I keep my food scale on the counter and weighing is just a quick step after chopping or before putting something in a pan. I kind of like just knowing what's 100 gs of broccoli or whatever, even where the calorie count isn't going to be much different than just eyeballing it.

Anyway, I hope you like the MFP approach. IMO what makes it so useful is that it is based on information--you can really look back and see what's working and what's not, where you are getting extra calories or what your macronutrients are or what items have lots of sodium, etc.

Feel free to send me a friend request if you are interested in more friends.

lizwizCYLS

ya I find every time I think I can get away with unsalted butter or peanut butter it's another sneaky 400 calories for 4 tbs all together while my light 37% less fat cheez whiz (my favourite anyway) comes in at a measly 120 calories for 4 tbs SOOO I put that on baked potatoe or veggies or with chopped green onions in a sandwich in my log....eyeball the difference & put away the PB or butter eh!