How to Log in on Bad Days

darkrose20

Log it anyway. I use it as a lerning tool.

Joanne_happygramma

I apologize if I am repeating someone else but the best thing someone else put on my blog about this subject.
"What we eat in private, we wear in public"

That more than anything keeps me motivated to record -- EVERYTHING

tators19

This was surprisingly helpful. Thanks guys!

angel_of_harmony

It's like when you pull a band-aid off; I just rip it off as fast as I can and move on. Every day is a new day and I try to learn from my mistakes.

1stday13

I change the contrast settings on my monitor until the red numbers are green.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Thats one way to do it :drinker:

Francl27

I log everything. It's actually useful to see how much over I go, and otherwise I would have no idea if I'm even at a deficit for the week/month or not.

cholepapi

I log everything....I'm not freaken perfect so if I mess up, I clean it and move on........:D

SonicDeathMonkey80

I never report my food/exercise on the days where I ate poorly and didn't exercise. I hate watching all my calories go into the red - I know the answer to this problem is to eat better/less and to exercise more. How do you log in on days likes this?

Well that's a good strategy. If you don't log it, it's like it magically never happened!

Log it. Move on. Sheesh.

MB_Positif

You must not want to learn from your mistakes.

erialcelyob

I find them difficult to log because I pretty much eat everything in sight

ParkerH47

I love this thread! I log all of my food...but I do, occasionally "roll" my calories to the next day. So, for example, if I have an average breakfast and snack day, a big-ish lunch, and then get home and everyone else in my family wants pizza, I don't necessarily sit sulking in the corner with my salad that I had planned to have...I will maybe have 2 pieces of pizza, put one on the day I'm actually in and one in the next day. Then I start the next day already KNOWING that I have a slice of pizza to overcome...it's right there in my numbers...so I do an extra work out or I make sure I eat a lighter lunch or something. It's encouraging for me to see the numbers in the green, so this keeps me from feeling like a bad day was SUCH a bad day. Now, I have only been here for 1 month, but I will say I am starting to be more okay with red numbers some days because i have started to see some real results and I know I am eating at a large deficit. So, going over by 45 calories isn't going to break my spirit at this point, if you know what I mean. Also, there are times when I think I've had a really horrible day that, once I log, it wasn't as bad as I expected.

So, long story short, I agree with everyone else who said the key thing is to log everything...good, bad and ugly...so you have a real picture of what you are putting in your body.

I never thought to do this! kinda brilliant! its not something I would do all the time but it certainly takes the daily burden off of going over calories - like today for easter dinner

maskedbelleza

Consider reframing those days in the bigger picture or in the context of a week. One bad day in a week is not going to overthrow an entire week's worth of progress. If you went over a little one day, do a little less over the next two days. No need to keep punishing yourself over one over-calorie-goal day.

You do need to log them though. It's part of the process of accountability. Otherwise how will you see patterns in your eating behavior or be reminded that you need to scale back? These things are the tools that make MFP so successful.

Good luck.

I think this is the best way I've ever seen this said.

milik617

I to am extremely guilty of this, however I am really unsure of how to log when I go out to eat. I have no idea how many calories is in the complicated meal from the non chain restaurant I went too. What do you all recommend?

bwogilvie

I just face my choices. Not logging it doesn't change what I have chosen nor will it change the consequences. It will not help me change my behavior.

Denial is useless.

Nicely put! The log is a record of what you have already done. Not logging means you're just avoiding admitting to yourself what you did. I do like to think of my log as a weekly log, not a daily log. Some days I know I'll go over my log, but I try to compensate on the other days.

pinkraynedropjacki

That is he whole point of logging, to hold yourself accountable. If you are not logging your bad days then why are you here?

Tblackdogs

I have a different approach. I usually allow myself one day a week (usually a weekend day) as a "cheat" day and I don't bother logging. I eat well six days a week and stay within my calorie limits easily. But I don't want to live my life limited and "dieting" so I try to be looser one day a week. So far it has not affected my weight loss at all. I don't log for other people, I log for myself and doing so has taught me a lot about portion control and accountability. Different things work for different people!

sargessexyone

Log it. It may not always be as bad as you think it is.

GiveMeCoffee

I log everything, good, bad and the ugly, it's the only way to get good data. If I only log the good days how can I look back to see where I can improve, or a reminder of oh yea you ate too much so when the scale jumps I can remember oh it was the 500 or more day in chocolate.

If you put bad data in you get useless information out.

dandelyon

I am another person who looks at the whole week so I have to log every bite or I blow 7 days worth of data. But yes, it's harder on days that I overeat.

amirahdaboss

Binge days, which happen more often than I'm willing to admit, I find extremely hard to log, but I estimate approximately how many calories I ate, log it, cry about it for a couple hours, then I get right back on track