Food Logging little bits due to WLS

Holly_penguin

Okay, here is my problem. Sometimes I just need a bite of something to stop the hungries and I don't know how to log for them withour making myself insane. Here are the facts:
1. I really don't like being tied to a smart device, so logging needs to be easy
2. I sometimes get REALLY frustrated with any website if it becomes cumbersome, stalls, is slow...really anything
3. Even facebook and pinterest (and I LOVE pinterest)
4. Sometimes I just need a bite and I dont want to pull out a measuring spoon/scale/smart device
5. i don't particularly trust MFP "added extra calories feature" but I use it nonetheless
6. Food can't be too spicy. I add siracha sauce to my buffalo flavored hummus
7. I was starving last night before bed, while prepping for lunch today
8. I had 4 oz crystal light mojito (LOVE IT!)
9. Procedded to add 1/4 c siracha to tub of buffalo hummus
10. Licked mixing spoon before putting in dishwasher
11. Ate 4 or so grapes while washing them
12. Puledl off a piece of leftover french toast (about 1/4 of slice) added a bit of ginger curd...ate it
13. Felt full...mission accomplished
14. this morning, struggling with determining calorie count on that food. There is no MFP measurement for licked spoon of hummus, half a handful of grapes and smidgen of toast and curd.
15.does anyone else have these issue?
16. if so, how to you deal with it?

Thanks.

Tristaan

I don't think there's a way around it...if you are logging your food, you log EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth. If I can't measure it or weigh it, I don't eat it, with the exception of things that are truly zero calories. All those little spoonfuls here and there add up. For me at least, this would be a very dangerous habit to get back into. Today it's grapes, tomorrow it's chocolate, or crackers, or something else with more calories. If you don't want the hassle of measuring, you could take the time to really train yourself to eye up portions so you can easily guess that a spoonful of hummus is about a tablespoon (or however big your spoons are). Of course, that means committing to measuring in the short term.

Holly_penguin

I know you are right.

BLAH! If weight loss were easy, we'd all be a size 2...right?

It's not even that I'm lazy so much as I am a ludite. Technology angers me while simultaneously helping me. I'm sure my ancestors millions of years ago railed against how much trouble the wheel was, and how it's just easier to walk...while using fire to cook yummy delicious spicy hummus covered mastadon or some such thiing.

garber6th

I don't think there's a way around it...if you are logging your food, you log EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth. If I can't measure it or weigh it, I don't eat it, with the exception of things that are truly zero calories. All those little spoonfuls here and there add up. For me at least, this would be a very dangerous habit to get back into. Today it's grapes, tomorrow it's chocolate, or crackers, or something else with more calories. If you don't want the hassle of measuring, you could take the time to really train yourself to eye up portions so you can easily guess that a spoonful of hummus is about a tablespoon (or however big your spoons are). Of course, that means committing to measuring in the short term.

+1

I think not logging and being loose with the snacking could lead to getting back into dangerous habits. Sometimes I catch myself tasting while I cook, and I have tried to stop even that, because those little tastes can add up. For me, weighing, measuring, and logging are musts to keep me on track. It could be too easy for control over food to slip away without keeping track.

sue100194

My doctor's office calls that grazing and it's a strict no-no. It's another hard habit to break...licking the spoon or sampling a bite here and there. But if you can't call it a meal and log it, don't eat it. I resisted logging for a long time too but when I don't log, I don't lose and that's the biggest motivation for me. At least that was true before surgery and is probably true for me after surgery as well. Somewhere I read this quote... "100% is easy. 99% is a B%*tch" (might have been on these boards). Well, i wouldn't go so far as to call completely giving up a habit (100%) like licking a spoon "easy", it is easier to never do it than to sometimes do it and have to keep giving it up all over again.

pawoodhull

I agree with Tristaan. If it goes in your mouth, log it. You said a 1/4 piece of french toast? This one is easy. If you have logged that before, change the portion from 1 to .25 and the little bit you put on it, a teaspoon or a 1/2 teaspoon? It's not really hard, but then you already know that. I also agree with everyone else here that if you are grazing as you pack a lunch, it will add up and then you are over calories without realizing it.

There are days when I need a little something before bed. I will grab a slice of deli meat, ham or turkey, and eat that. It's just enough to satisfy the need to eat and good for me. It's also 1/4 of the normal 4 slice protion. Easy to log. You might want to have things like that around if it makes it easier to log accurately.

Snacking as we cook and calling it "tasting", grazing as we pack and prepare, "just a taste" here and there are all things that helped us all get to where we were pre-surgery. My mantra is, if it goes in my mouth, it goes on my log. And since my log is open to my friends, I can't begin to tell you how knowing my friends can see it, keeps me in check some days! :laugh:

Holly_penguin

I agree with you all and wrote this post hoping to get this much needed kick in the bum.

That being said, does anyone ever feel like they are a slave to food/logging food. Since I've always been overweight and have been on forced and voluntary diets constantly since age 12 I don't know if this is "normal" for most of the population.

I feel like everyday is consumed by at least 1/3 of my waking hours by:

*what am I going to eat
*when am I going to eat*
*logging
*shopping for what I'm going to eat
*preparing what I'm going to eat
*when am I going to exercise
*what exercise am I going to do
*how long am I going to exercise
*feeling guilty I didn't exercise
*feeling guilty I didn't exercise long enough
*feeling guilty I didn't do the right exercises
*logging the exercise
*weighing what I'm going to eat
*cleaning up from what I've prepared
*cleaning up form what I've cooked/eaten
*putting away groceries
*keeping a shopping list of what I need
*measuring what I'm going to eat
*making MFP recipes
*logging MFP recipes
*searching for most applicable choice from MFP pull down menu
*second guessing calorie counts
*second guessing excercise calories
*being sure not 30 minutes before eating to have drink
*waiting 30 minutes after eating to drink again
*carefully chewing
*carefully swallowing
*carefully waiting for unexpected possible bad reaction to eating
*making good choices
*feeling guilty about bad choices
*feeling guilty about good choices

I don't want food/eating to control my life, but it seems like it is/does some days. I know it's a journey. I know it's a tool not a cure. I know all that. But I wonder if people who haven't been chronicly overweight their whole lives ever feel like they have this huge burden/curse? Becasue in my warped personal fat-brain; I look at people who don't have weight problems and think "you have it so easy, you have no idea how much time and work and energy I have to devote to staying healthy"

I worry being this consumed by food/eating is it's own sort of eating disorder. I know I've gone off topic, but sometimes the onion has more layers than you realized before you cut into it.

garber6th

I don't feel like a slave to food and logging food as much as I feel like I am doing what I need to do to be successful. That said, I can relate to how you feel about all the little things involved. I was on the phone with one of my friends one evening and she asked what I was up to. I told her, the usual - went to work, went to the gym, came home and weighed and measured and ate and logged food then weighed and measured and logged what I was going to eat the next day and most weekends I shop and cook and measure and freeze portions to be prepared for the week, etc. It's time consuming but I am sure in the old days I spent just as much time going out and buying junk and sitting around at home eating it

Ujj7

Thank You for the thread, I'm on my 21st day of logging presurgery, longest I've ever gone being completely honest with my intake.
I hope I can follow your examples and continue to be true on the rest of my journey post op.

stroynaya

Okay, here is my problem. Sometimes I just need a bite of something to stop the hungries and I don't know how to log for them withour making myself insane. Here are the facts:
1. I really don't like being tied to a smart device, so logging needs to be easy
2. I sometimes get REALLY frustrated with any website if it becomes cumbersome, stalls, is slow...really anything
3. Even facebook and pinterest (and I LOVE pinterest)
4. Sometimes I just need a bite and I dont want to pull out a measuring spoon/scale/smart device
5. i don't particularly trust MFP "added extra calories feature" but I use it nonetheless
6. Food can't be too spicy. I add siracha sauce to my buffalo flavored hummus
7. I was starving last night before bed, while prepping for lunch today
8. I had 4 oz crystal light mojito (LOVE IT!)
9. Procedded to add 1/4 c siracha to tub of buffalo hummus
10. Licked mixing spoon before putting in dishwasher
11. Ate 4 or so grapes while washing them
12. Puledl off a piece of leftover french toast (about 1/4 of slice) added a bit of ginger curd...ate it
13. Felt full...mission accomplished
14. this morning, struggling with determining calorie count on that food. There is no MFP measurement for licked spoon of hummus, half a handful of grapes and smidgen of toast and curd.
15.does anyone else have these issue?
16. if so, how to you deal with it?

Thanks.

So this looks like a log to me. You know exactly what you ate, you are just frustrated by tech factor of plugging it into your food diary. What I suggest is to take advantage of the notes section, where you just list "evening snack: licked spoon of hummus, half a handful of grapes and smidgen of toast and curd." I use this technique mostly for dinners at friends' where I don't have control over what ingredients are in a dish and don't want to guess if they used low fat or full fat ingredients, but it works for your situation too. And this way you have a record to refer back to later.

On another note, I agree with the other posters that snacking/grazing is a slippery slope, so you should talk to your doctor or nut and see if you can't come up with something a bit more structured that won't leave you hungry.