Non-typical schedule, how should enter my entries?

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funkychickenbean
funkychickenbean Posts: 18
in Health and Weight Loss
It's a pretty straightforward problem I have encountered from the beginning.

Keeping track, entering what I've eaten since waking up, etc. Eat dinner or something and at some point later but before going to sleep I throw on my work out clothes and jump into a good workout. Maybe eat a post workout snack if necessary, and eventually go to bed. However, somewhere in that time, the day I've been tracking disappears and I am given a brand new day to enter into. Midnight happened!

For those like me who keep a much different schedule than most people (that is to say not waking in the morning to eat breakfast, eating lunch around lunchtime, dinner in the evening and going to sleep before midnight) this is a problem. According to this site and all others, what constitutes a journal day is from 12 am - 12:59 pm. What if you don't wake up until around 2-3 pm and THAT is when you eat your breakfast, eat lunch around 8, dinner probably around 11-12am, usually do your work out after midnight (the new day) ingest any food stuffs sometime before bed and go to sleep around 6-7am????

This is wreaking havoc on my journaling because I am never sure where to put the stuff that takes place after midnight so I usually just enter all the info in a single day, treating that particular day as if it had been a morning noon and night situation.

Should I enter anything that happens after midnight as part of the new day even though I haven't technically ended my day yet?

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Additional Thoughts:

The one thing I can say is that I really wish I could find a way to keep a dieting journal in a way that is not structured around the calendar day. I would like to be able to just enter into it, "Woke up" or "Started Day" and then the daily tracking begins.

For each exercise you do with duration and all, you tell it what you did from this time until that time. For all food and drinks you just record what time you ate/drank what and finally when YOUR day is over, when you are going to sleep, you tell it "End of Day" or "Went to sleep" and then it summarizes that particular day.

This, to me, makes MUCH more sense considering we don't all keep the same schedules and many people's schedules are often varied due to working overtime, etc. Some people stay up for 14 hours one day and maybe 20 hours some other day but in that 20 hour day they ran in the park for 2 hours and then did 30 mins of yoga before bed.

Replies

  • BelindaDuvessa
    BelindaDuvessa Posts: 1,014 Member
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    I changed my diary to time frames. That way I'm not thinking "Oh it's dinner, gotta log that in dinner. I just log everything that I ate and drank during that particular time frame. It's cut alot of the BS out of logging for me. I work the overnight shift right now, and this system is what has worked best for me and kept me logging my calories since I came back to the night shift.
  • amazing_shrinking_woman
    amazing_shrinking_woman Posts: 66 Member
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    My job ranges from 8 hour days 5 days a week to 12 hour nights/days 3.5 days a week, it just depends on what they need me to cover. When on night shift I have "breakfast" before I go to bed between midnight and 5am, then I wake up around 3pm have "lunch" and "dinner" before midnight. This allows me to still track from midnight to midnight as i find that easier.
  • justjenn1977
    justjenn1977 Posts: 437 Member
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    I work twelve hour overnight shifts... I changed my times to four hour blocks 00_04 04_08 08_12 12_16 16_20 20_00 ... And log according to time rather than "meal"

    when breakfast regularly happens at 1700 it gets confusing to log :)

    Edit to add: I log things when they happen... The body is not on a set "day" schedule... It doesn't know midnight and hours and stuff... Sometimes it makes my log look confusing to others... But I'm not logging for others I'm logging for me
  • funkychickenbean
    funkychickenbean Posts: 18
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    Hey, thanks for the replies!

    The altering of how to enter my stuff vs. as dinner and such sounds like it might be more of what would work best for me, maybe. Still really trying to learn my way around on here so not entirely sure how to do this.
  • Keiko385
    Keiko385 Posts: 514 Member
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    change your time zone to one that fits your schedule, that way it wont roll you over to the next day ahead of you
  • BelindaDuvessa
    BelindaDuvessa Posts: 1,014 Member
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    Hey,

    This sounds like it might be more of what would work best for me, maybe. Still really trying to learn my way around on here so not entirely sure how to do this.

    As for exercise, since the site has no way to change times (it's midnight to midnight, regardless), you log your exercise and your calories the actual day you consume or do them. As far as I'm concerned, my day is from 4pm to 8 am. But MFP doesn't let me do that, so I have to work with what I have. There's a huge gap in the middle of my day where I don't eat, and my log reflects that. If you need help, add me as a friend. I can't answer all questions, but I can help the best I know.
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
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    I changed my diary to time frames. That way I'm not thinking "Oh it's dinner, gotta log that in dinner. I just log everything that I ate and drank during that particular time frame. It's cut alot of the BS out of logging for me. I work the overnight shift right now, and this system is what has worked best for me and kept me logging my calories since I came back to the night shift.

    Me too, this works very well even on my days off and vacations. My diary is open if you wish to get an example, just realize I'm not a 1200 calorie person.
  • angelbabyskies
    angelbabyskies Posts: 17
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    I just go from the day I wake up and stay on it until I go to bed. Today is 9/10 but I'm still logging under 9/9 because I woke up yesterday. I hope it makes sense :P I go to sleep at 7 or 8 am and it's been the easiest way for me to keep track.
  • rainghirl
    rainghirl Posts: 203 Member
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    If you would like your diary to map to your day, you could always work out what time zone in the world maps to a typical day for you and change your settings so you are in that time zone.
  • BelindaDuvessa
    BelindaDuvessa Posts: 1,014 Member
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    I just go from the day I wake up and stay on it until I go to bed. Today is 9/10 but I'm still logging under 9/9 because I woke up yesterday. I hope it makes sense :P I go to sleep at 7 or 8 am and it's been the easiest way for me to keep track.

    I did that for a while. It didn't work so well for me. I don't know why, but my mind just didn't care to process it. And with the way I'm doing it now, it doesn't matter what shift I'm on (we rotate from days to nights every 2 months), the time frames will be the same regardless.
  • hhayes06
    hhayes06 Posts: 189 Member
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    change your time zone to one that fits your schedule, that way it wont roll you over to the next day ahead of you

    This^^

    While I agree with this it isn't what I do. I just log midnight to midnight because while I work a midnight shift I do not keep those hours while on my days off. Luckily I don't start work until midnight and I typically don't eat breakfast until I am at work. For instance, I am at work now eating lunch. I woke up on 9/9 at 9pm, came into work,, got my workout in, showered, logged on at work, had breakfast. I logged my exercise on 9/9 and then started 9/10's food diary. I have already had breakfast, am eating lunch and will eat dinner before I go to bed. It's still based on 24 hours. On my Friday (which is actually today) I will not eat before taking a nap and just have dinner at a "normal" time with my family. I find this way easier since I flip flop my schedule on days off.
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    change your time zone to one that fits your schedule, that way it wont roll you over to the next day ahead of you

    this is your schedule don't vary, change to different time zone
    you can also go back to previous day and log there, but once you complete diary after midnight it won't show up in the news feed
  • athenna1869
    athenna1869 Posts: 26 Member
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    change your time zone to one that fits your schedule, that way it wont roll you over to the next day ahead of you

    can you do that if you're synced up with FitBit? (my steps also start over at 00:00)
  • caraiselite
    caraiselite Posts: 2,631 Member
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    some people go by sleep. others don't. really your preference.
    i go by: whatever i eat before midnight, goes on that day, whether i go to bed or not.
    your body can't tell time, so it doesn't matter, in all honesty.

    you could enter hours instead. midnight to 4 am. 4 to 8, and so on.
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
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    I changed my meals to time blocks as well. I prefer to run my days midnight to midnight so it works out well for me. I work 12hour shifts overnight and my last meal is usually around 6 or 7pm. I take my first break at work around midnight, so if I happen to be hungry and have used all my calories, it's a new day! =)
  • CoCoBean14
    CoCoBean14 Posts: 107 Member
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    I work twelve hour overnight shifts... I changed my times to four hour blocks 00_04 04_08 08_12 12_16 16_20 20_00 ... And log according to time rather than "meal"

    when breakfast regularly happens at 1700 it gets confusing to log :)

    Edit to add: I log things when they happen... The body is not on a set "day" schedule... It doesn't know midnight and hours and stuff... Sometimes it makes my log look confusing to others... But I'm not logging for others I'm logging for me

    This is exactly what I do. It's much easier that way :)

    People have commented, whoa your breakfast looks awesome! And I'm just thinking, I just got off work!! Def not breakfast! lol!
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
    Options
    I work twelve hour overnight shifts... I changed my times to four hour blocks 00_04 04_08 08_12 12_16 16_20 20_00 ... And log according to time rather than "meal"

    when breakfast regularly happens at 1700 it gets confusing to log :)

    Edit to add: I log things when they happen... The body is not on a set "day" schedule... It doesn't know midnight and hours and stuff... Sometimes it makes my log look confusing to others... But I'm not logging for others I'm logging for me

    This is exactly what I do. It's much easier that way :)

    People have commented, whoa your breakfast looks awesome! And I'm just thinking, I just got off work!! Def not breakfast! lol!

    I once got a question about my soda for "breakfast", it was my lunch. I also don't tie specific food to specific meal times, pancakes and bacon and eggs make a great meal anytime.

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