Today's realization...

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Sierrasmommy
Sierrasmommy Posts: 90
in Food and Nutrition
K so tonight I went out to dinner with my family. We went to a restaurant that was new and does not have nutritional info available. I thought that I ate pretty well, despite my weakness for fresh homemade dinner rolls with butter (I pigged and ate 3). I kept a tally at the table of what I ate so i could enter it in later. For the most part I didnt eat too badly, and this is honestly the first time that I have come this close to eating all of my exercise calories. I am unsure how accurate everything is, as I pulle dfrom various restaurants to compose my dinner entries, but according to what i entered I was under on my calories, and over by 11 on my fat. I know I shouldn't be upset, but i cannot help but be angry with myself for eating the way I did, or at least the way I feel I did after entering the foods. So I guess my question is, what do you do when you haev no way of being accurate on calories from eating out!!??

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  • mirgss
    mirgss Posts: 275 Member
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    I don't enter them at all :D I know it kind of makes the whole calorie tracking thing a moot point, but that's what I do. If I eat bad or go over for one day, I don't beat myself up. Just go back to my regular diet and exercise routine the next day. We all deserve to enjoy good food once in a while!
  • Amanda_Bridges90
    Amanda_Bridges90 Posts: 33 Member
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    If you ate something that you know what all the ingredients are, you can go here http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php?process=resubmit&count=11 and type how much you ate of each ingredient. This is a GREAT site for homemade recipes. Hope this helps :)
  • bree5291
    bree5291 Posts: 50
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    I know exactly what you mean. Here's the deal: just because you were under your calories for the day, doesn't mean you feel good about what you ate. You could be 500 calories under and still feel like a pig! As much as I love MFP and as beneficial and it has been for me, I don't believe that calories are the most important piece of life or a weight loss/healthy living journey. Don't sweat you dinner. What's done is done, and now you know thta next time, if you want 3 rolls, have them, but you'd better enjoy them, or else you will start to pack on the pounds. Don't beat yourself up. This is all about learning and developing habits for life. If you've slipped, you've slipped. But just remember that tomorrow is a brand new day, and a brand new start for you to make positive advancements towards your goals or just good choices in your life that you can feel good about. :]
  • boniekatie
    boniekatie Posts: 147
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    Use it a a learning experience, but don't beat yourself up over it. Just say, ok so that was that now onward and upward. You can have a bad meal, a bad day or even a bad week now and then as long as you keep up your activity and don't get discoraged it will be alright. Remember this is about learning a new healthy way of living, not about the numbers on the log, or even the number on the scale. It is very difficult to get all the numbers on the food log just right every day, it's just a tool. It's not the law. :heart:
  • Sierrasmommy
    Sierrasmommy Posts: 90
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    Bree you are an awesome encouragement!!! Thank you!
  • bree5291
    bree5291 Posts: 50
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    you are more than welcome. :]
  • OlenaS
    OlenaS Posts: 125 Member
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    kurt_cobain - thank you for posting the link! I just read this post a few minutes after spending a bunch of time taking down the info from ingredients packages on my own! Should've come here first. But just wanted to say that it worked great and pretty much matches my own calculations. (I am still new here, just my 3rd day)
  • alantin
    alantin Posts: 621 Member
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    Think of that day as your cheat day.
    Its great, if you didn't go over your calorie limit but it doesn't matter if it went over either.
    In thism only the long term matters and a cheat day every week or two is good way to keep your head straight when losing a lot of weight.


    I started exercising again a while back and this time I'm not so zealous about recording everything just so. I eat what they have at work so most time I don't have a clue about the nutritional details of what is on my plate so I just record a rough estimation.
    Seems to work just as well as counting every calorie. Just like someone said. It's just a tool.
    The way I see it, its all about knowing how much and what you eat (which in turn let's you control your weight) rather than following some rules.

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