Is it worth logging days when everything goes wrong?

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  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
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    bump - I like this post!
  • novakac
    novakac Posts: 22 Member
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    I agree, I think that's just the most hilarious image. From now on, when carrying bacon I will always do 2 lunges, no matter where I am, in tribute to that comment....

    I will hold you to that! (Bacon cheeseburgers count, btw....)
  • Jessica1173
    Jessica1173 Posts: 62 Member
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    So I had one of those days. Those days when you have no idea why you're even trying to eat healthy, so you just... give up. I have never been a "binge eater", so that doesn't quite describe my day, but I was easily 1000 calories over my goal. Easily. And I didn't work out. Well, I did do 2 lunges. While carrying bacon to the computer.

    Is today even worth logging? Should I really re-live every mistake I made and catalog it? Do I really need to see the "if every day was like today, you would weigh xxx in 5 weeks!" Or should I just pretend it never happened, go to bed, and wake up fresh and back on my routine when I go back to work tomorrow?

    Thoughts from someone else who's had a fail day?

    Yes! It helps reign me in. usually I do worse if I don't.
  • padams2359
    padams2359 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    This may not apply to people that are just starting, but I cannot eat the amount of food I use to eat in one seating. Things like lasagna, etc., I can only eat about 1/3 of what I use to eat without thinking about it. I think this is why some people's bad days are not as bad as they think they are. You only remember what you use to eat when you were eating bad, not the amount you ate.

    I don't have a problem logging bad days, it's when I have to start logging ingredients. That's when I tend to slack off, good or bad day. I usually just throw a high best guess of calories, 500 or 1000 and move on.
  • Jessica1173
    Jessica1173 Posts: 62 Member
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    This may not apply to people that are just starting, but I cannot eat the amount of food I use to eat in one seating. Things like lasagna, etc., I can only eat about 1/3 of what I use to eat without thinking about it. I think this is why some people's bad days are not as bad as they think they are. You only remember what you use to eat when you were eating bad, not the amount you ate.

    I don't have a problem logging bad days, it's when I have to start logging ingredients. That's when I tend to slack off, good or bad day. I usually just throw a high best guess of calories, 500 or 1000 and move on.

    I kind of agree with you. I had some bad days eating wise when my husband was in the hospital but when I went to log it the next day it was okay and within a proper amount of maintenance calories or just slightly over-- maybe 200 or 300 calories. I was surprised by that.
  • padams2359
    padams2359 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    This may not apply to people that are just starting, but I cannot eat the amount of food I use to eat in one seating. Things like lasagna, etc., I can only eat about 1/3 of what I use to eat without thinking about it. I think this is why some people's bad days are not as bad as they think they are. You only remember what you use to eat when you were eating bad, not the amount you ate.

    I don't have a problem logging bad days, it's when I have to start logging ingredients. That's when I tend to slack off, good or bad day. I usually just throw a high best guess of calories, 500 or 1000 and move on.

    I kind of agree with you. I had some bad days eating wise when my husband was in the hospital but when I went to log it the next day it was okay and within a proper amount of maintenance calories or just slightly over-- maybe 200 or 300 calories. I was surprised by that.

    I have another suggestion. Change the numbers in your profile to Maintanance. Remember that number for a day and the week, and keep it in the back of your mind. That is the number you Really don't want to exceed. If you don't go above that number for a day, or even a week, you are not doing any more damage, just a slight delay in your progress. You may temporarily not be going forward, but at least your not going backward, and that is still good
  • rezn8
    rezn8 Posts: 263 Member
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    If you log everything you can pick away at it throughout the week and work on maintaining a daily average. If you don't log it you're more likely to accept it as a free day and realllllly go overboard.
  • ElizabethFuller
    ElizabethFuller Posts: 352 Member
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    I have another suggestion. Change the numbers in your profile to Maintanance. Remember that number for a day and the week, and keep it in the back of your mind. That is the number you Really don't want to exceed. If you don't go above that number for a day, or even a week, you are not doing any more damage, just a slight delay in your progress. You may temporarily not be going forward, but at least your not going backward, and that is still good

    Wow, I just did this - 1940 calories per day.

    That's cheered me up no end, I've had a bit of a bad weekend but I didn't go over that number so I've not done any real damage.
    Thank you
  • arrseegee
    arrseegee Posts: 575 Member
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    I log EVERYTHING, including 10 minute walks with the dog that are ridiculously slow because he wants to smell everything and I have to wait for him. Maybe not two lunges while walking to the computer holding bacon (but good for you doing lunges while holding 'weights' - fantastic idea!) but everything else goes in my diary. I find it useful to know that I can eat a few more calories because I went for a walk, but for me the the best thing is that I have a record of what I did to lose the weight. Hopefully when I get to my goal weight I'll be able to maintain it, but if not then I've got some great information to help me lose it agian: three months of accurate recordings of what I did to lose the weight, how long it took and what diet patterns contributed to the biggest weight loss.
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
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    bump because I llike this thread so much!
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
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    I find it funny the hold that food has on people. Just log it and move on.. I had a 1300 over calories day yesterday and I logged it. :laugh:
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    OK. I logged it. And it was worse than I thought it was. I was 1500 calories over my goal.

    However.... it was useful because the harm wasn't where I thought it was. Apparently you can eat half a pound of bacon for breakfast, and still be able to recover just fine. After my 8th slice of bacon, I gave up. I shouldn't have. It was what I ate AFTER that bacon that killed me. Not saying the saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc was great, but as far as pure calories go... bacon is actually reasonably low! Once again, I'm not saying bacon is good, I'm saying, I shouldn't have said, "Oh, I f***'ed up by eating half a pound of bacon, I'll just eat what i want for the rest of the day because it's screwed to hell and back anyways".

    Yep that's why you log it. You realize that you can totally make up for 8 slices of bacon, so next time you have that, just log it and move on, just try to make healthier choices later. Logging it makes you realize that it's not the end of the world and it doesn't mean your day is ruined.
  • LessthanKris
    LessthanKris Posts: 607 Member
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    Glad you went back and logged it. I am set on 1200 calories now but I save some exercise calories at least a few days out of the week to eat out or to use on Sunday when I do not workout and only have 1200 calories. I keep a spreadsheet of my shortages and overages so I can easily see what I have left at the end of week.
  • AccioFitness
    AccioFitness Posts: 244 Member
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    I have another suggestion. Change the numbers in your profile to Maintanance. Remember that number for a day and the week, and keep it in the back of your mind. That is the number you Really don't want to exceed. If you don't go above that number for a day, or even a week, you are not doing any more damage, just a slight delay in your progress. You may temporarily not be going forward, but at least your not going backward, and that is still good

    This is fantastic advice.
  • kristen6022
    kristen6022 Posts: 1,926 Member
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    Yes. If we don't, how will we learn from our mistakes?
  • ElizabethFuller
    ElizabethFuller Posts: 352 Member
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    I find it funny the hold that food has on people. Just log it and move on.. I had a 1300 over calories day yesterday and I logged it. :laugh:

    No, I think it's the hold that I have on food that's the problem:wink:
    "Just put the pizza down and step away."
  • tpfoodie
    tpfoodie Posts: 148 Member
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    It depends on if you're the type of person to try to make up for it the next day or just restart and try to do it right the next day.

    if youre just going to reset then i wouldn't log it in. i think that once the number goes past a certain point, it looks all the same and the guilt felt is all the same.

    I dont think seeing the number would really have a big psychological effect that would last either. Its kinda hard to make a connection to the number and the actual diet in reality. Like, once the food is in, its in and logging it wont really change that.

    This. I aim to have a reset the next day. It's an educational experience for sure, but it also feels *awful.* The times I have given up have been because of awful logging days.
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
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    If you aren't binge eating and just have the occasional day (like most people) where you lack control and want to eat a bunch of bacon, you're better off just writing it off and doing better starting now. There's no need to feel bad about over indulging once in awhile. If it happens frequently, you should log it and it might help you stop going overboard, or you can try to make up for it during the week.
  • lmmeade
    lmmeade Posts: 1
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    I would log it and the journal WHY you think you had the bad day. If you don't binge eat, what emotionally was going on, were you bored, etc.
  • nikkylyn
    nikkylyn Posts: 325 Member
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    Yes log. Its a learning experience. You can see how you easily ate 3000+ calories then you can also see in numbers how quickly you can put weight back on or gain even more. Im a visual person myself. I have had a few days where I went over. I still logged as best I could just so I could say see what could happen. All these lbs I lost could come back if Im not careful. It motivates me to get back on the next meal.

    Also a few bad days isnt going to derail your plans entirely. Its a process. Just dont worry about it too much. Tomorrow is a new day!!

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