journaling seems so tedious. .

Do you use the app? The app has a barcode scanner which makes it much easier.

After a little bit, your most frequent foods will be at the top of the list, making them easier to find. When looking for fruits or veggies, type in USDA with it which will bring up the nutrition info for that produce item instead of a million recipes containing that ingredient.

The recipe builder on the site is a God send. Enter your ingredients, and then figure out how much you made. If making a soup, and you make 5.25 cups of soup, enter 5.25 into the servings area. Then, use a measuring cup to dish it out. If you eat 1.5 cups, you just put that you had 1.5 servings of that soup. That's the easiest way I've found to do it (also works if you weigh it out in 100 gram units).

i pretty much eat the same things. once you put it in it;s there. at first it took a while before i built up my common foods but now logging takes less than a minute per meal including if i ever add something new to the list

it only takes me about ten minutes a day to log ….but then again, I have been at this for a while..

pre-logging helps...

Pretty much this. You get used to it after a couple weeks. I like pre-logging too. I also tend to eat the same things alot... but I still eat a nice variety of things. It's kind of like a cycle.

Just give it time and don't give up.

I found this difficult at first as well but it does get easier. We all tend to be creatures of habit so you will find that once you have entered something it pops up in your recent or most often used columns. Also you can use the recipes and enter your most used recipes that way you only have to go to recipes to enter your meal.

It is essential though that you log your food as accurately as possible every day. I didn't realise how much I was eating and how many calories there were in some of what I believed to be quite low cal foods.

Trust me you will benefit greatly from the logging so it is worth taking the time to do it. A lot of people use it to plan meals ahead. They log what they intend to eat the next day that keeps you on the straight and narrow and you don't get so tempted if you already have your menu planned out.

This site is brilliant so much info, help and support I hope you enjoy it here and get as much out of it as I have.

Good luck :flowerforyou:

I spend more time just trying to enter and find things comparable to what I eat.

Can you give an example of something you eat that is complicated to log?

This.

Also just type your recipes into the recipe builder.

Ckn and noodles, lol. Sounds so silly. All I could find was one hundred calorie soups etc. I had amish noodles in ckn broth with the meat and cream of celery.

I am not giving up, that is how I got where I am. I am just venting, I guess.

Is it a recipe you make yourself?
Like some have stated. Us the recipe builder on this site, measure everything as you put it in... then say how many servings it is.

It truly does get easier. Like the others have said, after you enter something, it appears in your recent or favorites and it is easy to find again. I use the scanner when I can, enter recipes. You can change them if you tweak it in the future. It is well worth it. I have been at this for a year. the past month I have not been diligent at logging and it is the first time all year I have gained. you have started and that is the important thing. Now just take it a day at a time.

It definitely gets easier with practice. The first few weeks are the hardest. Nowadays (two years in) it takes me only a few seconds per meal, less than 5 minutes per day.

The discipline of keeping a journal is worthwhile. According to my dietician, it is one of the most effective tools.

My husband just joined and I told him it would be tedious at first but after awhile you will have your main staples and recipes in there and you just click on them with the correct serving size. Also, some of our members have similar recipes they have already computed and you can use theirs if you don't want to put everything in. Hang in there. After you get it going it will be so much easier.

AWESOME!! Love the bar code reader.

Just make sure you're checking to see if what you scanned matches what the packaging says. Sometimes it does not BUT you can edit anything that isn't correct.