how to stick to this logging and willpower

I find logging my meals just before I eat them allows me to keep in mind what I am eating.

One of my major weaknesses is mindlessly eating while I am on the computer, so I make an effort to not eat unless I can concentrate on what I am doing. Sometimes if I feel like crunch anyway, I eat ice chips at the computer. No calories that way

Hi!

You're right, it is a huge adjustment to log and track eerything, but you have to look at it in terms of the payoff. The first couple of weeks for me were awkward and unpleasant as I struggled through getting into a logging routine, and more importantly, learned which foods were filling and low-cal vs ones which were high in calories and burned off quickly. They're often surprising. For instance, cereal is very high in calories without being very filling at all.

My advice: Do log everything.
-When you're out and about, keep a notepad to write down everything you eat. Everything. I don't have a cell phone, but if you have a smart phone, you can get a MFP app for it which is even better because then you can see how many calories are in what you're about to eat BEFORE you eat it and then make the choice. One of the ways that logging all of your food helps you to eat less calories is the simple fact that logging is a slightly annoying effort and sometimes that's enough to let you know that you weren't actually as hungry as you thought.

-Put your recipes in to MFP before you cook the food. That way, you can try to adjust the recipe to lower the calories by using less oil for cooking or swapping out ingredients, for a lower calorie substitute if necessary. If you're eating out a lot, look at all of the ingredients that are in the food and remember that restaurants are MUCH freer with fats than people who cook at home. It makes the food taste better which keeps us coming back.

-Excersize. Logging your excersize will give you more calories to work with. It's a good thing.

-Be patient. It will take you a couple of weeks to adjust to this style of eating, but if you can get into a groove with it, it's really not so bad. Learning which foods are calorically more worthwhile takes some time, but it's worth it to go throught he process.

Edit: Most importantly, be honest. MFP is not here to judge you, it's a tool. The only effects of not logging are negative effects. If you don't log everything, the program won't work.

Ultimately, logging is a very small part of the commitment to weight loss.

Once you have built up a few weeks worth of food it will get easier, as you can select them from the list MFP saves for you rather than searching for items. Also, save recipes for things with many ingredients.

As for the mindless eating, the simple solution is don't mindlessly eat! Pre-log your day, work out your meals and snacks, and stick to that.

The data base in MFP is huge! Depending on where you eat you might find the food is already in the data base. I haven't eaten out yet since I started, I haven't run into that problem yet!

Do you log with a computer or your phone? I use both, the phone app has a bar code scanner, it's a great tool!! If I'm eating something I haven't eaten yet or can't find in the data base I scan the bar code and adjust the serving if I'm using less/more. My job is office/desk work, I'm the computer all day so have MFP on my work computer too. I rarely have time to eat before I leave home so I eat and log both breakfast and lunch at work. I also plan in advance what I'm going to eat during the week, since there's not always a lot of variety in what I eat it's usually pretty simple for me to enter my foods bc they're already in my diary when I go to enter them.

Good Luck!! :flowerforyou:

I like the ideas of prelogging your day and or logging before you eat, thanks to those who shared! Iwant to share something a friend of mine did and some times i use: after a week of daily logging and meeting calorie goals, allow yourself a day off of logging food. Still make those healthychoices, but relax a little. I feel like after all the work i did, its ok as long as i use what i have learned about eatting even if i didnt log it. Careful though not to fall into the trap of not logging anytime it is convienet! For me it is only sundays and only if i met my calorie goals all week! Good luck!

I log everything before I eat it... it's just habit at this point. That way I can't 'forget' to log.

For dinner, if I do a recipe, I enter it in the recipe calculator and use it. Nobody's going to do it if I don't, and it's my weight loss... I'd only be sabotaging myself if I did it half a**ed.