How Long

Once I joined MFP, which was 667 days ago, I logged everything, completely changed my eating habits, and never looked back.

I was already in the mindset my eating habits were changing before I joined. I have always been a healthy eater overall (with the occasional calorie bomb meals) my biggest thing was portions, once I started measuring/weighing everything I haven't looked back.

744 days as of today. It has been the only thing that has worked. I do get sloppy when logging about two times a year. When we go on vacation and a few days around Christmas.

I used to only eat sugar or cheesy carb type foods. I'd say about 4 weeks for me this time, I'm at week 7 right now of being binge free. My stomach definitely changed to where eating a portion that I used to eat would make me sick now, and I don't find it as hard to stay away from the sugar, carbs, and fat anymore. I might get cravings for sugary or fatty greasy things every once in awhile, but I'm able to stay in control and most of the time those type of foods just sound bad to me now.

Hmm, I don't know.

I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call myself a "healthy" eater even now. I love my veggies, and I eat lots of them, but I also love ice cream. I would call myself a "moderate eater", and I aim for a balanced diet.

As far as logging consistently and sticking to my calorie goal, I honestly did it right from the get-go, and I didn't find it particularly difficult. I think a combination of factors contributed to the overall pleasantness of it. First, I never had a huge deficit. The lowest my calorie goal has ever been was 1420 plus exercise (right at the beginning when I said I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week). Now I aim to lose just under a pound a week. Second, I never eliminated anything from my diet, so I never really craved anything. And third, the results were enough to propel me forward. I never wanted to quit or slack too much because I wanted to reach my goals too badly.

I think it also helps not to have an "all or nothing" mindset. Some days I do go over my calorie goal by 100-300 calories, and that's okay. It's a conscious decision, because there might be a special occasion or a night of beer drinking with my friends. I just try to stay at or under my maintenance calories. Then there may be a couple of days a year, like Thanksgiving, where I eat 2500-3000+ calories a day (and log it all). I'm always aware of what I'm consuming, I always make the choice to eat or not to eat, and then I move on. I may have a high-calorie day, make less then ideal choices, or go a little overboard, but it doesn't have to de-rail me or be a reason why I can't just pick it back up the next day.

I feel like I worked up to it without even realizing what I was doing. I started TRYING to eat lighter and healthier in 2008 and I did succeed SOMEWHAT but I didn't really know what I was doing. So it happened slowly in waves for me. Then in June 2012 when I met my now-husband he clued me in to quite a few better eating habits and I stopped some of the really bad past behavior/habits then. By the time I joined MFP in March 2013 I was already in some pretty darn good habits and was eating healthier foods in general. So it did not take me any time at all to get FULLY immersed into logging every single day, I would say within the first 2 days I was in sync with it and have been ever since.

I'm not perfect but the ratio of good to bad is far better than 2:3. It's more like 10:1. There are two potential pitfalls to be avoided. Being too hard on yourself, and being too easy on yourself.

I get sloppier as I go (maintenance is ongoing and so even harder to maintain focus.) so when I was new at it, I had fewer goof off days than I do now.