Mental Fatigue

keithcw_the_first · March 2015

I was cooking a week's worth of chicken breasts and boiling eggs and prepping today's breakfast smoothie and programming today's meals to hit my macros and I was suddenly hit with the reality that I'm going to have to keep doing this.

And that's a heavy burden. I'd like to return to a life, even briefly, where I don't have to weigh and bag chicken breasts every Sunday night, or figure out where I'm going to get an extra 100 calories of straight carbs from for my workout, or any of that other crap.

Did I get .5 g of protein per pound today, or .8? Was it enough? Was it too much and I wasted two dollar's worth of protein powder?

Mentally it's fatiguing, like I said. Any thoughts?

jessiruthica · March 2015

I wonder if there is some room for doing a day here and there where you DON'T weigh and measure everything. Still log things, but go off-plan a bit. If you can do it in a controlled manner (I get the irony here), that is, don't go for weeks off-plan, then maybe that can give your brain a break, your body a break, and get you re-energized?

socioseguro · March 2015

Hi:
I understand that you need a vacation from logging and prepping. Do a "trial and error". Do not log at MFP for a week and then weigh and measure yourself after the week is over and compare. Maybe it will work for you.
I am at Maintenance now. I still log at MFP in order to meet my daily macros. I just can not eyeballed them. Some people can do it. God bless them.
Good luck in your healthy journey

cj94404 · March 2015

Maybe you don't have enough food variety? Your diet sounds bland (maybe you love it so please forgive the assumption). Maybe borrow a low carb cookbook from the library for ideas.

I wouldn't give up the diary part. I gain when I stop paying attention. If you are really eating the same thing each week it should be quick to log things. It is all in the database.

I understand the feeling however. It is boring to think about food so much.

cokefloat1 · March 2015

Not sure how long you've been using MFP but I found that after a while (6 months maybe) you get to know portion sizes and what kind of calories different foods contain so you can estimate fairly accurately.

In all honesty though, I think in the long run it'll be easier to log though and not go over rather than finding your weight increasing and having to start over.

We're generally creatures of habit so I've started saving recipes so I can just hit log it a lot easier than having to find the foods over and over.

jemhh · March 2015

How long have you been at this? At a certain point, I found that the measuring, planning, etc. just became part of the landscape of life. I don't really notice it. It is second nature to me to get out the scale and measure things. Plus, most of us eat generally the same set of foods over and over so your MFP Recent lists fill with them and it is super easy to add them to your day.

keithcw_the_first · March 2015

This is my first go-round with MFP, but I've done several bouts with Livestrong over the years. And they worked, but if I look at my long-term weight loss, I'll usually drop 10-15 lbs. and then get about half of those back, sometimes more. So it's been a very steady slide downward over years and years.

I would guess that every time the graph bottoms out and then my next weigh-in is two months later, it's that fatigue.

The only time I've successfully maintained without scrupulously logging was doing very intense cardio a couple times a week.

I think my maintenance calories would be around 200 higher than where I am today. I would hope that's enough wiggle room to allow for bi-weekly/monthly weigh-ins.

Or perhaps it will just fade into the landscape of day-to-day life.

gothchiq · March 2015

Yeah I know what you mean. For a while it seems kind of crazymaking and tiring. Eventually though it's just same old same old who cares any more. Just do the right thing one day at a time and it will become the "new normal."

Mental Fatigue

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