Creating the habit of food weighing

I keep my kitchen scale on my counter where I prepare my food. Having it in plain sight can be a helpful reminder.

I usually will log whatever food I plan to eat in a minute, then I actually weigh it, then I change the log to reflect the accurate weight (as opposed to the guess I just entered) then I eat it. The going back and fixing the wrong thing is my motivation. I'm a stickler for accuracy and I can't even look at the entry while it's incorrect without the burning desire to fix it. My food scale lives on my counter. I don't think it's ever seen the inside of a cabinet.

I've found you only have to do it a few times and you start to know what 4 ounces of chicken looks like and what a cup of veggies looks like. This is helpful for eating out, I immediately cut my portions down to appropriate sizes and then pack up the rest as leftovers. I use the scale for double checking myself occasionally, especially if I hit a plateau, sometimes it helps push me through.

My suggestion is make note about what keeps you from using it and work on removing those obstacles. I know a lot of people like leaving it out to remind themselves, but for me the opposite is true. I made space in a drawer for my scale and enjoy taking it out every time I'm prepping a meal. It feels like a ritual of taking care of myself.

Two problems I used to have were that my old scale was always shutting off quickly because it was trying to conserve its battery (fine, but it was a pain) and also I like to be able to use any plate in my kitchen on the scale and sometimes if you use a large bowl or plate you can't see the numbers on the scale so I researched and found a scale that fixed both those problems. It was well worth the money given how much more I enjoy using my new Oxo scale, which has a pull-out readout. (Although after I'd ordered it someone on the forums suggested you could just put a small bowl on the scale and then put your plate on top of that to raise the plate and allow you to see the numbers regardless of which plate you use so that's a good fix, too!)

I hardly even think about it now and it has become habit. Something that helped in the beginning to make it a habit was that I would tell myself I was weighing to make sure I was getting my full portion of something. If you eyeball something you could just possibly be cheating yourself. ( I know that's not normally the case, but it helped motivate my use of the scale!)

All good ideas so far. I will add using the tare feature helps a lot. Took me sadly longer then I care to admit to use it.

@ncfitbit - I learned something today. I often do what you do, and put a big plate on the scale to weigh things like chicken. But it covers up the numbers, and I have to look all around, shift the plate a bit to see the numbers. Small bowl under plate is absolute genius!!!

I have one at home and one at work.

Mine's out all the time as I weigh my pets' food too, and I log on my phone as I'm weighing (my food, not the pets!). It really doesn't matter how you do it though, and doesn't have to be complicated.

I actually log the weight I want first, then put that amount into whatever I'm making. I already know how many grams of tomato, mushroom, meat, veg I prefer. So I prelog it all, then when I go to cook I just cut up that amount and keep using the tare button.

For me, it was seeing more success in weighing.. I went through the usual "Im logging, why am I not losing", of course I was estimating and waaaaay off.. "Serving" meant what 'I' consider is a serving. I had NO IDEA what 6oz of chicken looked like, or 220g of cheerios ( to me 600g was a serving).

Not quite to the point where I am comfortable 'eyeballing' yet, but I can see working again (as mentioned above) once I re-learn portions.