Welcome Robin! I am not sure about that. I don't think a lot of us do. I don't generally log my food when I'm full on ETL, it doesn't seem necessary. And when I'm not following ETL I don't want to know lol. I do keep track now and then but it has been a while. We had a thread going for a while where everyone was posting what they were eating, I'd certainly be happy to revive that if it would help, or you can follow along the monthly threads, a lot of us post our meals. You'll find a lot of the people here march to our own drummer, but we try to stay mostly ETL. I strive for 80 to 90% myself.

I am an off again logger. When you eat ETL it is a lot of logging. So right now off but plan on starting again Feb 1 with a 2 1/2 month commitment to logging. You can friend me if you want.

My diary is open to anyone. I log pretty much every day. I am almost vegan/vegetarian. (Still eat fish occasionally.) I've been Nutritarian for over 3 years now and I LOVE it.

It gets easier once you have favorite recipes stored in your recipe tab. Also there are quite a few Dr Fuhrman recipes already in the database. You can also create lists in other tabs without logging all the ingredients. You can import recipes from another website, too. For things like salad, I created a recipe for a base salad (with all the things I normally add to a salad) and then I only have to add extra stuff to my diary. I do the same for my smoothies; I have 3 or 4 base smoothie recipes and then I just add extras that may go in the smoothie that day. There's lots of shortcuts like that so you're not logging every item, every time.
You may find logging your food helpful, at first, to see what you're eating and what nutrients you're eating and how many calories you're eating. I did it primarily to track my sodium, but I can look and see why my weight hasn't been going down lately. It's a good way to help you stay on track, at least at first. Or get a baseline idea of what you're eating. After awhile, once you get the hang of it, you don't have to log anything. It's just a tool to guide you in your quest, so if it works for you, great. If it doesn't, then don't do it.

Zeta! So glad to see you

Thanks. It's been awhile.

Hi Alison, welcome to the group. I keep things simple as a rule. I don't have a lot of time for cooking and prepping so I use a lot of the pre-washed lettuce or I'll clean a bunch myself and keep it in my salad spinner. I run veggies through my food processor that I can add to salads over several days. I like wraps too... when I'm not avoiding starchy carbs I throw a bunch of lettuce and some beans or hummus in a whole wheat wrap. I make big batches of ETL friendly soups and freeze them in serving size containers, those are easy to tote along to work. ohsheglows.com and the Oh She Glows cookbooks have my favorite soups, I make them a lot. Fresh fruit and raw veggies are handy portable snacks.

We have a monthly thread where we all kind of check in, you are welcome to join in there. We share ideas about ETL (and everything else that occurs to us lol) and it's a friendly group. It's quieter on weekends though.