Mental break

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annaclaireblack
annaclaireblack Posts: 63 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Has anybody here ever taken a little break from tracking? I've become ~slightly~ obsessed with it and I think it's really impacting my mental health.. just wondering yalls thoughts on taking a mental break and if it has helped anybody?

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  • kschwab0203
    kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
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    I usually don't track on the weekends. I keep in mind what I am eating and try to make good choices, but I do not log it in MFP. The weekend is my break.

    I'm sure I am losing slower than if I would just track and be meticulous about it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY., but I need my mental break from it.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Yes. I did this past fall for the reasons you described (obsessive/affecting mental health.) I gained some weight but don't regret it at all. I am healthier/happier now than I was 6 months ago even though I am working on re-losing the pounds that I gained.
  • gdsmit1
    gdsmit1 Posts: 137 Member
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    I track every single day, but when I feel that I'm getting obsessed with it, I'll just track my breakfast and not worry about tracking the rest of the day. I am still mindful of what I eat, I just don't track it.

    My thinking is that by tracking breakfast, I stay in the habit of tracking. It also reminds me each morning to be mindful of my intake.
  • happysherri
    happysherri Posts: 1,360 Member
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    Yep, every year I take the holidays off (and by this I mean about a month). I do pretty good most of the year and toward the end I feel like I need a break from it.
  • 143tobe
    143tobe Posts: 620 Member
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    Yes, for about 9 months straight I tracked, and logged and obsessed. I was also training for a half marathon every quarter to keep me disciplined, but after my third one of the year...I just needed a break from ALL of it. I decided to forgo a 4th half marathon, and stopped all logging. Which wasn't the best of ideas because I went from being able to eat a lot of calories to being able to eat a lot less due to my decrease of activity. I was still working out, but I wasn't running due to hip issues I had developed by my third half. So I would say, yes, I think it's good to take a break from logging if it is becoming tedious, but be smart about it. Maybe start small, like a weekend off, then if that works, the next time take maybe a week off. It's now been 4 full months off of logging, and I've gained 20 lbs. The first 10 lbs added didn't bother me, but my inability to get back on track after that just wasn't worth it. For me, the sticking to a workout schedule is easy, it's the getting my eating habits back on track that I am finding so difficult.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    annaclaireblack wrote: »
    Has anybody here ever taken a little break from tracking? I've become ~slightly~ obsessed with it and I think it's really impacting my mental health.. just wondering yalls thoughts on taking a mental break and if it has helped anybody?

    Yep, holidays, birthday, Christmas etc.... probably every 12 weeks or so I'll have few days to a week off.
  • KatieJane83
    KatieJane83 Posts: 2,002 Member
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    Yes, I try to. I took a break over the holidays, and I've found that it's really helped me stay sane, and be able to really recommit myself in the new year, without feeling like I'm burning myself out.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I tracked for only 3 months, and lost another 125 lbs after I quit logging. It all depends on your ability to estimate and follow your eating plan. Even if you're bad at that, 1-2 week break won't hurt much.
  • beamie2687
    beamie2687 Posts: 95 Member
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    My trainer actually put me on a tracking break for all of January. It was really hard (I had been tracking consistently for over a year) but it put me in the right mindset when I came back this week! Good luck. Try to remember that your decisions matter more than tracking them does. Tracking is just a tool!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    I don't log my food anymore (haven't for some time) but I log all of my exercise.

    Exercise data is a lot more useful than food data. I want to know how many miles I've done, so I know when to replace my chain and my cleats. I want to know my times on different segments. Etc.

    Of course, tracking my exercise just means hitting start and stop on my watch, it does the rest. Tracking food is pretty easy, but it's more involved enough and less valuable enough to tip the scales for me.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,885 Member
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    I log my food inconsistently and have done since I reached my goal weight.

    My exercise, however, I've been logging consistently since April 29, 1990 and not about to stop anytime soon. :)
  • ajwcyclist2016
    ajwcyclist2016 Posts: 161 Member
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    Presuming you still eat at the same times and the same sort of meals as before I think you should be able to judge the same amount of portion size as before. If start taking extra snacks of junk extra that you didn't when tracking, then obviously gain
  • lemmie177
    lemmie177 Posts: 479 Member
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    I've taken month breaks here and there for those same reasons. I tend to get obsessive and its a nice psychological break. A couple times, I've just logged my main protein sources just to keep tabs on my protein goals since I often fall short.
  • Morgaen73
    Morgaen73 Posts: 2,818 Member
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    I take a break over special occasions like easter, Christmas, my birthday ect ect. I am also obsessed with tracking and it can be VERY exhausting so yes I believe that (for myself) breaks are essential.
  • andyluvv
    andyluvv Posts: 281 Member
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    Sharon_C wrote: »
    I've been tracking for almost 5 years. Last July I realized I was unhealthily obsessed with it. I was tracking every thing that went into my mouth, weighing myself, taking measurements, measuring my food. It was starting to overcome my life. My husband would suggest we go out to dinner and I was immediately on the internet trying to find the restaurant's nutrition facts, inputting various possible dinner choices into MFP, reading macros, etc.

    I quit it all cold turkey. I stopped logging calories, I stopped measuring everything (me and my food). It was actually more difficult because I was trying to eat intuitively. But after 4 years counting calories I pretty much knew what was in every type of food I ate.

    January 2 I weighed myself. After 6 months of not logging or counting I had maintained my weight. No weight gain and no weight loss. I was pretty darn happy with that.

    I've started logging and counting again only because I'd like to lose a little bit of fluff before my vacation in May. But after that I'll stop logging again. I've decided that I will occasionally go back to logging just to make sure I'm on the right track and haven't been indulging too much. I never want to go back to the obsession of last year.

    Just like you I had a similar experience where I was just too focused on it. I also had people say often "I'm always eating" and it started to affect me in every possible way. I haven't lost weight for about a year and I've gradually gained some from weight training. But my clothes fit quite similarly (except I have some more visible muscle).

    I stopped logging and started to undereat...my body fat jumped up and my weight didn't budge. I asked for help and got to counselling where I was advised to eat more at regular intervals. Something I struggle with as I have a pretty hectic life and work shifts. I'm a grazer but I mostly do it on vegetables/popcorn etc.
    Then I'd get obsessed for having a few biscuits (or half a pack) and thought I was binging.

    Over the holidays I read Brain Over Binge and came to realise that my preoccupation was normal. Going into "a diet" made me prone to want foods I don't normally eat and my "binging" wasn't really a binge. I couldn't eat a pack of donuts or have massive portions as associated to binges. I'd just occasionally over indulge as a normal person sometimes do. I guess I was just too harsh on myself.

    One successful thing I did was to stop weighing myself every week. I went back to logging to make sure I don't massively under eat BUT after a few months I stepped on the scale yesterday....to find out that my weight went up but my body fat went back down. It made me happy to know my goal (muscle gain) is being reached :)
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
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    i just quit completely after idk, six months or so. it's a great thing, if you do it properly. but for me, 'doing it properly' just turned into a total rat race. it became something i really resented/hated, just a straight chore.

    i think i may have quit once i realised the tail was wagging the dog in my mind. i'd restrict or avoid eating things just to get away from the chore of digging through lists and figuring out how to log it. or i'd just eat the same old handful of stuff that i could log easily.

    personally, i've never gotten back into it. others might have different mileage, but for me i was a useful thing for a while and then after that it became a fetter.

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