Food Diaries

Personal choice.

oops, double post

I didn't realise mine was private until one of my friends told me, maybe some people don't realise either. I think it's set private to start with. But yeah, for some people, it is just their personal choice

one of my friends sells Meal Plans, so she keeps hers private. Mine is set for friends, I think...I could care less either way, though.

Mine is private because many of my recipes are proprietary. I actually have friends who would stalk me on MFP just to get certain recipes I've refused to share. :devil:

I'm not selfish about all of my recipes, but there are a few I don't want leaked.

your diary is actually not open! i keep mine open because i figure that a lot of people don't look at it anyway and sometimes, it keeps me from eating something because i don't want to log it.

Someday I may be ready to be that open, but that day isn't here yet.

Because of my size I have had to handle open criticism when I am out in public. Yes, it has gotten better since I've started losing. When you are morbidly obese you feel exposed all the time. I am more open on MFP than anywhere else when it comes to my weight and diet but I just am not ready to take that leap.

Excerpts from my blog on this topic:
There are some great reasons for making your food diary public. The ones that are obvious to me are these.

You eat perfectly or are close to it and your diary would be helpful to others. You do not have to make it public if you are already good at food choices since you can see your own diary - right.
You really need help learning what to eat to get healthy and to lose weight.
You may know what you should eat or not but you are seeking help sticking to a healthy diet. I guess this falls into accountability.
Before going into why you may not want to make your diary public I want to identify what for me is the most important aspect of the role of the food diary and losing weight.

People who keep a daily food journal tend to lose weight more effectively. So #1 for me is get on MFP everyday and log my food and exercise. Except for not giving up this is about the most important rule of thumb to me for losing weight and for getting healthier I have found. I may forget to hit the submit button before going to bed in case I eat or more often drink another glass of water but I have logged all my food each day and of course my exercise.
Log honestly and as accurately as you can. The purpose of the diary is to be able to look back and see what has worked or not worked for you. In this process you need to know yourself and how you work (that is why I weigh myself daily but that is another topic).
Just logging your food makes you aware of what you are doing and brings to the forefront what you are doing right and what can be improved. I have found that this tool is more powerful than I could ever imagine. Several bad habits have disapeared so easily just by being commited to this process and logging daily. I have almost stopped eating food later in the evening and have cut out high calorie items merely because they weren't worth it to me or just slowly and almost miraculously stopped needing things like my almost daily bowl of ice cream.
Your learning style may determine how powerful this tool is for you. I am a verbal kinesthetic learner so the process of logging helps me understand what is going on. If you are a visual learning logging would be more effective to you as well.
Above in identifying why you might want to make it public I think I covered the more social reasons for logging
So why might you not want to make your food diary public or why don't I want to do this yet.

I see myself as an 'excellentist' not a perfectionist. I am a work in progress and I am anything but perfect. I actually know some things about nutrition and healthy eating and have usually eaten healthy food. I do not eat alot of junk and I do not drink my calories. However I do not claim to be perfect. My goal is to improve my eating habits and to be healthier in the process.
Why MFP works for me is that it helps me balance and get a handle on food intake and calorie burn. I started exercising long before I came on here and thought if I ate the same I would lose. I didn't. Maybe I ate more and didn't know it or maybe what I was doing just doesn't work. MFP works for me. It works because I make sure I don't eat more calories than I burn and I in fact eat less to lose. Pure and simple.
I have a lot to lose and I will be doing this for a long time. If you only have 30 pounds to lose it isn't easy but you can be perfect for the number of months it takes to do it. If you are going to take more than 6 months to reach your goal you need to be able to sustain it for the long term. Life needs to be worth living. I need to balance my feelings of deprivation during this time as much as I do my healthy eating habits. Even when I reach my goal I will possibly or probably be on here maintaining since I am older and those pounds seem to just want to add on to you.
My mother - she was critical, she was not positive or complimentary. She has acknowledged her less than helpful parenting style and I know she was brought up that way herself but frankly I felt it was her excuse to put her 2 cents in on how she wanted me to parent her grand children which was insulting since I had long ago spent alot of time learning positive parenting and knew about behavior modification and the effectiveness of positive over negative input.
So if going public will keep you from the benefits of logging such as logging daily, logging honestly, getting and giving positive and not negative support, taking responsibiltiy for your own progress and focusing on the process of improvement over perfection don't make it public. I know many think you should but not all. However if you are the type of person who needs feedback from others to motivate yourself to do better you should make your diary public. I honestly admire those who make their diaries open to others and do a great job eating only healthy foods. Or those who know they are not perfect and open theirs up to get all the help they can get. When I evolve to either of those amazing people I will too. However I have my strengths. I am very tolerant, supportive and nonjudgemental. What I admire most is progress and commitment and I see that those things work in this effort.

The other aspect of this as I found out yesterday is commenting on logging updates on here. Since I do not make my diary public I do not usually look at others unless they make a comment on them themselves or if others do. If someone is a great example on healthy eating I may look to learn from them. I am not going to be your diary police. I can give you great advice about food if you ask but I am not going to tell you are not eating right. I have gotten very uncomfortable when I have looked and see people are not eating enough. I offer positive support if someone logs and if they are under. I hope they are not too far under and what they are eating is healthier than not. However I usually don't look. Most of the people that go over have lower calorie goals than I do and do an excellent job eating "right". They will lose as well or better than I. So if I say Yes! when you are under it means I am happy you were able to balance intake and exercise and meet what you said was your goal. If I say way to log it means I have ultimate respect that you logged your food. I see so many that come on here and log for awhile and then are off again and on again. For some they are losing and it works for others they are losing and then gaining. Others are here on the weekdays and not on the weekend. If they are reaching their goals fine. If the reason for not daily logging is because they don't want others to see then to me it is better to keep your diary to yourself and commit to consistent, honest daily logging. So public or private keep on logging.