Do you log when you're in a bad place, eating-wise?

Options
2

Replies

  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
    Options
    I almost always log, but sometimes I get off track and it’s just too stressful to deal with it. Instead of waiting to the next day to get back on track, I worry about my next meal. For example, if I get off track during the day at work, I eat exactly as I would have planned at dinner time. My meal times are fairly consistent calories from day to day. So I find it encouraging to be in track one meal at a time from an emotional standpoint instead of stressing about what is already in the past.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    Options
    I've been logging daily for about 4 years pretty honestly. Generally I plan my eating and eat food prepared from home so choices are limited. I don't follow a very restrictive diet just watch calorie intake so it is not really bad.
    If I eat over my goal consistantly I'm not going to lose weight whether I log it or not. Logging can help me see what I am really doing and if there is a pattern.
    I'm not fooling myself if I don't log. I have a pretty fair idea of calorie counts in my head by now. I know what I am doing if I eat over my goal.
    I am not an emotional eater. I don't look at one high calorie day or week, feel doomed and just give up. Every day I get up and start over again with new choices.
  • dhiammarath
    dhiammarath Posts: 834 Member
    Options
    Right now, I log it, and don't stress it. I want accountability right now, so I log everything. There have been years when I only wanted to maintain and I needed a logging break, so then? I might not log it. For now, though, I am logging everything so that I know what and when to make adjustments.

    I don't stress (too much) when I go over, however. I can adjust the next day... it's like sound on a TV. Some shows are really loud and you have to adjust the volume down. Other shows are really soft and so the volume goes up. Food is a constant adjustment -- for life, for choices, for the unexpected.

    Whatever happens today, I know that tomorrow can (and most likely will) be different somehow depending on what i choose!

    Good luck!!
  • DaisyHamilton
    DaisyHamilton Posts: 575 Member
    Options
    I know I "should" but I don't. Like you, it makes me feel bad and not want to keep logging. I know that if I did log though it would probably shame me into keeping on track. But instead I just skip it, get it out of my system, and continue later when I'm "back." It overwhelms me.

  • BecomingMoreAwesome
    BecomingMoreAwesome Posts: 150 Member
    Options
    I do when I can. When I stop logging, I know I’m really down in the dumps.
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,871 Member
    Options
    Log everything, learn from it and adjust your choices. When I first started logging I was amazed at what I assumed were bad choices and what I assumed were good choices in food. I think I was four months into logging when found out bacon was only 45 calories a slice! To me, it tasted like it was 500 calories a slice so I ignorantly didn't eat bacon for several months. There are many food and recipes that are advertised or reputed to be low calorie, high calorie, or healthy or unhealthy that are exaggerations. There are many lower calorie/ diet foods that are much lower in taste and texture but just ever so slightly lower in calories than their full calorie cousin. You have to log all this to discover and really learn what works best for you. You don't have to share your food log with anyone, but you need to be honest with yourself and learn what you like and what you don't like.
  • kabrina30
    kabrina30 Posts: 94 Member
    Options
    I log 95% of the time. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have those days when I just said screw it. But they’re rare!
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Options
    Logging everything keeps me from going over the limit for the week.

    A day here and there is fine. I just make sure the weekly net calories balance.

    (Been logging 1345 days. In maintenance nearly 1000 days.)
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    Options
    I'm not confident that I've ever been OUT of a bad place, eating-wise. So, sure. I log.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    Options
    Yup. Helps me with accountability as well as seeing where any fat gain came from. Nobody’s perfect 100% of the time. Log and keep moving forward.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    Options
    Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

    My project for the new year involves a spreadsheet. The data nerd in me won't let me not log after that starts. Even if I have to make guesses, I'll log.
  • 1BlueAurora
    1BlueAurora Posts: 439 Member
    Options
    I log the good days and the bad days. It's a diary I can review every so often to see what works. Maybe I'll see that I eat more when I feel sad. Then I decide to take a different tack. Maybe when I feel upset, I'll put on my walking shoes and take a walk for 30 minutes. That's a half hour of not snacking. Win!
  • leahkathleen13
    leahkathleen13 Posts: 272 Member
    Options
    It has taken me three years here to log my bad days. I do so now and it helps me. It doesn’t stop me but it gives me the data that I need to understand what is happening. I realized why under eating was leading to the bad days and I can try to fix it now.

    It has become a habit.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
    Options
    I know I haven’t replied yet but I’ve been reading everyone’s responses! Mostly it is just great to read that you’ve managed to work through these things ❤️ I’ve started logging again, and I’m actually under maintenance for 2 days now. This really helped. Thank you for sharing ❤️❤️ I don’t know if I could log how bad things get for weeks, months at a time. But yes, a day or a weekend here and there, I can log those. But the whole time, it was too much. But I am back now 🙂 🤞
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
    Options
    Millicent3015 wrote: »
    I log whatever I can. When I don't log is when I know I've gone so over calories that I personally don't see the point in logging because I know what I ate will have caused some weight gain. My eating went out of the window in October when winter set in and my mood went downhill. I bought a light therapy lamp and have been using it all day every day because I need that simulated sunlight. It's helped improve my mood, which in turn has helped me stay more on track with my eating. But as it's holiday season, I don't have any issue with indulging myself a couple times a week. Even so, I've been terrified to weigh myself because I thought I'd put on tons of weight from overeating for three months. But I weighed myself today and I've put on less than 4lbs. Turns out I've been eating optimally more often than I haven't.

    Winter overeating is a thing. Our ancestors would've overeaten in order to lay down fat stores that would keep them alive through harsh seasons. We still have that evolutionary hangover because humans evolve very slowly. Most of us no longer need to lay down extra fat, but our brains haven't caught up with that fairly new development, so we still feel that urge to eat more in anticipation of successfully getting through the harsher months.

    You're not failing. Your mood is low, perhaps due to circumstances, weather, physical/hormonal changes, and your eating pattern has changed temporarily, perhaps due to that 40,000 years-out-of-touch caveperson brain yelling at you to put on some weight so you don't starve to death before spring or get so weak you can't hunt that woolly mammoth you've had your eye on since summer.

    Log whatever you can, so you can look back and pinpoint any patterns where your diet changed, and try and formulate a strategy for coping with those pitfalls in the future. Try not to beat yourself up with thoughts of "bad/junk" foods. No food is good, bad, clean or junk. Food is essentially neutral. How you eat it is what's important. If you can gradually lessen the frequency of eating more fatty, carb loaded things, and increase your intake of lower saturated fats, complex carbs, vegetables, fruits, legumes etc, you can gradually return to the eating pattern that best suits your long term health & wellness goals. Cut yourself some slack. You've identified the issue and can start taking steps to tackle it.

    @Millicent3015 I have problems in the winter too. I'm amazed at how much the weather affects my mood. Here are my strategies for dealing with it:
    * I taper off my anti-depressant in the spring and go back on it in the fall. (I personally just don't need it half the year.)
    * I bundle up and force myself outside during my lunch break every non-rainy day. I'll walk, or hike, or snowshoe (although there's been no opportunity for that yet this year). Lately I've been clearing the trail along a stone wall in the woods behind my house. My brain really likes goal-oriented projects like this, and I'll be sad when it's done.
    * On rainy days I lift weights.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    Options
    Yes, always log, no exceptions. Otherwise you can't really tell if you are doing it often enough to completely sabotage your efforts or not.
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    Options
    I just got back to logging. I had logged for over a YEAR every day, but then went on a retreat in August for 4 days when I was not using any electronics. That threw me off. I could never get steady again, and then in September started a full-time job (I had been working part time). I managed to only gain a few pounds from August-November, but in the last four weeks I gained another 4. I am about 10 lbs. up from my lowest weight (since I started logging in July 2017) which was in June 2018. I weighed myself today and that was really a shock. I thought that I had developed better habits, but I went back to eating about 1000 calories more per day than what I should be eating... (which was how I ate in July 2017).

    So I've realized (which I knew before, but I was too stressed with my new job, death in the family to focus on my eating ) that I have to log. I am determined to get back on track and that means LOGGING daily. I was only about 1/2 way to my goal weight. I still have about 70 lbs. to go and I'm not giving up! I definitely do not want to go back to what I weighed about 18 months ago! It is scary though how quick it can come back if one is not paying attention.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    Options
    I do and don't.

    I still log to stay in the habit but I also find myself logging dishonestly. By this I mean I recognise that I'm 'off the rails' be it intentionally or not because my logging won't be accurate. This so far hasn't been a big problem for me as I found that how much I've strayed means very little when compared to how long I've strayed.

    By this I mean that inaccurately logging one or two REALLY bad day hasn't really impacted my progress too much as I've been able to get 'back on track' quickly. Saying that dishonest logging does require a little bit of self honesty. You can't have days like that and NOT expect there to be a slight slowing of progress so I take any scale movements in my stride.

    I think a key for me with being able to get back on track quickly is the way I view these bad days. I no longer see them as a failure rather as an indulgence. I realised that feeling guilty after the fact was just a waste of energy and just ruins what was at the time an enjoyable experience.

    Regret doesn't burn extra calories.

  • jesspen91
    jesspen91 Posts: 1,383 Member
    Options
    If I'm in my own home or eating food that i have prepared myself I will log everything. The problems come in social situations especially when alcohol is involved. It gets so tricky to estimate all the variables and I end up thinking 'why bother?'.
  • WJS_jeepster
    WJS_jeepster Posts: 224 Member
    Options
    Like a few others have said, the weather/sunlight really affects me. I realize I've gotten into somewhat of an annual pattern: do really well in the spring and summer and then September comes and something always happens (illness of myself or kids, house disaster, car disaster -whatever). Just as I'm getting back into it comes October and shorter days and worse weather. We had super early cold weather this year and my running just stopped in it's tracks. I have logged a few days here and there but just have been struggling to get back to it regularly.

    One thing I did do differently this Fall is I didn't stop daily weigh-ins. I think that's helped in that I'm only 4 lbs up over my September low. As long as I force myself to look at it and record it daily I haven't gone fully off the rails.

    Each day I try to convince myself that I will not wait for New Year's to get back to logging. At this point I have 2 weeks. I would like to say that I will use those 2 weeks wisely and log and stay close to my calorie goal. But to be realistic - I have 4 Christmas parties plus Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in those 2 weeks. Maybe my best bet is to just do the best I can those days and hit it hard with the rest of the resolutioners on New Year's. Sigh.

Categories