Struggling to Calorie Count

Just know that if you're just starting out building your frequent foods list, yeah, it's a PIA. Most people use pretty much the same foods over and over, so once you have that list built you might have to add in something new once in a while, but it becomes much easier when you can just check a box and maybe change the weight of something.

I get annoyed with it too. I think I'm subconsciously choosing to eat the same things over and over again because logging is such a pain

It does get easier over time, once you've built up your recent foods list. The more varied your menu is day-to-day or even week-to-week, the longer it will take to build up a usable recents list, so you have to decide where to strike the balance for yourself between a varied diet and convenience in logging.

The system I've hit on for myself, just as an example, is a six-week rotation of lunches and dinners, with breakfast and snacks being basically the same day-to-day or drawn from the same limited pool of items. Maybe I don't have a granola bar AND peanut butter crackers AND a cheese stick AND a piece of fruit AND some yogurt etc etc every day, but when it comes to snacks or side dishes to pack in my lunches for work, I only have to pick from this list of 7-8 things rather than All Possible Snacks, Ever. I know that next week's lunch is going to be pasta salad and dinner will be meatloaf for 2 nights and tuna casserole for 3 (or whatever the case may be), rather than having to figure out a menu from first principles every day or every week. It's streamlined my grocery orders on Instacart, too, since now I've been through the rotation enough times that all the ingredients for those recipes are in my "Buy it Again" tab.

I'll also second the concept of logging in advance so that all you have to do in the moment is follow the plan. I prep the lunches for the workweek on the weekends so I can log the next 5 days in advance on Sunday night, and these days I've been batch-cooking breakfast burritos that I can also log for the whole week all at once. I've been eating the burritos more or less daily M-F for like 7 months now, and I'm not sick of them yet, but I'm not sure what I'll do for breakfast when I do decide to change things up. I'm prone to "analysis paralysis" and have trouble making decisions past a certain point of hunger - I literally can't answer the question "should I eat this granola bar right now" if I wait too long to do that thing, but I know that about myself. I may not have perfect executive functioning all the time, but I do have pattern recognition skills, and I can plan around my future self and her needs. If I already planned to eat this granola bar at 3 PM when I need a boost, then I can just Do That and not worry about blowing my budget because it's already accounted for.

It's also like any skill, you get better and faster at it over time. You might try restricting your options for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks to a smaller list for a few weeks while you build up your recents and get used to logging, period, then start expanding your dietary horizons a bit. I've gotten to the point where my "core" foods are consistent enough and I'm proficient enough with the app that I can branch out and try some new things. It's kind of like driving a car - when you first learn to drive, you have to dedicate so much brainpower to the actual mechanics of operating a vehicle that it can be exhausting and stressful, but eventually you get to the point where you can just Drive, get from point A to point B and get on with your life, without having to think so much about everything that you're doing.