How long does it take for tracking food to become second nat

I can't imagine not grabbing my smartphone and logging in my food and exercises now, and i've only been doing so diligently for two weeks. Tracking your food becomes a quick, fun routine as long as you do it for a few weeks :]

Having an iPhone really helped me make traking food a habit, anything I eat I track almost immediately. Sometimes if I know I'm going to have a rough day I pre-track what I'm going to eat for the day that morning so I don't stray to etng crappy foods. Works for me haha!

If we bite it we write. Sometimes it's an eye opener. I was over 399 yesterday, but it helps me stay honest. It became habit pretty quick becuase there are so many great folks here I can't wait to get on each day. Show up and make friends and you'll be hooked. Good luck!

And complete honesty. Your phone won't explode if your calories are over for the day. But you'll be less frustrated in the long run, because at least you'll understand what is going on.

It's an absolute habit for me. I've been doing it for a few months now. I have an iPhone like most others and that's what really helps. As soon as I'm eating it or right after, it's in the log

How long does it take for tracking food to become second nature? What are everyone's tracking habits? Strict at 7 days a week or do you allow yourself some wiggle room? I really WANT for this to become a habit for me because if I don't I feel like I'm choosing to fail. What did it take for you to make this stick?

I recently hit 250 consecutive days of tracking, and if you think about ALL of the foodie holidays between then and now, you can see that it truly is second nature. I log *everything* I eat - the good, the bad and the ugly, and I usually do it BEFORE I eat so that if the calories or carbs bother me, I can make a different choice.

The hardest part for me has been getting the people I'm with to understand why I grab the iPad at the table. I explain when I'm around new people that I'm not ignoring you - I'm logging my food and I'm doing it for medical reasons. Then I make sure that I don't wander off and check email or FB or MFP so that they can see that I'm taking care of this one important thing rather than burying myself in my electronics instead of interacting with people. People are usually supportive once they know.

Buffets are the hardest because it's "a bite of this; a bite of that". I try to log nothing smaller than 1/8 of a cup even if it was just a taste. That way if take two tastes I don't have to log it again.

Two weeks in and Im addicted.....I grab my phone and log everything! I love the bar code scanner....very convenient!!!! ;-)

Cheat on the food, but never on the logging. It's like that old Ogden Nash poem about sins of commission and sins of omission. You don't enjoy the latter, so you should only engage in the former.

I actually don't have a smartphone and do all logging from my laptop. I try to be as accurate as possible and shoot for overestimating calories and underestimating exercise because I'd rather be pleasantly surprised. I've been logging in for about a month now and I do it as I go (if I'm at home) or at the end of the day (if I'm at work). I really want this to work, so I do it consistently.

It takes 21 days to build or take away a habit... but I found when you're obsessed with MFP like I was when I started, you can make logging a habit really quickly. It helped me to have the MFP app on my phone so I could log my food as I have my meal. If my phone is dead or I am somehow away from it, I track what I eat on paper so I could enter it on the website later.

I track 5-6 days a week.. I usually track everything a day or two in advance. It helps me when I think about what I'm going to eat over the next couple of days and plan all my meals out. For me, there's less temptation that way. I usually skip tracking on the weekends. I've been doing this over a year and the tracking and planning my week has become something I look forward to.