How do you organize your day?

aklitten
aklitten Posts: 237 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
SO....how do you plan out your food day? Do you log everything before you eat it? Is your dinner planned before you even get your day started? And do you think about your exercise cals before you go through your day so that you know what you can eat later in the day?
I feel like I'm failing miserably lately. I am not feeling like I am losing, which technically I'm past the losing phase and into the "toning up" phase, even though I haven't started strength training yet. And I used to be a daily weigher, but I've sworn off the scale for the month of March. Perhaps it's a combination of fears I have, but I'm wondering what y'all do to make it through each day?!

Replies

  • jaxbeck
    jaxbeck Posts: 537 Member
    I plan my meals & log as I eat
  • knightreader
    knightreader Posts: 813 Member
    i eat the same thing for breakfast everyday...an apple. then i plan on having the same thing for lunch every day...a salad with cut up grilled chicken cutlet. then dinner is whatever me and the wife can agree on and usually decided by mid afternoon. my snacks thru out the day vary. i log all this after dinner. i find that if i log it after dinner i can accurately log what i ate during the day AND it will prevent me from eating anything else after i log my daily food since i don't want to sign back on just to log a snack. so it actually prevents me from snacking after dinner. i don't count exercise calories...if i am trying to lose weight, i need to exercise and eat less, so if i gain 200 exercise calories, i feel i shouldn't be eating 200 more calories a day. find what works for you and stick with it!
  • michmill98
    michmill98 Posts: 83
    While I'm a planner at almost everything else, I don't do as well with planning my meals ahead of time so I log as eat. Since my breakfasts are usually in the 200-250 calorie range and lunch is my big meal, I've got flexibility for dinner/snacks. I go out for lunch M-F with a group from work. Since most of the time we don't know where we're going until everyone gets to the parking lot, I can't plan my lunch ahead of time. Most of the places we go though are local / mom & pop places so that makes it hard to find accurate nutrition info. Even so, I'm still losing as I've become more aware of portion sizes and I'm more consistent with exercising.

    My husband is working out of town during the week so that makes my evening more flexible since I'm only cooking for one and this way I can tweak my meals to fit into my remaining macros. For instance, today's lunch was total splurge at Smashburger, so I ended up having a light dinner because I blew my calories at lunch. Or if I had a salad at lunch, supper might be a veggie and cheese omelet for the protein and calcium boost.

    Edited to add - Sometimes I eat back all of my exercise calories and sometimes I don't - it just depends on how hungry I am
  • nnylee
    nnylee Posts: 811 Member
    I sort of get an idea of what I'm going to eat, sometimes I plan them out, but they're not set in stone. I log after I eat. :)
  • ddiestler
    ddiestler Posts: 353 Member
    Each morning while laying in bed planning out my day I plan what I'm going to eat. Breakfast is usually 200-300 something..like greek yogurt and toast, cereal, granola bar etc.. Then everyday at 10:30 I eat cottage cheese with 2tbsp sunflower seeds. I plan a 300 calorie lunch which varies..

    I plan a week of meals ahead of time so I do go ahead and put my dinners into MFP..that way I know how much I can have for lunch..I can either add a few more things or eliminate something..

    Planning for me is key..hope this helps
  • nk17
    nk17 Posts: 141 Member
    I have two or three favorites that I've saved as meals that I eat for breakfast. I know what they are and how much they cost. My latest favorite is one egg with Baby Bel Light cheese and Tillamook Cheddar cheese. I find this fills me up pretty well for 220 cal. and 1 carb. Or I have a half cup old fashioned oats with a quarter cup fresh blueberries stirred in. 171 cal. 32 carbs. I log after I eat because I know what to expect. I decide on lunch shortly before lunch time and log it in before I eat it. My usual is a salad with a grilled chicken breast on it and dressing on the side, which you can get at almost any place. Once in a while I pack a lunch, but I'm always running late in the mornings even when I get up at 4. Don't understand that. Dinner I always log before I eat so I can make sure not to go over. Like this evening I ordered 8 oz. steak, but realized I should only eat 6 oz. to be in a good position. I also have a couple snacks in between meals and log those before I eat them too. My goal is to have my cals and carbs spaced fairly evenly throughout the day, but I haven't been terribly successful at that. Seems like my morning and noon meals are too light and my evening ones too heavy. Today I added a banana for breakfast, but that was too many carbs with the oats and blueberries, so back to trying something else tomorrow. I keep several low cal snacks around because sometimes my tummy will complain, so I'll stuff it with a sugar-free popsicle or a diet Jello and swig some more water.
  • Donnacoach
    Donnacoach Posts: 540 Member
    I try and plan out my meals the night before. Because of insomnia, I never know if I will have the energy to work out the following day though, so I don't account for those until I actually work out. I am not touching a scale until March 31st. I was focused way to much on that instead of what was happening to my body instead of losing the weight. I have lost many many inches, but to me, it's depressing as all out doors not to see those scales move DOWN.
  • angelashay42
    angelashay42 Posts: 286
    I eat the same thing every day for breakfast. Then, after eating whatever I want for lunch, I log in and plug in everything to see how many calories I have left for dinner. Then I plan a meal that fits that many calories. Has been working fine for me.
  • aklitten
    aklitten Posts: 237 Member
    It's really interesting to see how people log food. So, now, how about exercise? If you eat back your cals (which I do), how do you factor that into your caloric intake for the day?
  • 81Katz
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
    I pretty much try to mentally plan the day before. It just makes it easier. For example if I cooked chicken last night and had leftovers I would say to myself ... hmmmm what can I make tomorrow? Be it lunch or dinner. I usually come up with something like using the leftover chicken on a tortilla, maybe add some lettuce and a spritzer dressing. Or I might heat the chicken and tortilla and then add some fresh homemade salsa on top. Or I might just have a simple chicken salad with romaine and spinach, other veggies too.

    I also log as I eat. Most days I either have oatmeal or an omelet for breakfast and I know the side is usually one piece of toast with no sugar jam and usually a fruit piece or fruit (normally) berries on the oatmeal. The omelet is almost always spinach and peppers, sometimes black beans and cheese.

    Just stuff like that. It helps to mentally plan meals and leftovers. I sometimes write out my meals for the week, normally just the dinners. Breakfast and lunch for me is pretty easy to plan.

    I also write down everything I use and weigh food so then it's easy to log later. No oops "I forgot" to add something.
  • Blueberry09
    Blueberry09 Posts: 821 Member
    It's really interesting to see how people log food. So, now, how about exercise? If you eat back your cals (which I do), how do you factor that into your caloric intake for the day?

    For me it's easy because I work out in the morning before work. On workdays I log my day while I'm eating breakfast. I know what my snacks are and what my lunch will be (most days - sometimes we have a catered lunch and then it's-- surprise!) We tend to eat out (a lot) so if I know where we're going I have most of those meals logged so I can tell what will fit into my daily allocation with my exercise already factored in. If I'm cooking at home, I usually know in the morning what I'll be making for dinner so that makes it pretty easy. Then I can decide if it's Haagen-Dazs or Skinny Cow for dessert :)
  • jessmars
    jessmars Posts: 131
    I check my fridge and pantry in the morning and plan out what Im going to eat for the day...log it in MFP to check that Im within parameters. Eat and Pack my food for the day.....then if I exercise I know I have a little more wiggle room for dinner when I get home.
  • aklitten
    aklitten Posts: 237 Member
    Any more thoughts for people to share?
  • hdlb123
    hdlb123 Posts: 112 Member
    I plan/log everything for the day in the morning (dinner meal plans are done two weeks in advance in our house). If I decide to eat something different during the day, I just adjust as needed.
  • katglaze
    katglaze Posts: 45 Member
    I take my lunch to work 5 days a week. I have that saved in my meals. I always drink coffee, so my coffee combo is saved. Once a week I eat out, so that lunch is lite and the dinner is heavy. My breakfast is a moving number, I cannot figure out my lifestyle and healthy breakfast I like. So no need to save that. Dinner is planned ahead by my shopping list but I wait till I am eating or cooking it to log it. Water and exercise I log as I do it. Overall my days are pretty planned, but that is because I know if I don't I overeat.
  • runnercheryl
    runnercheryl Posts: 1,314 Member
    Wherever possible, I plan and log my meals in advance. If I'm walking to work, I know I'll have about 500 calories extra to use up, so I grab some snacks to add to what I eat during the day. If I'm not, I don't know how much I'll end up burning but I know it won't be much over a hundred, tops, so I don't eat the extra until the evening when I know what I have available. If I change what I eat during the day, I aim to log in online, and to log it before I eat it. If not, I make a good estimate and add it whenever I can, removing other things later in the day if I find that my estimate is wrong.
  • moonsforeyes
    moonsforeyes Posts: 228
    I plan out my meals! Honestly for the past couple of weeks, I have been eating the same things almost every day. I also have a set time for when I eat those meals.

    For example breakfast every day is either one of the following two:
    Kashi go Lean cereal with banana slices and soy milk
    A whole grain bagel with natural peanut butter and banana slices

    I used to go out and spend money on a ton of different food items so that I would have variety. But I found that a lot of the stuff would go to waste because I simply didn't want to eat them! Especially junk foods. (I never wanted to waste calories on them because of how unsatisfying they are)

    So why don't you try that? I normally plan my meals for the following the day the night before. If I exercise that day, I will change/adjust it so that I eat a majority of my workout calories back. (normally like a greek yogurt with fruit or carrots and hummus)
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