Do you food journal?

Initially post-op, I was VERY good about keeping a food journal on fitday.com. However now it's been like 2 months or more since I entered anything in there except my weight. How are you all doing on food journaling? Are you or aren't you? If not, do you think you should? I need to. My weight loss has slowed down and I'm eating too much sugar and carbs lately. It'd be interesting to see how much I am truly eating an such and take control again. Trisha

Trisha, I also have stopped journaling. I know it is important and I should start back up. One of my problems is that I don't like to cook so I tend to eat prepared meals like lean cuisine or healthy choice. I know those have a lot of salt and more carbs than I should be having. take care, corgimom

I still use fitday everyday. Greg (342/199/175)

I have to use fitday or I get too stressed out and worried that I'm eating too much. But then again I'm sort of anal retentive...lol It keeps me on track. Scarlette

Hi Trisha. I confess I lapsed with journaling for a time, too. I hit a 4 month plateau when I was just 2 months after surgery, and despite everything I tried the damned thing wouldn't break. At the tail end the plateau I got really bummed out about everything and stopped recording everything I ate and being so anal about nutrition. Of course, the plateau broke shortly thereafter, at least temporarily. I got really bad about eating certain things during that non-journaling time. I went back to drinking Diet Pepsi ( a total addiction ) and eating a cookie here and there, and even other things. Not having to admit to what I ate in the journal gave me way too much leeway, I think. (By the way, I don't think the break of my plateau had anything to do with my poor eating. I think it was just time). In any event, I'm back to journaling every day, and EVERY single thing I eat. I'm also trying really hard to diversify what I eat. I was doing a lot of simple foods - ground beef plain, veggies plain, an apple, or whatever. Not ever a whole meal, with 3 food groups on a plate. I've been working towards eating complete, complimentary meals these days. Like a meat, veggie and maybe a bit of rice for a dinner. It's much harder to do, but I find it's easier to stay on track if I eat like a "normal" person. Good luck to you and congrats on your success so far! Mary Ellen

I used to journal. I got tired of it. I figured if I was doing what I should be doing I didn't have anything to worry about. Its been working well for me.

I was really good about journaling in the beginning. Now I'm not so good I am guessing that I'm not getting enough protein or liquids, but I don't know for sure. I say that I'm going to get back to it and I do it for about a day and then that's it. I know in all my past weight loss attempts, journaling and weighing food is not something that I could keep up in the long run. I think that If I can journal occasionally and track a full day, that would be good. That would show me if I'm on track with my eating... kind of like putting on your retainer periodically to see if your teeth are still in good shape after you remove your braces. So today, I vow to track all my food! (thanks for the reminder). I don't use fit day. I keep track of it in my palm pilot, it's always with me so it's convenient. Even a notepad in your purse would be good. I only track my fluids and protein right now. Good Luck, Suzanne 285/185/135

i still use fitday religiously, though i had a 2 week span when my hubby came home from the desert that i forgot, hehe. it really helps me get a hold on bad habits or problems starting to surface, and i can nip them in the bud.

I decided I wasn't being very good about what I had been eating and decided to do Weigh****chers just to make sure I wasn't eating over the calories on there. The first week I did that I never actually got up to all the points they say I should be eating, but I managed a 4lb weight loss that week when all the previous weeks had only been 1lb or so. Of course I fell off the wagon this last week and only lost 1lb again. So I do think journaling is a good idea. It makes you think twice about eating certain foods. Kerri -115lbs

I used fitday religiously until about a month ago. Now I am back at it again. My food intake has way toooo much carbs