Question regarding the Food Journal

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions regarding the food journal:

Other beverages aside, do you record your water intake?

Some days I eat cereal for breakfast.  Do you eat 3/4 a cup of cereal and then 1/4 cup of skim milk OR do you do 1 cup of cereal and then pour some milk in because it fits in the cup without it overflowing?

I have been recording the amount of food but not the caloric intake. Should I be doing that?

Thanks!

Mel

...oh and one more question I forgot...are energy bars acceptable?  My friend told me about Luna bars which are all natural...but it does have cane sugar in it and I am not sure if the flavours are okay...chocolate, caramel, etc.  I see that they could be considered wrong but when you drink protein smoothies flavoured chocolate it isn't as if they taste like Cadbury's. lol

 I laughed very hard at your cereal description. Do 1 cup of cereal and add skim milk on it in your bowl. I was told I didn't have to measure my skim milk and never have. I also do not measure my water intake and sometimes I will put if I had tea or something but not usually. 

I have no clue about the luna bars. I know we cannot use ensures since they have too much sugar. I would say no and ask at next appointment before you eat them.

Oh I am glad you laughed. I find it funny too.  Can you just see me pouring my cereal in the morning? LOL

Thanks for the advice.  It's good to know what others are doing.

Each person is given different guidelines. I was told to track everything including calories and vitamins- other people were told to just write it down.

I think in the end it is what works best for you. I know for me I love myfitnesspal online tracker which has a mobile app that reports back to the online journal and tracks for you. It works for me because I have no excuse to ignore tracking cause I always have my phone with me.

Now that I am post-surg, I track protein and calories, but I measure everything too, even if that just means counting how many crackers I am eating.

As to the Luna bars- I was never told to avoid anything unless it put me over my calorie goal for the day.

The journal and tracking clicked for me when I was told to stop looking at it as a chore and start seeing it as part of my on-going treatment, similar to a pain journal or sleep journal for people going through treatment for pain management or sleeplessness.

You are in treatment for obesity and it is for life. You are doing awesome and as long as you use the resources provided to you, you will do really well.

Hi Chance22!

Thank you for your words of encouragement.  I really enjoy the journal.  I have been using an app called Lose it!   It let's me scan barcodes with my Iphone and puts it straight in...however it is an Amercian app so it doesn't recognize everything and then I just have to add it or search for something like it in the database.

I have no idea how many calories I should have a day.  I have just been following the one cup diet but I meet my surgeon on Monday and I am going to ask him about it.  My caloric intake has been low...under 800....somedays 500.  I don't know if that is wrong or not but I have been avoiding all junk and then things like potatoes and pasta.  I have been eating fish and chicken a lot. I want my protein first.  I usually do 3/4 a cup of chicken or fish and then 1/4 cup of veggies or brown rice.

Now that you are post surgery do you feel the affects of hunger anymore?  I have had headaches all week. 

Thanks Mel

I haven't used LoseIt but myfitnesspal has the scanner too and the ability to add Canadian foods if they are not already in the database, but I find that 99% of the foods I eat are in the database already and I just have to enter my portion size.

As far as how much you should be eating and all that other great stuff, I am going to give you the very best piece of advice I have gotten during this journey. "If you can not maintain a change for the rest of your life, don't do it." So if you can not commmit to going to the gym for 3 hours everyday for the rest of your life, don't start out doing it only to beat yourself when life intrudes and you only manage to walk in place, in front of your TV for a half hour two nights a week. For me, this meant having to reevaluate the REALITY of the changes I wanted to make. I wanted to charge in all gung-ho and make a million changes and when it all boiled down, I had to make small changes that I could maintain forever.

I never add sugar to anything. ANYTHING! That doesn't mean that I don't eat sweets on occasion- but I have committed to making that one small change.

I eat out only when I am with people. No more picking up drive-thru just because I'm lazy.

So, I say measure, track and keep the momentum going but cut yourself some slack and know that if you are being too rigid you are setting yourself up for a headache.

And the headaches- I know when I am calorie starved or haven't had all my caffeine for the day, by 4pm I'm hitting the tylenol bottle.

I still have hunger but it is different then it was before surgery. Now I can forget to eat for an insanely long time (not good) but when hunger hits me it's like I'm an addict and get all shaky, there is nothing at all as important as getting food into me NOW. If I eat by the clock and ignore my body entirely, I do much better.

Thank you for the advice! I enjoy hearing from others about their journey and what they have gotten out of it.

You have caffeine?  I was told by the surgeon that I can't have it but I hope to have a coffee after surgery...in moderation of course.

Thank you again!

 Mel, 

Chance I do no think is in the Red Deer program, so her guidelines are a bit different. We do not need to be tracking calories too much right now with our 1 cup diet, but as I have been told you are right to try to get in protien. Aim for 70%ish of your 1 cup to be protien. 

I also saw Christine tonight and asked about the cereal and luna bars to verify. She said exactly what I said about cereal. Skim milk is "free" so you just measure your 1 cup of cereal and add the milk to that. For the luna bars she said read the label and if you are still unsure bring it in to the next appointment. She said she is unfamiliar with luna bars. 

Hope this helps!!

Hi Mykmini,

Thank you so much for asking Christine those questions for me.  That's nice to know about the cereal. I have to laugh at it all because I am trying to follow the rules to a T. lol   I should go and buy a luna bar before my second appointment Monday and bring it with me.

Mel