Good Morning

Hello everyone! I have not been on here for about a month. Hope you all have a great day. At our last support meeting in Camden we discussed the real need to journal our intake of food. I hate to write period! I wonder if I record what I am eating if that would work. That may be worth looking at for those of us that really struggle with a journal. If I could train our dog to write I bet she would for a treat! If anyone has a great idea for a food journal please let me know. Thanks, Kevin

Top of the mornin to you Kevin. Good to see you post. I too am so NOT a journal kinda person. One of the very reasons I encourage others to do so ... it really can help us so much. I know this, and yet I really don't like spending time writing down my day, accomplishments, disappointments etc. THis is not new to my personality, I was just given a box I had as a child and it had 4 diaries in it. I think out of those 4 books, I had maybe 2 to 3 weeks total journaled in them, hit and miss. So with that in mind ... I have to push myself. BUT when I do, it really does help me to see trends, see when my eating is not on target, go back and see that when I thought I was not losing that in truth I was only slower ... etc. I like to use www.fitday.com once in a while to get a sense of my daily calorie intake, as well as my proportions of fat, carbs, sodium, etc. It is a great program and it is free. I don't do it daily. Most of the time I find that an icon on my desktop to my word program with a simple document called food, is easier and I find I can pop in and out to record my latest entry that way. Some days I keep it open and record every single glass of water, etc. other days, I have also found that keeping some marbles in a glass on my sink area helps me keep track of my daily whatever ... such as blue marbles for my water, green marbles for my protein, etc etc. Usually I denote an amount to each marble (such as 1 blue marble = 8 oz water & 1 green marble = 8-10 gms protein) etc. It helps me keep track of my daily without having to always run and write it down. I find that the further out I get the easier it gets to "eyeball" my dailys, but at the same time, I get busy and lose track. So this helps. One more thing that really helps me out when I find I am starting to slip ... I find an accountablitly partner and then give the whole truth, nothing but the truth ... the good, the bad and the sometimes very ugly. I did this last week here ... I was struggling once again with not wanting to eat ... and this concerns me, so I posted for all the board to read. Was I always proud of my choices? No way, but I posted them just the same. One of my problems as a pre-op was private eating ... something I enjoyed in private ... not worthy of sharing with anyone. SO, I try to avoid those situations now. I do the majority of eating in public, I try to never eat alone. This is easier said than done sometimes, even with a family around ... so by posting what I have eaten on any given day, it kinda takes the privacy out of it. Does that make any sense??? Anyway, it works for me ... I hope you find a nugget in there somewhere that will make your journey a little easier.

Kevin, Let me tell you the journal is definitely an eye opener for you...do it faithfully for about a week then look at what you did. You may see things you can improve. I am back to it and it has helped alot. Debbie

I like fitday as well. Even if all I find outis protein grams, I just like having their program do it for me. Its free and easy. I have 2 custom foods for the protein drinks too. Goodluck Carol