Food Log Part 1

I had kept a food log during previous attempts to lose weight, with moderate success. I'd keep a log of every morsel of food I ate, then enter it every day on http://mypyramidtracker.gov That system worked fairly well, I'd lose 10-20 pounds at a time, for periods of 2-3 months. This website is great -- it gives you the total calories eaten, and a detailed nutritional breakdown of all the important nutrients in food. The problem I had with this system is that it didn't work well to figure out WHERE my food problems were -- it would only give daily totals.

So then I tried something new -- I made my own log sheets on MS Excel that would include subtotals during the day. This way, I would know where the big calories were hiding, and I could plan my meals for the day fairly well. I also had a food scale, calculator, and laptop in my kitchen that were dedicated to weighing/calulating/looking up calories in my food on http://nutrition.gov

For the first several weeks, I did have daily calorie goals that I would try very hard to keep under. As I lost weight this calorie goal would shirnk, as I needed less calories just to breathe all day. However, after a while I relaxed my goals a bit and just tried to focus on what is "reasonable." Reasonable portion sizes, reasonable meals, reasonable daily totals. Some meals/days I would go over or under, and that was fine, I was recalibrating my eating habits to try to conform to USDA portion recommendations and daily calorie totals.

Keeping subtotals during the day was critical to my success. This way, I would see where I was already at, and could tailor my expectations for my next meal accordingly.

I also broke up the monotony of keeping a food log, by going 30 days keeping track of other nutritional information. For example, for 30 days, in addition to tracking calories, I also tracked sodium content. Another 30 days I tracked the helpings of fresh fruits and vegetables. Another 30 days I tracked my fat calories, etc. Doing this was educational in helping me to understand what foods were healthy, and which weren't. I could still eat bacon, for instance, but learned that 8 slices spoils my whole day's calories and sodium. 2-4 slices are more reasonable.

I did learn that it is almost impossible to eat at resturaunts. The portion sizes are way to big. A steak dinner at Longhorn, for example, is 2300 calories without any sour cream on the potato! That is a whole day's worth of calories in one meal! A 22 ounce steak is not reasonable. An 8 ounce steak is.

I also weighed myself every morning, and tracked that on my food log as well. There are daily fluctuations in weight that aren't a big deal, and after a while I learned to ignore that noise and focus on the signal.

I realize some of this advice is contrary to the advice of some health care professionals, although it is harmonious with the advice of other health care professionals. I guess the key is to do what works for you. I used this method to lose 50 pounds in about 10 months, and it worked for me to recalibrate my eating habits. I have gained about 5-10 of those pounds back, but I do feel better with this, I think I was a bit too low.

I also did a lot of yoga. That helped my body to pay attention to what my body was telling me, like when I am full or need food.

But for me, the key was keeping updated daily subtotals of my calories, to re-learn what reasonable eating really is.