I am going to post my diary from my diet fix reset, including my notes from the audio book on Fridays.
It's LONG! but I like referring to old post I made on monthly discussions. My day 2 was actually 31st of December and I wrote the below few days ago
Day 2 Keeping Food Diary
End of Day Checklist (If anything’s missed, restart Day 2 again tomorrow, and don’t spend even a moment beating yourself up about it—life happens.)
☐ Your home-cooked foods were all weighed and measured
☐ Your food was completely diarized, nonjudgmentally, in real time—good, bad, and ugly, without artificial restrictions
☐ You read tomorrow’s daily plan and you’re ready for it
I tried to take few notes from the chapter but they aren't direct quotes.
Calorie counting/food diary
Comparing to budget, is it worth it? Can I afford it? It’s not that you can’t have high calorie foods. If your budget isn’t where it should be you can track where your spending are before making adjustments – that’s his suggestion for today for calorie counting too. It can’t be used for judgement; it should not be used to say how much you are allowed or are you good or bad. Guide for future decisions, not judge past decisions.
What to track
What and how much you ate, what time, how many calories, exercise, emotions/thoughts/concerns around food, triggers linked to dietary struggles and DDD score. Days degree of difficulties - rank 1 to 10 each day hunger & cravings.
Example – if you weren’t hungry all day or you found it easy to eat a treat in moderation – 1. If you were hungry all day, you had too much snacks in the evening – 10.
Time Once you get used to doing it, it will take you 3 to 5 minutes a day, initially more – 20 minutes.
Food Scape Most people eat same things over and over again. Up to 5 different breakfasts, 5 to 10 lunches and 10 to 20 dinners. It also helps to know the go to orders when eating out. It’s not about choosing the lowest calorie item on the menu, it’s about choosing the lowest you are actually happy with. Reducing the frequency of the higher calories, finding ways to lighten it etc.
Habit formation takes much longer than 21 days. It takes consciously reminding yourself, over and over again what is it you are trying to do. Food diary can be awareness tool, the few minutes you take to check in can be reminder of why is it you do what you do
Investigation tool What works for most folks may not work for you, having data to go back to you can identify and make adjustments
Completeness record as you go. Don’t leave it for the end of the day. You could write the foods down and find the calories later if you find time to lookup calories time consuming. Calories are not bad, and you shouldn’t think about calorie ceiling. Keep accurate record, be honest. Don’t stop recording if you go over your calories – life is dynamic, so are your calorie needs. Each day is different, you are aiming for the smallest amount of calories you are happy with not the smallest you can tolerate. Some days you just need more calories to be happy
Accuracy. Use scales to measure. They are not there to limit you, they are there to inform you. Studies show that most people, even dietitians underestimate calories/portions
Find the way to like it. Refuse to let the food diary to judge you, use it as information. Try to keep calories lower, while you still enjoy the food. Look for ways to adjust recipes, or cut food not worth the calories. Be consistent, not perfect. It’s best choices you an enjoy, not best choice there is. If you miss to track one meal pick up where you left, try to recall the meal missed. Don’t "start again tomorrow".
Perfectionism – you don’t like how your day went, you eat more than how many calories you planned, you don’t track it and you tell yourself you will start again tomorrow. All or nothing – ends up being nothing. Track it even if you don’t like how your day went.
Do you have to do it forever? So what if you did? It takes 3 minutes. Some people will need to, and no way to guess who will this be. Some don’t and find it easy to maintain after period of time. Ultimately if it takes 3 minutes a day and if you finding it hard to manage your weight and if keeping an eye on your weight is important
And my day 2 comments
Day 2 End of Day Checklist (If anything’s missed, restart Day 2 again tomorrow, and don’t spend even a moment beating yourself up about it—life happens.)
☐ Your home-cooked foods were all weighed and measured - done
☐ Your food was completely diarized, nonjudgmentally, in real time—good, bad, and ugly, without artificial restrictions (done, with estimations for meals out
☐ You read tomorrow’s daily plan and you’re ready for it - will do this morning on my walk
Tracking calories is not for everyone, there is no hope in hell this will work for DH. He will do much better with something like Slimming world with less tracking and focusing on getting his 1/3rd of his plate being fruit and veg.
Dr Yoni has obesity clinic in Canada and his book is based on experience with his patients
He offers adjustments/advise on many other plans - weight watchers, paleo, low carbs etc so he is not lobbying that one way suits all. There is a lot in the book, there is no way for me to give all info and is what I am taking form it. Lose it the way you want to live, figure out how to enjoy it is his thing. I find MFP easy so that's what I will do
It was good to listen to day two yesterday on my daily walk. Lately I have been doing the all or nothing. I am "good" all day and at 8 pm I would have few chocolates or cheese and crackers, I do not like the fact that I didn't stick to the plan and I opt for not track it and start again tomorrow. Because I go off until tomorrow, accountability is gone - it's messy so I may as well.. First it builds expectation that tomorrow something will be off limits as I will be good, second today feel like a very limited opportunity to indulge and feel that it won't count - nice fresh start tomorrow. It's the diet, on and off mentality. Writing when things don't go by plan is even more important. Tracking the good bad and ugly, estimating instead of skipping tracking meal out etc keeps the awareness there. I get to ask myself, do I want more? no fear that tomorrow I will have to be anything else, going over the calories is part of life - not every day is equal. Getting in the habit of being honest/aware, not expecting to be perfect was a game changer and I have forgotten about it.
I took few minutes to estimate my food yesterday. We had lunch out to our favourite restaurant, walk at the sea side and gelato after as we do every 31st of December. I was good 650 calories over my calorie needs, and that's with very brief estimates. I didn't want to leave it to 1st of January. It was a good day, I had plan to enjoy it and I did so. There will be more days like this ahead