When to give up doing food diaries???

MandiNKel

MandiNKel

Full Member
I've been doing SW for years now and I know it's a lifestyle change, and that means we can't be doing food diaries for life.
This week so far (from Tuesday) I've not wrote things down, still kept track of my syns on iPhone calculator. I feel so out of control with not writing things down. I know I'm ok with my syns yet feel it's been a bad week as I can't see what I've had. Don't feel I'm ready to give up my food diary days yet and going to keep one for rest of the week, once I'm half stone away from target may try to give it up again then.

Arrhh it's so doing my head in :/

How many others feel like this?
And when is the right time to stop?
 
MandiNKel said:
I've been doing SW for years now and I know it's a lifestyle change, and that means we can't be doing food diaries for life.
Click to expand...

Why not?

I have been doing SW at home for 32 weeks now and write my food in a notebook every day and don't see that stopping. Not only does it keep me right for they day, but I can look back and see weightloss trends and it reminds me of meals if I am struggling for ideas. I wouldn't want to give that up.
 
Hi there

As of the 12th of April I will have been doing SW for a year too :D

I love my diary and keeping track of what Im eating and even when I get to target I still think that I will (initially at least) meal plan for the week and spend that 2 mins each morning writing down what I plan to have for the day and then a couple of mins in an evening updating what i have actually had. I know it sounds a bit OTT -BUT for me it will be a small price to pay for staying on track...
 
SW don't encourage you to keep a food diary through out the journey, that's why you only get 4 food diaries in a pack and they aren't left out for you to freely take

I've been doing SW on & off (off bit is a couple of month then I return) for around 7yrs now.

I write down in a diary, it's not realistic to keep a food diary for the rest of your life. And to be honest I don't want to feel that a food diary is the be all and end all it's only a tool to help along the way.
 
I did a food diary for a while but generally only do one now if i'm concerned whether i'm fully on track - about to start one again!!!
 
i dont think i will ever stop - whether in time (Target) it will be in my head, i dont know - but until then i am there its very hard to say! x
 
I'm not so sure that is why we only get given a few diary sheets on the website there is the option to do the food diary daily and it doesn't say for 4 weeks only or anything.
I stopped doing a diary for a long time and then when back to it and I think it has helped me evaluate what changes I could make to help my losses again. I don't know if I will carry on indefinitely but I think I will when get to target for a while to help me figure out how to maintain.
I think as with most things on SW it is something you can do to suit yourself but you seem unsure whether you want to do it or can't not do it. I suppose you need to work out whats most important to you but I'd say don't be hard on yourself and do what you need to do to get you where you are happy with your weight and then see what happens. Many people keep diaries about all sorts of things through their life so there's no reason why food can't be the topic of a diary :)
 
I have a bad memory so if I don't write things down I forget I've eaten them and then I'll never lose weight lol!

If you really don't like keeping a full and detailed diary you could always just keep track of your healthy extras and syns.
 
i just have a notepad on the kitchen worktop.i jot down as i go and it makes me think about if i really need the synned food or if i can make a better choice, and to keep track of my drinks and healthy extras, its so easy for me to forget a bit of cheese i had at brekkie etc. helps me loads and ill be doing it for a while to come too :)
 
I think I'll always be doing my meal plan on the wall and keeping a note in my diary to make sure I'm on track
 
i am hoping that as eating the SW way becomes more of a habit I will get to the point where I don't have to do a daily food diary but i am deefinately not there yet. In fac,t about 8 weeks in I naively thought I'd cracked this and stopped doing a diary - was convinced I'd stayed on plan and then STS at WI. So I went back to it in an attempt to make sure I kept on track. Now for the really sad bit. I have a spreadsheet on my laptop which has each day of the week on it. I colour code my superfree and HEX food and for at least a few weeks wrote down how much of each superfree food I ate to make sure it was a 1/3rd of my food. It also counts my syns for me, so Ican see how many syns I've had for the day and week. I can then look at it and see how many I have left for the week. e.g yesteday I really wanted a belgain bun - looked at my diary and having it would have meant my average syn intake for 4 days was 10 syns a day - so all good!! Still have 3 days till weigh in, and 60 odd syns available if I want them.

I know I am really really sad for the colour coding and spreadsheets but for me it works so I'll continue doing it for at least the medium term.
 
My food diary is almost like my daily catch up with my own conscience! If I think about cheating I think about writing it down and it really does make me think twice - so sad I know! However, for me its a v useful tool and here to stay!
 
If you feel the need to keep a diary then keep one whatever keeps you on track :D
Personally I suck at doing my food diaries I started SW on 6th of Jan & I kept a diary for one day only I'm awful like that! But sometimes when I look back & see a good weight loss I wish I had written down what I had had that week :(
If I start to struggle then definitely the first thing I will do is keep my food diary

Sent from my iPod touch using MiniMins
 
OOOOH Kingleds...

Not sad at all -I love listing and planning and plotting :p

I have been doing SW long enough now to pretty much know off the top of my head all the healthy extras I use and how many syns are in my regular food -I use very little ready made stuff apart from fibre plus bars and activia intensely creamy yoghurts :drool: -so it is easier but I still love to meal plan -I think it appeals to my inner "geek" :D
I love being able to look back on weeks to see what I ate and what difference it made to my losses if any.
 
CAPRICORN said:
OOOOH Kingleds...

Not sad at all -I love listing and planning and plotting :p

I have been doing SW long enough now to pretty much know off the top of my head all the healthy extras I use and how many syns are in my regular food -I use very little ready made stuff apart from fibre plus bars and activia intensely creamy yoghurts :drool: -so it is easier but I still love to meal plan -I think it appeals to my inner "geek" :D
I love being able to look back on weeks to see what I ate and what difference it made to my losses if any.
Click to expand...

Oooh fibre plus bars I have a chocolate one every night as I don't eat bread really satisfies the choccie cravings nom nom nom ;D

Sent from my iPod touch using MiniMins
 
leighxx said:
Oooh fibre plus bars I have a chocolate one every night as I don't eat bread really satisfies the choccie cravings nom nom nom ;D

Sent from my iPod touch using MiniMins
Click to expand...
:D I don't have one every night (almost though :p -its the only form of chocolate I have had for the whole year too ) I gave up bread when I started SW as I knew I had issues with it -the main one being I always make my own and couldn't leave it alone :eek: -I will soon be 1 year without touching it -and I really don't miss is -in fact I still bake it for hubby ;)
 
I still do a food diary every day and I'm nearly a year in too (another April SW birthday!). It doesn't take a second to scribble everything down and I like the discipline of it as it makes feel accountable. As I count syns weekly it also keeps me on track. I don't think I'd have a problem with doing a diary forever, in fact the day I don't do it I fear would be the beginnng of a slippery slope!
 
I guess it depends very much on the type of person you are. I have always liked writing lists and plans etc. Somehow things don't quite seem real until I have written them down.

Before I had even considered trying to lose weight I always wrote a weekly food plan, its just that now this plan incorporates green/ red/ extra easy and healthy extras and the syns included in my planned meals. At the moment I do a food diary as well but in time I suspect that I will usually just plan the days/ weeks meals to know I have included the right amount of healthy extras and now how many "spare" syns I have got. But thats a fair way of for me at the moment.

I guess it depends on how you cook/ eat; I tend to include a few syns in most meals with things like philadelphia, curry paste, pesto, cheese, chorizo, avacado etc and I think it would be a little too easy to lose track of the cumiliative syn count of these during the day. If you generally cook completely syn free and save syns for specific things like wine or chocolate then I can see that not writing things down would be easier.
 
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