Food Journaling

I've been reading around the forum and noticed a passing reference to
something called "Food Journaling." The posts, and a side-visit to
Bicker's site, tells me that this is the act of writing down what one
eats and what time and includes vital facts such as calories, carbs,
fat, etc.

One of the questions that comes up for me around this is: How does one
really figure out how much calories/carbs/etc are in foods?

---

Finances and food both make me very nervous. They both seem very
mysterious to me. So the whole idea that Bicker can keep a meticulous
journal and actually keep real tabs on what's consumed and how it
affects him is VERY VERY strange to me.

But I suppose it's possible, eh?

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 13:30:58 +0200, "Lictor"
wrote:

"Mike Whalen" wrote in message
. com...
I've been reading around the forum and noticed a passing reference to
something called "Food Journaling." The posts, and a side-visit to
Bicker's site, tells me that this is the act of writing down what one
eats and what time and includes vital facts such as calories, carbs,
fat, etc.

Also, food journaling doesn't always have to include calories. For people
with eating disorders (overeating, bulimia...), the journal is also a mean
to keep tabs on the disorders and try to see patterns. So, they write down
the meals and content, but also the various feelings attached to them, if
they binged, what was the trigger... In that case, you don't need to count
calories.

It can be counter-productive though. I treat journalling with a great
deal of caution, because it has many times caused me to abandon my WOE
(and the journal) altogether and binge, just because I have to enter
one slip up to "spoil" the "clean" record. All psychological, of
course, but very real nevertheless.

janice
233/179/133

"janice" wrote in message
...
It can be counter-productive though. I treat journalling with a great
deal of caution, because it has many times caused me to abandon my WOE
(and the journal) altogether and binge, just because I have to enter
one slip up to "spoil" the "clean" record. All psychological, of
course, but very real nevertheless.

That's true, good point. That's also why this kind of journaling is mostly
used at part of a therapy where a psychologists works at reducing the guilt
you feel from the binges. The goal is to be able to treat the binges as yet
another event on the journal, not as a guilt trip. Some nutritionnists do
not read the journal themselves, but ask you to describe what's in it for
instance. But the journaling is an important step in perceiving the patterns
around the binges. Like, you have plenty of people who spend the day
starving, and then binge in the evening as a result and then starve
themselves the following day to atone and so on. Usually, they don't even
see this process. Having it written black on white helps with understanding
the inner mechanism of the binge-starve-binge cycle in these cases.

"Mike Whalen" wrote in message
om...
I've been reading around the forum and noticed a passing reference to
something called "Food Journaling." The posts, and a side-visit to
Bicker's site, tells me that this is the act of writing down what one
eats and what time and includes vital facts such as calories, carbs,
fat, etc.

One of the questions that comes up for me around this is: How does one
really figure out how much calories/carbs/etc are in foods?

Depending on what you're using to journal, there are a lot of resources
available to you. The program I use, DietPower, has the information built
in but I can add new items using the label from the package. A convenient
source for information is the USDA database which can be viewed on line,
installed on your PC, and even on a Palm. It's not uncommon for me to
double check my Palm while in a restaurant or use it to do some quick notes
about the meal for entry into the computer later.


Finances and food both make me very nervous. They both seem very
mysterious to me. So the whole idea that Bicker can keep a meticulous
journal and actually keep real tabs on what's consumed and how it
affects him is VERY VERY strange to me.

But I suppose it's possible, eh?

It's possible depending on the level you want to go. Personality wise some
people are just more in tune with fine details like that. Others aren't and
have their own strengths Do what will work for you. For some people
just writing down *what* they ate is a good start. I measure and weigh
whenever possible because one of my weaknesses is portion size - it takes a
whole extra minute while I'm preparing meals.

Food journaling helps with other areas besides weight loss. As another
poster mentioned, those with eating disorders need to do some kind of
journaling (another reason I do it). Also, I ended up getting really sick
about 9 months ago and one of the side effects was a serious rapid weight
gain. My food logs were *and still are* very helpful to the medical
personnel I deal with.

Do what works for you!

Jenn

Janice, You TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Exactly the way this works AGAINST ME!

CAUTION ! WE NEED to be cautious with this . It has caused me to binge
BIG TIME! Very personal thing ! WE ARE ALL VERY DIFFERANT .

glo

Lictor, I can understand your points here in a big way too. I was doing
that starving ALL DAY & than binge all night. I got past this & I DID
the journaling to 'watch' myself & to see the patterns ETC. I am
reminded of the way that this helped me and than I got my head on
straight as I faced this . It took me forever to get beyond this but I
got to a better place
This whole thread has shown me
(reminded me) of how this did work. GOOD POINTS!! I amNOT over the
binges BUT I'm BETTER! I'm NOT starving but rather eating what I NEED to
satisfie my hunger & all. I'm not getting into trouble as often now &
THIS IS A GOOD THING!

glo

On 30 Aug 2004 01:54:23 GMT, Ignoramus17461
wrote:

So, how much time per day does your weighing and journaling take you?
10 minutes? Everything, from weighing things, to writing down numbers,
entering them into computer, viewing reports etc?

If I count the time I take to type the "Food & Exercise" postings, it
might be as much as 10 minutes. A small price to pay, seems to me, if
it helps me know myself better.

My wife would find it extremely odd if I started weighing food, so, I
try not to offend her sensibilities.

I can't imagine why your wife would be offended by this if it was
something that mattered to you. That sounds very odd and
unsympathetic to me. (Anyway, it sounds like you do a lot stranger
stuff than weighing food!)

To me, it is a practical matter,
the return in terms of awareness, not being worth the time, for me.

Well, apparently it wasn't something you needed to do. I just know
that I lost weight doing this, and any other time I tried to lose
weight I would stall after a while and give up, probably because my
eating habits were deteriorating. So for me it was very much worth
5-10 minutes a day. After all, most of invest far more than that in
other aspects of our eating and exercise .

I agree that with a routine, it would not be as time consuming as it
was during one day when I weighed my food.

Of course not. I found it complex right at first. Now it is trivial.
And in fact I find it quite interesting to look for correlations
between my nutrient intake and how my body feels and performs.

Chris
262/141/ (145-150)

janice wrote:


It can be counter-productive though. I treat journalling with a great
deal of caution, because it has many times caused me to abandon my WOE
(and the journal) altogether and binge, just because I have to enter
one slip up to "spoil" the "clean" record. All psychological, of
course, but very real nevertheless.

I hear you there Janice. For me, I just made a rule that being "bad"
was not writing it down. It has nothing to do with what I eat and
everythign to do with being honest with myself.

--
jmk in NC

"Lictor" wrote in message
...
"jmk" wrote in message
...
Actually, it takes me less than 5 minutes a day. I definitely find it
worthwhile.

Regarding weight food, measuring needs to be done when following a
recipe anyway.

It depends on how you cook, there are lots of things I just pour until it
feels right.
The problem comes when you eat out. You just can't weight things when you
eat at friends or restaurants, and it's often hard to know exactly what
got
into the meal. When you always have lunch at a restaurants for instance,
this can become quite difficult to keep track of calories.


If you've weighed and measured with measuring cups enough things then it
becomes easier to eye-ball your portions. I've learned what a 1/2 cup of
mashed potatoes, rice or noodles looks like. The same with salad
dressings, I can judge how much to pour out of the bottle to have 2 tbl
because I've done it so often into measuring spoons. I think that keeping
track of calories is one good reason to pack a lunch and not eat at
restaurants every day at lunch. Other good reasons are saving money and
getting healthier food (unless you always eat at a "health food" store which
was possible for me in Lubbock but not here.)

Tonia
221/178/130

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 08:50:39 -0400, jmk wrote:

janice wrote:


It can be counter-productive though. I treat journalling with a great
deal of caution, because it has many times caused me to abandon my WOE
(and the journal) altogether and binge, just because I have to enter
one slip up to "spoil" the "clean" record. All psychological, of
course, but very real nevertheless.

I hear you there Janice. For me, I just made a rule that being "bad"
was not writing it down. It has nothing to do with what I eat and
everythign to do with being honest with myself.

I journal everything that goes in my mouth on fitday, and it's great
because it makes me second guess choices. However, I don't have any
concept of "good" and "bad". I released that as soon as I had my
epiphany and decided to embark on a new WOL. I mean, I have favorite,
fatty, calorie laden foods. I can't eat them all the time, of course,
and when I *do* eat them it must be in moderation.

I couldn't face the rest of my life without french fries and
mayonnaise. LOL. I know for many that is disgusting, but how can you
go from a favorite to never having it again?

That was part of releasing "good" food and "bad" food. Of course I eat
mostly very healthfully, but when I want those fries once a month, I
have them. The difference; instead of half a bag of Ore Ida Steak
fries I eat 8 fries and a tiny bit of mayo rather than 2 tablespoons.
Ugh. Freaks me out just to read that over, and I wondered why I was
fat? Riiiiight....

Ally
212/158/140