So since I've joined this website and taken on a new WOE, I have been much more concious of research and articles about health, diet, and fitness. And today, while waiting in line at the grocery store, I saw, and later bought a magazine with several different topics. One of these topics was about keeping food logs while dieting. Now I use fitday, and I know alot of people here at LCE.com do, but does anyone still use the old fashioned pen and paper kind of logs.

I was actually thinking that, although fitday and it's similar websites are helpful, do they really make us accountable for what we are eating. By this I mean, you might check into fitday once at the end of the day to post everything you ate, but were you reminded throughout the day to be responsible with your counts and what went into your mouth? I think not. I know, for me atleast, I need to be constantly reminded of what I"m eating and what I shouldn't be eating. I guess maybe it's my lack of memory left for things like food after everything that I have on my "plate" during the day, but I know I need a constant reminder and a constant souce to hold me acccountable.

What do you think? Do you use the pen and paper logs, or the electronic sources we are provided with in the technological age?

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Megan Rose
Back and really to lose some weight!
250(sw)/196(cw)/175(gw1)/150(fgw)

Megan, I use a little 6X4 inch, thick spiral notebook (a dollar store find) to keep my food logged in. I tried Fitday, but it made me nuts, since lots of my foods are homemade and hard to figure on that program.

I list the day and date, along with my current weight. Then, I write in it AS I GO like this:
Sunday, March 20 ~226

B{ eggs and spinach, cheddar cheese, green tea.

am/snack{protein/fiber shake

Lunch{ 1 pork steak (w/lc BBQ sauce) and salad

pm/snack{none

Dinner{sausage and cheese dip, asparagus with butter and cheddar

dessert{plain strawberries

Maybe it's just me, but it helps me to keep track mentally when I write it down as I go. (I carry my little notebook wherever I go.) It would also be helpful if you chose to take your paper log and input your menu into Fitday to see how your day's choices shaped up. JMHO

I hope my 2 cents worth helps you.

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IMHO, some kind of food log is essential. Since I sit at a computer all day, fitday is useful all the time. I'm pretty adept at figuring ingredients and putting in custom foods. Sometimes I plug in what I expect to eat during the day, and act accordingly when I'm faced with a decision.

If you like to use a notebook, go for it.

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Barb L.
Atkins since Jan 2003
Maintenance as of 4/05


My Fitday Journal

I do both! I find Diet Power is indispensable. I log all my foods. When it comes to dinner time, that's when I pretty much adjust my eating so I will fall within the calorie count Diet Power has set for me. I also keep a separate hand-written chart with the info I get from Diet Power. Daily weight, calories suggested, calories eaten, net carbs, fat and protein. I also have a space to write in special foods I have eaten (like Atkins Advantage Bars) or to make notes to myself about what I did differently that day . . . like go out to eat. This way I can easily spot trends.

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Alida
5'1" ~ 59 years old
Highest weight: 165
Atkins 7/10/2004
160/126/125
RE-DO, January 2008:
167/162/135

I've started trying the notebook thing, again. I also use Fitday, but the paper one gives me a place to write down - then I transfer to fitday at the end of the day.
I just keep forgetting on the weekends. bad me.

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Mary Kay 1/1/04 - 232
5/19/08 (5/23/08) - sw226/(cw222)/mg210/fg160

I don't use Fitday much anymore now that I'm in maintenance, but I relied on it heavily (and exclusively) for the first year or so. I don't think I would have been very consistent with pen & paper, and I felt the reports and graphs Fitday offers were valuable. As Barb mentioned, the most effective technique for me was to enter what I was going to eat each day IN ADVANCE. Every morning (or the night before) I'd enter what I considered the ideal menu for me for the day, or sometimes even more than one day's worth, and then follow the plan. For me, this kind of structure was very helpful, and I rarely deviated from my predetermined menus.

I admit to being a bit hard-core in my approach, but it worked. I never stalled, I never ate anything off-plan, still don't, and have been happily at my proper weight for over two years. It's a miracle. Oh no, wait, it's the Atkins Nutritional Approach!

Sky
Atkins since 8/02
196/144/under 150

Any kind of log is invaluable - paper or PC. Just the act of writing or typing my food consumption keeps me focused and conscious of my decisions. I always do better when I'm good about logging.

I use Diet Power, installed locally. I found the online version of fitday to be too slow, and there wasn't a locally-installed version Fitday when I started.. Because I'm in the vicinity of a computer most of the day, DP is very handy for logging and quick look-ups.

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~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

For the first 4 months of this woe I kept a log in a legal size project planner notebook. And I was using fitday for 2 of those 4 months as well. But then i decided to save time and just use fitday. But i found I was missing being able to see at a glance where I might have done better or where I did well. So I started keeping a log of fitday totals - one line per day, one page per month. I flip the book around and have one page per month of my exercise (usually walking). I'm still using the same notebook since June 21. 2003. Oh I also have a page in there with my weekly weigh-ins.

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my blog

I'm back to the old-fashioned pen and paper method.

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I'm with Barb; I do the pen and paper method, also.
I'm really trying to get back in the habit of doing it, too. I've gotten lazy about keeping a log. Once you start, it becomes pretty routine.
I think it's really helpful to see exactly what you've eaten and when, and also it shows you things you may not realize, like eating too much cheese or not enough veggies.
After doing this woe for two years now, I pretty much know the carb counts of most things. But I do use Fitday for new foods, or to check the count on things I haven't eaten in a while. I also run a day through every so often to make sure I'm on track.

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Trina

Vice-President of the Intergalactic Order of Brussels Sprouts Haters

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Wow, Megan, you have really hit home with me! I am about (TODAY) to start keeping an old-fashioned "food diary" again (for the first time in a LONG TIME -- except for when I was preg. for diabetic reasons)!
I think you are right -- at least for some of us.
There are some who can use fitday (and other programs like it) and do just fine -- and I will probably continue to use it as a *back up* (and because I like all the little graphs, etc. ) -- but for many of us, the MENTAL ACCOUNTABILITY has to be more consistent than 5 min. on the computer each day.
I'm curious to see if this will help me stay on track... it's been WAY too easy lately to *rationalize* the things I put in my mouth because I'm always on the run. Making myself slow down long enough to actually WRTITE THE FOOD DOWN should do wonders for my food choices!

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Summer

I'm gonna do pen and paper, something similar to what Maxi is using. I don't have computer access until I'm at home, so I used that as an excuse not to log. Rob's idea about working Fitday into the log is good, think I will try that as well. BTW, great topic idea IronSquirrel.

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Ozzie's Place

I too, use a composition pad to log my food intake. I log every thing that passes my lips, calories, fat, carbs and fiber.
Using the diet journals online was a bit too much work than it is worth. I easily avoided it as well, where using a comp pad, it is there each morning on the dining room table.

I used the pen & paper method for 5 months. . . a friend gave me a notebook with the Playboy bunny symbol on the cover when I started Atkins, LOL! But once I got the plan internalized, I got lazy about tracking. . . I knew from experience and previous tracking if I wanted to eat something or not. I guess what I'm saying is there came a point where the journal became more of a burden than a blessing. Now, YMMV and you shouldn't listen to a word I say if the journaling helps you - I'M LAZY. But the lessons of the journal are well learned, if the end result of the journal is that you don't have to keep a journal anymore. Does that even make any sense?
Anyhow, I still reached goal and have maintained now for 9 months. I think the journal is a critical tool for learning the plan, but my personal experience was that eventually I didn't need it anymore. Let me reinforce the point that I AM LAZY and maybe lucky that stopping the journal didn't hurt me. Do it forever if you need to! Whatever works best to help you work your plan, that's the plan!! Keep the faith and pitch the potatoes!

Stacie
222/132/130-35

During the first few months that I re-embraced this WOE, I did it by just mentally keeping track of what I was eating. Then, I discovered Fitday. I, too, am one of those people that has access to a computer almost all day long. I became religious about tracking and found that it was successful for me. In fact, when I got to my goal weight, I was almost complusive about it. It took several months at goal before I could relax. Now, I track the day's weight and run an occasional day of eating through Fitday. Usually I find that a weight gain is shown not so much by an increase in carbs as an increase in calories.

So, with all this said, I am a believer in tracing your food choices---no matter how you do it. Do what works for you.

(This morning's weight --139.5)

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Judy
highest = 180, goal = 140
Every single time I put food in my mouth, it matters. No more fooling myself!