Back in Control

Okay I'm back on track. When I first started this journey two years ago I was writing everything down and keeping track religiously of what I ate during the day. After a while I grew lax with the whole thing. I rarely have to look up calories anymore because like any good calorie counter, I can rattle off the calories to any basic food found in the average kitchen and refrigerator.

So really tracking my food intake was no bid deal. I did a little of the tracking using spark people but plugging it all into the computer was time consuming. I've tried fit day and several others and by the time I look up the food and all the ingredients to the foods they didn't have I could have gone on a walk and spent the time more wisely.

Its always been easier for me to just scribble down what I'm eating on a notepad in the kitchen. Its handy and convenient and like I said, I pretty much know the calorie counts anyway. I tend to eat in 100 calorie increments. I don't worry about figuring everything to the exact calorie. Even a bag of chips that's suppose to be all prefigured has the word "about" stuck in front of the calories. I figure as long as I hit the ball park I'm good. There's no point obsessing about it.

But even writing things down does leaves something lacking by way of weight loss for me. That something is accountability. I use to send my food intake to a girlfriend every day via email and she would do the same. After several months we quit. Now my sister and a few friends have started a facebook page together where we post our daily intake and it is making a huge difference in my ability to stay on track!

During this past year and even the last couple of months, I have thought that I could get by with doing something other than calorie counting. I cant. I tried that for years. Id go from one diet to the next and never lose. (notice I said "lose" and not "loose". That's how it's spelled, l-0-s-e!) I found myself doing that again the last two months.

Actually following a diet plan does not work for me. Ive cut carbs. I've cut protein. I've eaten all veggies and rice. I've done everything and nothing works. I have to be able to eat normal foods at times that fit my schedule. I don't have time to obsess about food all day and what I'm going to eat and how many carbs. Everyone says calorie counting is tedious. I don't think its nearly as tedious as making sure I don't go over 5 carbs a day or some such thing.

So again it boils down to what works for each one of us. The strange thing is that even though we know what works for us we always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence or the diet is better in the other book.

For me I have found what works and I'm sticking to it until the end!

Speaking of food, I bought a bunch of lo cal yoplait yogurts today and I have to say the cinnamon roll one is incredible! I highly recommend it!

By the way I weighed 224 this morning. That is two pounds more than the first of January and 2 pounds less than last week this time!