Full of fibre…

I’ve always been a bit rubbish at filling in food diaries. Mainly, I think, because I found too much pressure from whichever diet I was on at the time; their never-ending lists of  ‘bad’ foods were enough to make me cheat sometimes. I wasn’t trying to constantly kid myself by not writing down any foolish indiscretions, such as a late-night biscuit binge (although that sometimes did still prove a problem!). It was more that life would, more often than not, get in the way. Any meals out, or those cooked by someone other than myself, would prove to be an opportunity for my mental faculties to spiral into panic.

“If I eat anything on this plate my points/syns/treat allowance is going to go through the roof!”

“This lasagna has obviously been created using regular cheese and large spoonfuls of oil – but I can’t just leave it without offending the person’s who’s made it!”

“They’re not exactly going to be providing low-fat food at this wedding, are they? What am I going to do?”

Filling up on low calorie snacks before such occasions hasn’t always been a helpful strategy for me, either. Because totally skipping the quiche, or whatever else is ‘naughty’ that’s on offer, and sticking to salad, is just too boring – and for me – unrealistic. I’d just end up resenting the fact that I had to eat differently than everyone else, or would be too worried about offending my hosts. Mostly I’d simply say to myself – “well just this once, and I’ll be back on track tomorrow” – and then proceed to stuff myself with any goodies that were up for grabs. 

Having said all this, I now love tracking my food and exercise at WLR. I discovered WLR last summer, when I first read The Amazing Adventures of DietGirl (the book) and then logged onto her site, which lists WLR in the Resources section. It’s an online food diary, which helps you to calorie count and can also tell you lots of other interesting facts about your daily eating habits – such as your fruit & veg consumption and proportions of carbs/fat/protein. (I notice from Margaret’s site that in Oz they have Calorie King – a much more exciting sounding equivalent!)

I enjoy the flexibility of it – you can decide how quickly you want to shed your excess pounds, or whether you want to simply maintain your weight (handy for holidays and Christmas). I stuck with it for a few months last year (can anyone detect a pattern that I don’t often stick with stuff for long?!), but then fell out of the habit. But for several weeks now I’ve been track, track, tracking away. I’m really annoyed with myself that I ever stopped, as it’s such a useful tool. Here are some of the many things I’ve noticed about my diet since tracking again;

1. If left to my own devices I’d eat too much!!
   One of my favourite comments to myself, since realising I’d got bigger again was, “But why? I’m generally good – I don’t eat much compared to lots of skinny people I know.” Food tracking has been an eye-opener, to say the least.
2. I eat plenty of protein. 
   I’m a vegetarian, and have always felt that weight loss would be more difficult for me because of this (despite reading numerous scientific studies which testify that actually the complete opposite is true!). My dodgy logic for this belief centered around the false notion that I survived on too many carbs and not nearly enough protein – protein, in my mind, would have filled me up much better. Tracking has proved me oh so wrong on this count – my protein quantities are more than adequate, and I’m eating enough variety to be including enough ‘complete proteins’ as well.
3. My fruit & veg intake is actually pretty good.
   It has been so heartening to discover this. Just what exactly constitutes a portion of fruit or veg has always been a source of much confusion for me. Luckily WLR does all the hard work for me, so that I don’t waste too much time overworking my poor tired brain cells attempting to calculate this.
4. I can eat fatty foods and still lose weight!
   No, I don’t go mad and spend all my calorie allowances on cream cakes and biccies – I’d get hungry very quickly if I did. Some of the nutritious items I enjoy these days are ‘healthy fat’ foods such as peanut butter and avocados – often forbidden on previous weight-loss regimes. And if I’ve got a meal out coming up I simply include what I end up eating in my calorie counting – making sure I adjust my other meals of the day accordingly to compensate.
5. I’m full of fibre!
   Another heartening discovery! According to WLR I consume more than enough each day. 

So, all in all, tracking is working for me right now. I’m not advocating it for everyone – I know some people prefer the structure of a pre-ordained diet plan. It’s just what suits me at the moment. And it’s still very much a work in progress – I’m trying to be more and more specific about my portion sizes, so that I know for certain that what goes in the diary is an accurate representation of my calorie consumption. It doesn’t solve  everything – I’m still capable of bingeing, snacking etc – but it’s helping me a lot. 

Hope you’re all having a good weekend!