first journal

[tuffgrl]

I've never done a journal here before so I was wondering, is this strictly a workout journal or can I add a diet journal along with my workouts?

It is your journal so it can be anything you want it to be. My suggestion would be to use it as your training journal, use a food journal like www.fitday.com and link your food journal to your training journal like others here do. Check out sweetdreams journal as an example.

Get training!

[tuffgrl]

Thanks for your help.

[sweetdream]

Hello tuffgrl! glad to see some girls getting on this site!!! I will be trying to follow your journal along with others I am sure.

I have gotten some great advice and motivation from the people on this site-MINIME & PIERINI!

what are your goals tuffgrl? I usually try to make some goals for myself for the month and then once a new month comes refer back to them to see how I did

[tuffgrl]

Originally Posted by sweetdream

Hello tuffgrl! glad to see some girls getting on this site!!! I will be trying to follow your journal along with others I am sure.

I have gotten some great advice and motivation from the people on this site-MINIME & PIERINI!

what are your goals tuffgrl? I usually try to make some goals for myself for the month and then once a new month comes refer back to them to see how I did

My current goal is to lose fat, lose the 40lbs. that I've gained in a matter of 2 years and to get back into my size 3 jeans. I'd kinda like to do this before Thanksgiving.

I will start my journal on this thread tomorrow and will be starting a fitday journal as well.

[sweetdream]

Happy Monday! I screwed up my diet really bad for the last time yesturday! let's jump back on the wagon together please and start fresh! LOL Happy Monday!

[tuffgrl]

Originally Posted by sweetdream

Happy Monday! I screwed up my diet really bad for the last time yesturday! let's jump back on the wagon together please and start fresh! LOL Happy Monday!

sounds good! Happy Monday back....I love Mondays because I work Tuesday - Saturday. So Monday is like Sunday to me.

[tuffgrl]

I'm gonna go ahead and add my workout AND diet journal now. I do have a dailyplate.com account and have used it but I eat random things throughout the day sometimes and there's no way to plug it in to get an accurate calorie count. So, I'm just gonna keep track of my diet, workout and weight progress here.

weight:160

breakfast: potato, egg and cheese taco (I cooked my oatmeal for too long and made it nasty. Had to grab a taco on the run)

lunch: goulash (not the healthiest choice but leftovers from mother in law and I don't believe in wasting food, so I ate it)

snack: mixed fruit salad (strawberries, mango, papaya, pears, peaches, mixed berries) w/ dry oats sprinkled on top and a little trail mix mixed in

workout: 30 min. treadmill (alternating between brisk walking at no incline and slow walking at very steep incline), 25 min. elliptical, abs (4X20 ab roller machine thing)

dinner: tofu steak marinated in worcestershire, balsamic vinegar and low sodium soy sauce, carrots, mashed potatoes (less than a tennis ball, about 1/2 cup)

Congratulations on your first journal entry. You are on your way.

Watch out for eating choice rationalization because when it is in full steam you can easily rationalize all the less than desirable choices you make. I personally do better when I quantify my food consumption expressed in calories, carb grams, protein grams and fat grams.

[sweetdream]

OMG! I LOVE goulash! my mom makes the best (I am sure everyone's mom does haha)

I would say if you are going to track food at LEAST track calories because this is where you can go wrong thinking you ate more/less than you really did and in the end wonder why the weight isn't coming of

P.S. from the before pics I am assuming you are pretty diet and fitness savvy, just make the right choices, keep motivated, stay on track and keep your eyes on the prize! you will get there in no time!

[tuffgrl]

I have tried to stick to using the dailyplate so that I can keep track of my calories in and calories burned but I get discouraged. For instance, goulash that my mother in law brings over. How can I calculate that? How do I even plug it into the daily plate? Or maybe I ate 4 cheetos and 2 cheese nips on my salad.....how would I plug that in? Or some leftover steak that my mother in law gives us....I chop it up and throw on salad but how do I plug that in the dailyplate? Or, today I ate leftover tofu and I saw some leftover brown rice and peas mixed together in the back of the fridge from a week ago. I decided to mix that in with my tofu.....how do I plug that into the daily plate? Or maybe I went to some Puerto Rican restaurant and ate some random stuff that I don't even know what it is.....how would I look that up and add that to my daily plate? It just doesn't seem practical to me. When I'm at home eating specific things like oatmeal or a sandwich, I can easily look that up on the daily plate....1 slice of bread, 3 slices of turkey etc. and add that to my plate. But what about the random stuff? Are you guys just not eating at all unless you can measure out specifically what you're eating? Ex. 4.6 oz. steak on 2/14 c. romaine. Do you guys get what I'm saying? I'm just venting because I would like to be able to keep track of calories but how do I track the random things?

[minime]

hey tuffgrl! Welcome to online journalling!

Personally I have dropped off the food-logging-wagon: I go through phases. I pretty much eat the same things every day though.

Regarding your frustration with daily plate etc.: Well I would say you can estimate the caloric content of 'mystery foods' like the ghoulash (go to calorieking.com, look up ghoulash and get an average nutrition and then use it as a guideline)

With steak, toss the sliced up steak on a food scale before putting it on your salad. Easy.

And with cheetos/cheese nips... just don't put any on your salad!

I actually find that when logging my food religiously I am much less likely to eat random things (not at meal times) like handfuls of nuts or dried fruits. It might work similarly for you.

If you know you are putting it all in the food log, do you think you would hesitate before you grab a peice of candy? Do you think you might be better prepared with meals so you wouldn't have to eat a 'mystery food' like tacos from a fast food joint?

If so, food logging will be a good idea!

At the end of the day you are more than likely going to have to do it: it is quite difficult to lose weight unless you know how many calories you are eating.

Also, it helps with tracking of protein grams, carbs and fats. You should be aiming to get 100g of protein per day, and 50g or more of fat.

ok thus ends my novel!

(except one more thing... are you lifting weights?)

There is no doubt that food logging creates rigorous honesty and does have an impact on your behavior. Somes guesses are invariably necessary and are part of the honesty. The information is great.

I haven't logged in over a year but am currently on day 3 of a 12 day food journaling period. It wasn't that hard to get back into the swing of doing it although I am planning on only doing it for 12 days.

[tuffgrl]

Originally Posted by pierini

There is no doubt that food logging creates rigorous honesty and does have an impact on your behavior. Somes guesses are invariably necessary and are part of the honesty. The information is great.

I haven't logged in over a year but am currently on day 3 of a 12 day food journaling period. It wasn't that hard to get back into the swing of doing it although I am planning on only doing it for 12 days.

You're right and thank you. I didn't log anything yesterday because I did horribly! I am going to start the south beach diet tomorrow because I have had success with that. I'm also gonna TRY to get going with my dailyplate thing and do the best I can with tracking my calories. I guess there will be a little give or take at the end of each day because like you said, there will be some guesses. Okay, so journal tomorrow! I didn't work out yesterday or today because I twisted my ankle pretty badly, so I'll get back with it starting monday.

Bear with me tuffgrl but I'm calling you on the rigorous honesty thing.

I see time and time again posts with "tomorrow". Your post buys you another day of being rigorously honest. The day is not over. I say journal today, make what guesses are necessary and start knowing your truth. You either want to drop the lbs. or you don't.

Today is day 4 of my strict eating and journaling. I'm using fitday which I have used in the past. I will achieve my short term goal because I am being rigorously honest. And you can achieve your goal too.

And being rigorously honest has more to do that just being honest about our eating. It has to do with how honest we are about the goals we have and how bad we want it.

Just calling it as I see it.