Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Keeping Track

With my ruminations last week, I did not post my normal stats.  Here's a double header in order to catch up:



Monday, June 181647
Tuesday, June 191585
Wednesday, June 20 1802PT Day - So hungry!
Thursday, June 211628
Friday, June 222090Chinese Takeout including Sushi
Saturday, June 23---Shed Demolition Day - Food was pretty healthy, but there were a LOT of sweets
Sunday, June 24---Post Demolition - So tired!

Evaluation:
  • Consistent Tracking: Two days not tracked.  We were doing a major project at the house.  There were people everywhere and kids to be corralled and meals provided.  It was a fun productive weekend, but I didn't even pick up my notebook to track food during the day.  The good part is that I also kept the worst of the junk food out of the house, so i wasn't grazing on bad choices.  Except for donuts.  *sigh*
  • 1600 Daily Goal: Three days of out of 5 tracked were within 50 calories of 1600.
  • Weekly Average:  1750
  • Monthly Average: 1796


Monday, June 251389
Tuesday, June 261599
Wednesday, June 27 1630
Thursday, June 282157Final PT Day and the installation of SOD
Friday, June 291685
Saturday, June 301841Cheeburger
Sunday, July 1 ---More on this after the eval...

Evaluation:
  • Consistent Tracking: I'm giving myself a gold star for tracking this past week.  I was feeling awful, but I kept writing everything down.  I even tracked on Sunday - I just wasn't sure how to account for the foods eaten.
  • 1600 Daily Goal: Two days of out of 6 tracked were within 50 calories of 1600.
  • Weekly Average:  1717
  • Monthly Average: 1760
Looking back on these past two weeks, I see that I cannot eat a ton of sugar and hope to recover the next day like nothing happened.  While I am not diabetic, too much sugar makes me feel bad, very very bad.  I'm very curious if the over indulgence on Saturday and Sunday really pushed me over the end for the following week.  Even before this current mission I didn't tolerate an overabundance of sugar well.  It messes with my sleep and everything else follows, focus, determination, positivity.  All that could have been a symptom of the down or it could be the reason for it.  I don't know, but I'm glad I'm tracking.  Maybe I'll learn even more the next time.  *shudder*

This past Sunday, I tracked all day, but I didn't put a number above.  We went out to dinner and I made decent choices, but the restaurant didn't offer nutritional analysis of their foods.  I could guess, but it would be just guessing (jalapeno poppers and a broiled crab cake - yum).  And it would take a lot of time to figure out.  I've decided that I'm going to save myself the time and allow one meal out that I cannot figure out each week.  If I don't need that allowance?  Great!  But if we go out to a place and the information isn't available, I'm not going to stress over it and spend way too much time trying to figure it out.

My biggest disappointment was my meal at Cheeburger Cheeburger.  Apparently they cook their portabella mushroom in solid lard because it contains more calories than there 1/4 pound burger.  Not cool.  I was so agitated about that one.  Not to mention, I think they might have also made my kid sick to her stomach.  Either way, they are definitely off the acceptable dining options list for a while.
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2 comments:

  1. Heather McEndreeJuly 4, 2012 at 8:46 AM

    You are doing so well!!! Your monthly average keeps dropping :) I've noticed that you only commend yourself for being "within" 50 calories of your daily goal. Would it be more positive to say you will be "no more than 50 calories over" your goal? Your current method discounts anytime you are more than 50 under your goal, which is still awesome progress!

    I just started using My Fitness Pal. It is online and has iPhone and iPad apps. It is really easy to use for tracking calories: you can cusomize the plan to exactly your caloric goal. And if you use a device with a camera, you can scan the barcodes of products to easily list them with your meals. And it will take into account the exercise you do each day. Check it out; maybe your notebook can go digital :)

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    1. MargotJuly 5, 2012 at 8:14 AM

      I put the lower bound limit on the calories because I aim to eat enough to not become ravenous. That was something I started paying to when I was doing Weight Watchers. There was a lot of emphasis on making sure you ate all your daily points.

      However, you have a good point. And under-eating has not been my problem historically. Also, calories are not points. If I'm not hungry, than it make sense to embrace that day's deficit and see how I feel the next.

      Thanks for the suggestion!

      I've got the My Fitness Pal app as well. I like the idea of scanning barcodes, but I haven't tried it yet. Right now I'm still keeping a paper journal with all my calories. Spark People and MFP are supporting that. I was happy to see that MFP confirm my target calorie range as well.

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