The Meal Diaries

Wow it's taken me a long time to discover MyFitnessPal. You guys have mentioned it from time to time + my mother-in-law uses it everyday. So, I decided to make an account last week. I'm not really on a diet, but I could definitely focus on what I'm eating better. I'm sure you can tell I go through periods of caring a TON about what I eat and then abruptly dropping it.

I think that's only normal, no?

I'm only a couple days in, but for those of you who are interested -- I feel like I'm learning a lot from using this thing! I've even downloaded the (free) app onto our iPad. I feel like this is starting to sound like an advertisement, but -- nope -- I'm just learning the ropes and pretty happy with what I'm discovering so far.

I don't love tallying up my calories, so I'm trying my best to just eat when I'm hungry and choose foods wisely (carrots/hummus versus Snickers bar). Looking at the things I eat -- right there on the screen -- certainly brings some glaring dietary mistakes to my attention.

It's making me, uh, accountable! Yes!

Like sugar. Oh, my struggles with sugar. I almost always reach my daily allotment before dinner even rolls around with all the fruit and juice and smoothies. Didn't really think of all those "healthy" snacks in that way -- but I should try to balance out with more veggies. Salt, too. I need to stop cooking with so much salt. And when I check out my percentages, I'm heavy on the carbs and fats end. They're surely convenient and tasty, and apparently that's how I roll.

I'm still carrying around an extra 5 pounds of weight after pregnancy. Or maybe by now I can't even blame pregnancy. Laziness with my diet. So, I'm hoping by logging my foods and being more aware of, say, spoonfuls of Nutella + their impact on staying steady or possibly getting back to where I was previously. Yeah. By logging this stuff, I'm hoping some of it will sort out on its own.

Which brings me to a question for those of you who use this, or a similar, method to help keep yourselves on track. If you're athletic, how do you determine your daily caloric requirements? I'm in this weird in-between stage. No longer nursing, I think my needs are less than they were a month or so ago. But with a new half marathon training cycle on the horizon, I want to make sure I'm fueling my workouts properly.


Food = energy = kick-ass speed sessions = new PRs. I guess that's where I get a little frustrated with MyFitnessPal. I don't really feel like I can adequately track my activity. It's good, but clunky + still has its limitations. So any tips on how to maximize the functionality in that regard would be really helpful.

And I guess the other beef I have with it is tracking success by using weight as the barometer. I've started doing a lot of kettlebells + squats. And I plan to delve into some more strength training soon. So, weight -- at least for me -- doesn't really seem like it will tell me much. I wish there were other goals you could choose. Maybe there are and I just haven't found them yet?

Do you keep a food diary? Or are you interested in starting one? I think it can be an excellent thing to try out for a while . . . and some people even benefit from doing it for, well, life. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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