@dmhanson511 That’s going to be my game plan - I’ll pick a recipe I’ve really been wanting to try and go for it once a week. I enjoy cooking, but not the weighing and portioning things out, so this way I get the creative and fun outlet of making food once a week that isn’t weighed by the gram. I have enough “staple meals” now that I can default to on other days, and variety will be nice.
@slant After a while measuring and weighing you get pretty good at estimating. As long as your weight is on track there’s no need especially if your guesses at home have been pretty accurate. You can just revisit periodically so portions don’t creep up.
@rossylisy Definitely agree here. I also think I’ve learned what satisfied versus full feels like since I’ve been counting for so long, so I can lean on that, too. Our bodies are amazing at answering our own questions, sometimes!
@slant I don’t diligently count calories anymore. Sometimes I do but sometimes I just eyeball and guesstimate stuff. My justification for that was that we never TRULY know how many calories are in the foods we eat. Even MyFitnessPal entries are based on estimates and not 100% accurate. Don’t let perfectionism rule your life. Sometimes I even weigh the portion and then just find a similar recipe in MyFitnessPal and use that. I eat a lot of curries so I don’t have time and energy to count every single calorie and I also have an ED past.
@slant I have felt exactly the same way! Here’s what I do that works well for me:
I count religiously Monday through Friday. Then I give myself a break Friday night through Sunday. I don’t binge. But I enjoy my food and I enjoy the break from counting. I mostly do this when bulking so that if I’m a little over it doesn’t matter.
When cutting i calorie cycle. I stay lower during the week so that I buy myself an extra 250-300 each day of the weekend. That allows me to eat a meal out, or an ice cream cone etc. this way I’m only counting all the time during cuts. Way less time in a year.
Also, if you’re weighing yourself daily and averaging your weekly weight and see that you’re still trending down - If weight loss is the goal - then you don’t have to worry, you’re clearly on the right track!
@slant The longer you have been tracking too I find that you can eyeball things better. You know the food in a day and how it feels. So sometimes when I go off tracking I still think I’m pretty close give or take based just on eyeballing it.
I don't know what your "goals" are so maybe my 2c is irrelevant, but one of mine was forming a relationship with my calories such that I could actually enjoy both cooking and eating in a "I can totally keep this up for the rest of my life" way.
Doing things that feel like they require discipline is definitely part of the process, but I think so is finding a way that works for you and doesn't feel like constant effort/sacrifice/etc.
@slant Ya. I got burned out, too. And anxious. It wasn't fun, so I quit that and now I just get on the scale every morning. Cuz calories are calories, and too many causes weight gain. Keeping an eye on just that helps mentally. Plus, everyone knows what foods are nutritious and which aren't. Just watch the processed junk, the sodium-laden restaurant stuff, and drink lots of water. Enjoying life can be fun.
@slant I’ve realized I’m just not someone who can do it long term because I get too stressed out and then whenever I run into foods I have difficulty breaking down to count I let it derail my progress.
@slant The more you calorie-count, the more instinctive and natural it becomes to measure / weigh in your head so trust yourself that you are building up a reservoir of nutrition knowledge and portion size. If you start gaining weight, then you know you have to scale back. So see it as an empowerment-through-knowledge thing not an adversarial fight with food thing.
@slant I didn’t count calories specifically but I tracked macros using My Fitness Pal for about two weeks. This gave me sufficient data about my eating habits. Specifically, I was feeling hungry all the time. Turns out my hunger cues were right on track and that was validating.
This was about a year ago and I’m feeling ready to do another week or two of data collection because I’ve recently reduced breastfeeding to only 1x/day.
You can absolutely do what works for you, prioritizing your mental health is a huge part of overall health.
@slant It sounds like you will be fine to take a break if your reason is to try new healthy foods. I find I can maintain easily enough by just making sure I eat vegetables every day and drink mostly water. If you want to eat regular food and treat yourself that's fine too but before you do make sure half of your plate is a vegetable at as many meals as possible.
@slant Can I ask how many calories you are eating? I have noticed many people who become burned out often have had a deficit for too long or have too large of a deficit
@slant I don’t really count calories unless it’s looking on the bag to see how many calories are in a food. I try to stick to the serving size. Like if a serving is 3 ounces ill weigh out 3 ounces. But I don’t count the calories. I’m in great shape
@slant I took a break recently because my cut was going awful. I know I wasn’t adhering on the weekends and was constantly battling the same few water weight pounds. I was just over all of it and my untreated ADHD was at its breaking point. During my break, I got on Wellbutrin, and that helped a lot when I started consciously cutting again. I’m not being super strict to where I log every bite or drop of olive oil but I’m doing well enough where I’ve lost 6lbs in about a month and a half.
@slant I’m currently not counting calories, but instead I naturally tend towards intermittent fasting which for me helps reduce overall caloric intake. So I stop eating no later than like 9pm and then sometimes don’t eat until 2pm the next day, but typically I eat around 1pm. I tend to drink coffee in the morning so I don’t feel the need to eat right away. Maybe give this a try for a bit and see if it works for you?
