How To Make Your Own Diet Plan

I agree. This kind of analysis is too time consuming and too "anal." It's certainly good to do to check your getting all the nutrients you need -- by entering an occasional day, but everyday?

Best work out a "model day" using tools such as this and then just stick to your model. Very simple and easy way to do it.
Cheers
~Mike

I'm anal-retentive enough for something like this, and do tend to calculate calories/macro-nutrient ratio when eating things I'm not already familiar with, just to make sure I'm not way off-base in how much I'm eating in a day.

But two things make this very difficult for me to sustain as a full plan: the first is eating out. At my age in my city, eating (and drinking...) out are integral parts of most people's social lives. Were I to give that up completely, there'd be no casual lunch chats with my office-mates, no dinner to catch up with friends, and no Saturday night out. When thinking about what changes I'd be willing to make for the rest of my life, that was not one of them. I'll make healthier choices, but I won't prepare everything I eat.

The second is that while I'm anal enough for this, I'm probably *too* anal for it. I find that when I calculate exactly how much I eat (and not just to see what one serving of cereal looks like), I get exceptionally picky over hitting the ratio I want and the exact calorie tally I want, to the point of wrapping up immense pride and guilt in it. When my friends (and even my nutritionist) catch me logging, I get in big trouble because they see it as a path from careful eating to disordered eating. In my case, I worry they might be right.

I actually made a "food diary" for myself using Excel - and I track durn near everything: calories, fat (total and saturated), sodium, carbohydrates, protein, cholesterol, fiber, calcium and sugar. I added iron later, when I started feeling "dauncy" (thank you Lucy Ricardo, for that word!)

In order for me not to have to bring a stack of cereal boxes, labels, etc., down to the computer with me every time I want to make an entry, I keep a second page (worksheet) in the document that lists everything I have eaten at least once, since I tend to go in spurts with favorites. This way, all the information has been added once, and all I have to do is copy the line from page 2, and paste it into the appropriate space on page 1.

This method, while time-consuming, and more than a bit anal, has not only helped me lose weight, but it's given me great insight to my eating habits, helping to pinpoint areas where I need to improve (like the addition of the iron).

I wonder if all this tracking would help me live longer, or if I'd find it all so boring and tedious that it would just seem that way...

Seriously, I am someone who finds noting where I'm at during the day with different food groups does help me to know when I've had too little of something or when I should stop before I have too much - but with help from a nutritionist I know how many portions I should be eating, based on my metabolism, for each of fruits, veg, protein, dairy, fat, grains, and I know how what qualifies as a portion for most of the foods I eat. And I find that just jotting down what I've had after a meal or snack is all I need to do. I think this is pretty much the same as Mike's idea of having a model.

I wish I had the commitment to track my food on a daily basis; I'm sure I'd be able to lose weight faster, but I just can't bring myself to do it (lazy).

Like Jim said, it's what keeps you interested. I'm like Laura. I also generalte least squares fit of weight and percent body fat over a (roughy) one-month window and generate graphs.

Anal? Yup! ^_^ But, it works for me...

Good post, but honestly, the best plan is to REALLY have a plan, and to follow it, change your habits and be strict with yourself on the long term.

Entangled said:
I get in big trouble because they see it as a path from careful eating to disordered eating. In my case, I worry they might be right.[...]

Listen to your inner voice of wisdom :) Like you said, you've got to have a life as well. We can't be counting every teeny thing. If you have a model day, you've got a very flexible mental map of where you are and if you're ticking enough health boxes.

One of my favorite maxims is "It's what you do MOST of the time that matters." Good basic habits are the key -- not analysing every last thing.

A good daily model can easily make sure you hit any calorie targets, fruit and veg targets etc so you can relax about food. That's important so we don't step over the line between health concerns and eating disorders.

Have a plan -- you know it makes sense :)

Cheers
~Mike

Laura said:
This method, while time-consuming, and more than a bit anal, has not only helped me lose weight, but it's given me great insight to my eating habits, helping to pinpoint areas where I need to improve (like the addition of the iron).[...]

I agree the tool is very useful. Just not everyday :) It's great to be able to enter a typical day and see if you're covering your basic nutritional needs. Very valuable.

~Mike

soozeequeue said:
but with help from a nutritionist I know how many portions I should be eating, based on my metabolism, for each of fruits, veg, protein, dairy, fat, grains, and I know how what qualifies as a portion for most of the foods I eat. And I find that just jotting down what I've had after a meal or snack is all I need to do.[...]

Sounds like a good idea... just watch those grains and dairy...!! Big issues with these food groups but that's another story :)

~Mike

I sort of did this when I first started recovering from anorexia/bulimia. It actually served a couple of purposes, first of all so my therapist and nutritionist could see that I was actually eating, and eating enough; second of all, there were also spaces for me to write where I was when I ate, who was around, how I felt afterwards, if I had the urge to restrict or purge, and if I actually did restrict or purge. The mental/emotional part is also important, especially if you have an ED or another food issue.

Thanks, Mike.

What I'm struggling with right now is actually more of trying to relax the guilt without changing the eating habits. I generally already had healthy habits (growing up without butter, bread, sugar or salt on hand and six years of veganism will make that pretty natural), so there wasn't really anywhere to go from there besides learning what a portion size looked like, being a bit more aware of hidden sugars, and dropping the alcohol and dinners out (the last one? I made a conscious decision it wasn't really going to happen).

I'm pretty sure I'm at what I want to weigh (5'2" ~127 - I have a large bone structure and a lot of muscle mass for my size), though, so I don't really need to be creating a deficit and sticking to super strict limits. Took me more than a year to get there from 140, mostly because I did it almost entirely through excercise and was unwilling to change anything I couldn't live with forever. (ie not drinking or going out. also crash diets. ew.)

Though it's hard to know exactly if I'm maintaining/losing/gaining since I threw out my scale somewhere in the process. That was definitely a moment of listening to what's right for me, impersonal statistical surveys be damned.

sparkpeople.com allows me to input my meal plans, works out the calorie total and also the calories per meal and shows me where my percentages are coming from. i prefer it to using an, imho, boring excel spreadsheet because it's easier, less prone to mess up, the "file" doesn't get corrupted or doesn't save, and foods are already in the spark people database. if something isn't then i just add it to my sparkpeople account.

i do use it everyday because it helps me be accountable and honest about what i'm really eating. without it, i'd probably underestimate my calorie intake. it helps having some structure of my meals otherwise i'd have food here and there throughout the day and would end up eating a lot of calories. i don't feel anal about it - weighing my food does that job. i have a history of restricting & bingeing and i dont feel obssessed with my macro-nutrient percentages or calories when i track them. the only thing that has truely made me "recover" from my ed was focusing less on food and more on exercise and viewing food as fuel and not so much as a luxury. when i start to think of certain foods as a "luxury" or "special" - thats when i want to over-eat them.

tracking my cals shows me just how much of my daily cal total unhealthy foods take up and make me realise that it's not worth it because i can eat more, feel fuller and healthier eating good foods instead of junk.

Wow... that makes my use of fitday seem almost lazy in comparison. I just stick to a minimum number of protein grams and a maximum calorie count and let everything else sort itself out. I can't stick to a pre-made plan, plus I like to be able to accomidate occasional treat without planning to eat junk food.

Any easier (free) way to do this is this website: http://www.sparkpeople.com

This website has been VERY helpful to me and I would highly recommend it.