I Have a Confession to Make: I’m Not Food Logging

Last weekend, I decided I was bored with my Weight Watchers 3-month journal and needed a new, inpiring notebook in which to chronicle my daily nutrition. The WW journal is really awesome, but I’ve been using their model for four years and was just not feeling the enthusiasm I used to for filling in the pages.

On the up side: My Zone+WW habits are so ingrained, my entries from one day to the next are almost identical to each other. Protein + 2 veggies + 1 fruit + almonds = lunch or dinner.

On the down side: I was forgetting to fill in each day because one day was so like the next.

I really prefer utilitarian notebooks to fancy journals, but they’ve got to have the right heft to them and they’ve got to have either graph paper or college-ruled lines.

Dave and I went to Target and I found what I thought would be perfect: a 4X3 inch leather-bound journal with graph paper inside and a nice black satin ribbon to mark the current page. But after a few days, I realized it wasn’t working. The cute little pocket-size was annoyingly small in practice. It seemed fussy and difficult and… So when I went to ZOOMA, I left the damn thing on my kitchen counter.

Yesterday I replaced it with my Favorite Notebook of All Time™: a black marble composition book with graph paper inside.

And then I decided to take a break from food logging for a week.

I’m still counting my Zone blocks and staying within the Weight Watchers Good Health Guidelines*, but until Monday morning, I’m not writing anything down. This is the first time since January 2005 that I’m not food logging.

I feel liberated! And maybe a little reckless…

But I’m also excited to get back to food logging next week when I enter what I’m mentally calling “Batten Down the Hatches” week. I’ve been taking more rest than usual since the race on Saturday, and my parents are visiting for Easter, so I’m taking it easy — with the happy anticipation that Monday, April 13, I will get back to my food log, start the 100 Pushups Challenge, and get some more CrossFit Women indoor workouts in the training bank before the Spartan Challenge starts on May 9.

[Thanks, Melissa Urban, for helping me realize that I might benefit by taking a short break from food journaling.]

* Weight Watchers Good Health Guidelines

• Eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruits each day.
• Choose whole-grain foods whenever possible.
• Include two servings of milk products each day.
• Have 2 teaspoons of healthy oils each day.
• Eat lean protein every day.
• Limit added sugar and alcohol.
• Drink at least 6 8-ounce glasses of liquid a day.
• Take a multiple vitamin-mineral supplement each day.
• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week.