Food Diary

This morning a friend sent me a link to an article about food diary and how it helps to reduce weight. It's a good read but, eventhough I keep a personal journal (and a few other notebooks), keeping a dedicated food diary is not for me. I do write about what ate occasionally in my journal if it's interesting enough or if it's something different.

I tried this food diary "thing" before and I can only stick to the food diary for a few months before giving up, because I felt it became repetitious after some time.

Why?

I cook my own food, so I know what I put in my cooking. I generally plan my meal in advance. A typical meal has 3 dishes, One legume/bean based veggies like, French beans, Okra 9ladies fingers), Snake beans, bean sprouts ... etc. One leafy veggies (white or green) like cabbage, Bok Choy, Kailan ... etc. And 1 protein, tofu, chicken, fish or beef. I rarely go out for lunch so when I jot down what I ate everyday, the menu seems the same through out the week. I lose motivation to keep on jotting down my daily consumption because of this.

Also, I don't snack between meals. Instead, I replace my lunch with a light snack like homemade sandwiches I packed from home or fruits. So, I did not have anythig to write down in between meals.

I followed this type of diet, for more than 2 years now, eating more vegetable based food, but my weight loss has been very minimal. I am still as big as a cow!! ... I used to weigh 122kg a couple of years ago and the weight did drop to 108kg and has plateaued since early this year. In order to lose weight, I need more physical exercise which I know I really lack doing. I know I need to sweat the weight out, but still bogged with self made excuses .... sigh!!!

Not knowing the exact calorie content of the food I cook makes calorie counting useless, at least for me. How much calorie did I consume this morning? ...
- I mug coffee with artificial sweetener,
- 2 slices wholemeal toasts with last night's leftover chicken curry.
- 1 bowl of cucumber and mint raita, also leftover from last night. (love this simple salad, suitable anytime of the day. I'll post up the recipe someday)
Without knowing how much I consumed for breakfast, I am quite at loss as how much should I take for the rest of the day.

I am not saying the article is off the track or totally wrong, it's a good read and may be beneficial to lots of people. I am just sharing a personal point of view and experience, that I tried it and did not work very well for me.