Why I'm Not Logging Any More

Okay, this is a big step for me. It's scaring me shitless but I have to do it at some point, so I have decided that the time is now.

I've stopped logging.

For those of you scratching your head and wondering what "logging" means, I'll briefly explain. What I mean by "logging' is recording every calorie I burn and every bite I eat. Pretty much everyone who has attempted to lose weight ever has done this in some form or another: whether is be noting down calories with a notepad and pen, counting weightwatchers points, using a phone app, or whatever.

For me, it was inputting my calorie burn and intake to a FANTASTIC little site called MyFitnessPal. I've been a member for over a year, and I pretty much owe my entire weight loss to this site. It has an incredible user-built database with pretty much every food you can imagine, an incredible supportive community and best of all, it's free.

You simply tell the site how much you want to lose, and it gives you a calorie allowance to abide to each day. It also has a fantastic app which is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, so you can even log on the go.

I just want it to be known that I endorse this tool 100%. My decision to stop logging has nothing to do with the site. It's just... my personal goals have changed, and I think I have got to a point where I need to learn to get on without it.

I have been maintaining my weight (give or take a couple of pounds) for the best part of eight months now. However, barely a day goes by when I don't log every morsel I eat.

There have been a couple of days where I haven't logged, but this has normally been an intentional decision where I know I'd be pigging out and didn't see the point, like when I was on my holiday or experiencing emotional turmoil.

And days like these (but without the broom)

But for the most part, whenever I ate something, seconds later (or sometimes before), I would get my Blackberry out and input what I was eating and how much into the MyFitnessPal app or logging on to the website. When you look at it objectively, you've got to admit that it's pretty odd behaviour.

But it became second nature for me. It became habit - like washing your hands after you've been to the loo. If I didn't log something I ate - it would just niggle at me.

And don't even get me started on exercise! As soon as I finished my cool down, I was logging the calories burned into MyFitnessPal so I could find out how much extra food I could eat.

There. I said it. I exercised so I could eat.

But that's not the point of exercise - and I know that. I love all the other benefits of exercise, the way it makes me feel and its potential to make me stronger. I would like to think that even if exercise didn't burn any calories at all, I would still do it. But I've got to admit, being able to eat that chocolate bar afterwards totally guilt-free is a pretty sweet perk.

So all of these things have been niggling at me for a while: the fact that it is quite odd behaviour, the fact that I was so reliant on it and the fact it kind of skewed my attitude towards exercise. But the straw that broke the horse's back happened a couple of weeks ago.

I was sitting in front of the TV in the evening. I had just finished eating a pretty nice meal, and it was about 9pm. I was just lounging away in the sofa, when a little thought popped into my head.

"Fancy a biscuit?"

"No," I told myself. "I've just had my dinner and I feel pretty full."

"But you have enough calories left..."

And when that thought popped into my head, I knew I had to stop logging. It was giving me an excuse to eat stuff even when I wasn't feeling hungry. Incidentally, I did go for that biscuit, because you know, I DID have the calories left.

But if I hadn't been logging, the thought wouldn't have even crossed my mind. The question I need to ask myself is not "do I have the calories left?" but rather "am I hungry?"

It's time to stop listening to a computer and listening my own body instead. After all, it's what most normal people do.

I just want to reiterate, this is not meant to put anyone off logging. If you are trying to lose weight, or even just trying to maintain your weight, then I fully encourage you to log. It certainly worked for me and is great for educating yourself on how much you should be feeding your body However, I personally feel like I'm at a stage where I know how much food my body needs, and I need to stand on my own two feet and maintain my weight by myself.

I'm going to watch my weight closely over the next couple of weeks, and if the numbers start to creep up, then I'll start logging again. But we'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck. :)