Taking a photo of everything I eat

[Friedbanana]

Hello! I started a thread like this a few years ago and I found it sooooo so so helpful and managed to lose a stone and keep it off, however recently that has crept back on so I thought I’d start another thread!

So starting tomorrow I’ll aim to post a photo of every single thing that passes my mouth except from tea!! I just think it helps keep me accountable. I have a really big appetite and find it very easy to be in a calorie surplus if I don’t log calories, even though I hardly eat any processed food anymore! But i do currently have a good relationship with food (used to be very much in the binge/restrict cycle but got over this by stopping restricting too much)

i tend to avoid gluten and processed foods due to a sensitivity to gluten, and also cut down on added sugars last year just trying to look after my health! I used to have the sweetest tooth but strangely don’t miss sugar that much! I mainly eat vegetarian but very occasionally eat meat/fish!

I’m about a size 10 now and 5 foot 6, so I know I’m not overweight but I just feel more comfortable with less body fat and about a stone lighter!

currently doing 1 PT session and 2 group gym classes a week, focused on strength training, I’m also trying to do 2/3 x 5k runs a week. Aiming for 20k steps a day. As I said I just find it sooo hard to restrict food much atm so I’d rather burn more calories through exercise and be able to eat more! I don’t currently have scales so I’m gonna go more off how clothes feel/fit than the weight!

I’m going to aim for a calorie deficit of 250-600 calories a day!

Today’s food (just screenshot of MFP as I didn’t take photos)!

Cals in: 2191
cals out: will be about 2500 by the end of the day
Steps: 21000 including a very slow 5k jog
Deficit: 309

Had a really good run today after dinner, 9 km trail over the hills overlooking a nearby lake. Also snacked all afternoon!

@CortieTat it was nice with the coconut milk but I couldn’t really taste the coconut so maybe a bit of a waste! Oh that’s interesting I normally use oat milk and Greek yogurt mixed together and it’s normally really nice!!

Snack- mango, yoghurt mixed with collagen powder, seed crunch

snack 2- cacao and agarve latte

snack 3 - 3 x cashew butter on corn thins

snack 4- 20g Lindt 85%

dinner- veg with miso mushroom pasta

snack 5- 2 x cashew butter on corn thins

Consumed around 2350 cals
Only burnt around 2100 cals as my gym class was cancelled, so about a 250 cal surplus (I think the snacks are def to blame 😅)- I shall aim for a decent deficit tomorrow!

More photos

Had planned to post Tuesday but got sidetracked and then had to deal with a complicated family situation which meant yesterday was a write off.

Managed largely to stay on track though with keeping in deficit, drinking more water and getting some exercise which I'm pleased with as I'd usually have derailed!

Photos are my usual porridge breakfast(50:50 milk/water) with berries and Greek yoghurt and a rather burnt Tomato/pepper/feta omelette with salad which was Tuesdays lunch.

Didn't take any photos yesterday 🙈

Pressed send too soon!

Back to my usual breakfast. Testing new oat milk, Arla Jörd with hemp. The amount of hemp is a staggering 0.7%

Lunch is leftovers from yesterday and some sprouts.

Another good day - tasty food but remained in calorie deficit, plenty of water and a 6 mile run!

Usual porridge breakfast
Lunch was Mediterranean rice and quinoa salad with feta
Tea was salmon traybake with green veg 😋

Well done@YorkshireGoddess for staying on track despite the chaos!!

Today terrible sleep (for some reason the earlier I have to get up the later I go to bed 🤦‍♀️- I’m often doing last min work bits in preparation for the early start work day as I def work better under pressure.. but I really need to improve this habit as today was a big work event plus 5 hours driving and I could def have done with more than 5 hours sleep!

I had yoghurt, cashew butter and banana for breakfast, about 130g cashew butter out the jar on the go, then just now had an oat decaf latte and a little maze plate from a restaurant (no photo) -was gonna order a full meal but with it being 9pm thought I should go just for something little.. burnt about 2800 cals today so I’m hoping I am in a deficit big enough to cancel yesterday’s surplus (after posting yesterday I also stress ate most of a pack of corn cakes 😅)

Happy Friday everyone!

Another good day for me - lots of water, calorie deficit (even with a cheeky vino 🍷) and a solid gym session in the bag.

Breakfast was porridge with berries, Scrambled egg on seeded toast with veggies for lunch and a creamy ham and courgette pasta for tea!

so yesterday after posting I had 2 of those little packs of hotel biscuits plus a really sugary hot choc 😅

Then today I was very busy at an event, I stayed over at a hotel and ended up skipping breakfast, had an oat latte then my first meal of the day at like 5.30pm which was a veggie stew and potatoes (estimated Cals for that), then a family pack of pop chips, then I got home at about 11pm and had burnt 3200 Cals from just running about all day, so I was ravenous/tired, ate 2 packs of crisps, loads of cashews, a bit of dark chocolate, made a chai latte, and then some strawberries 🍓 🤣 prob still in a deficit just due to high cals burnt however tummy is not feeling good at all! Aiming to get back to some resemblance of normal eating tomorrow! Plan to have a nice breakfast to set me up well!

Starting fresh today!

Yesterday was not good- I knew I needed to force myself to eat breakfast but really couldn’t stomach it, then it was another big work day and I just genuinely don’t have time to eat, so ended up really feeling deprived/starving by the time I got home, I ordered Indian which would have been absolutely fine had I not then almost gone on a binge after that, not quite full binge-eat-to-the-point-where-you-can’t-breathe-and-are-sat-on-the-floor-crying however I felt a little like that- like I did stop quite far before that point but I was still ransacking cupboards, eating normal bread which I wasn’t even enjoying, one of dps random protein bar, a chocolate bar, an out of date chocolate coin I found in a tin from 2 Christmases ago 😅😅 there just wasn’t much in the house or I’m sure it would have been a lot worse! I did burn 2530 cals yesterday so although I was prob in a surplus it hopefully wasn’t massive..

Anyway, posting a photo of my Indian which was delicious! Although again I did order full wheat Paratha which was silly.. we shared a rice, a chicken tikka starter, then I had a tarka dhal.

And today I am breaking the bad eating cycle hopefully by forcing down a nice protein rich breakfast (30g protein thanks to the yoghurt..) so I don’t end up overeating again later. I’m off today so it’ll be a lot easier for me to control as well.

I know Mumsnet is not my diary hahaha but I’m sure a lot of us feel this way sometimes so it helps me writing it down and hopefully others will relate!

I have to say I forgot about this thread, I don’t like taking pictures of my food so it was easy to forget. We had squid with rice cooked in dashi and vegetables for dinner. It’s broad beans season so I’m having broad beans with everything!

It’s my running day today but we went hiking in the morning so my legs were too sore for running 15k that I originally planned. Did some resisted pilates, aka LesMills Shapes instead and got some tlc with a foam roller.
Had an ice cream too, and I’m planning to have some 🍷when kids are in bed.

Yesterday- breakfast- yoghurt and fruit
snacks- ice cream and quite a few coated peanuts
Dinner- homemade vegan lasagne and broccoli
snack- dark chocolate- think I had 2 squares

Today brunch- oat and banana pancakes with yoghurt and fruit
Snack- 2 decaf oat lattes with agave syrup, 30g dark chocolate
Dinner- left over lasagne and popping in some sweet potato fries to have too

Breakfast- yoghurt and fried banana (insanely good 😭😭)
Snacks- lost track of how much dark chocolate I’ve had, I’m guessing about 50g
3 x decaf oat latte with agave syrup
Lunch- tuna, sauerkraut, beetroot, nutritional yeast,
Dinner- Singapore noodles

About 2050 cals eaten and burnt about 2400 cals so a 350 cal deficit

More photos