To Record or Not to Record

I record my food. It's how I live. I'm lucky enough to have found Spark People that does most of the work for me. I put in my food and it keeps track and enters all of the data (calories, fat, sodium) for me. At the end of the day if I'm below my calorie goals I eat more to make up the difference. If I am approaching my goal for the day I eat a light dinner and go to bed cranky.

When I first started recording I saw it as a tool to teach me how to eat a healthy amount of food. As I am approaching my goal weight (16 pounds to go...) I have been challenged by many asking what I am going to do to maintain. Part of me feels like I want to record for THE REST OF MY LIFE because it's safe and I know it works, but there is this other part of me that would love to be free of the constant need to get a gold star for the day on my SparkPeople chart just because I ate the number of calories it told me to eat.

*Deep breath* I've decided to take a week off from recording to see what happens. I expect my weight to stay the same. I am going to record tomorrow, weigh in Wednesday, and then not record until the following Wednesday. What's the worst that can happen? Well, I could gain weight- a lot of weight and then know that I need to continue recording. The best that could happen? I could maintain or even lose a pound (!!!) and maybe losen up the expectation that I've placed on myself to need to record every day.

We will see what happens....