Non-recording week recap

I decided a week ago that I would take a week off from recording my food. The first few days were tough! I've grown so use to recoding every single detail that I felt a bit lost when I wasn't logging on to SparkPeople multiple times a day to enter my food. My original plan was to use my weight (gain, loss or maintain) to decide if I was able to stop recording all together.

The best laid plans.... I got a really bad stomach bug last night and lost 6 pounds between Monday and Tuesday morning. Don't ask and I won't tell you how that happened! ;) I am suppose to weigh in tomorrow, but don't feel like I can really use my weight tomorrow as a gauge.

Here's what I learned from not recording for the past week:
- I am able to control my portion sizes even if I'm not able to record all day long.
- If I really think about my eating for the day I am able to make wise swaps. (ie- one egg instead of two if I'm having a fatty dinner)
- Recording helps me to monitor my overall calorie consumption, but is not required for me to have a healthy day.
- Recording is a tool and not something that I have to live by. Just like the scale is not the only indicator of health, my food journal isn't the only measure of good food choices.

Please don't read this and think that I am anti food journaling! I have lost 166 pounds using journaling and exercise. I've had to learn how to eat and keeping a food journal has helped me to learn about portion sizes and how it really feels to be full instead of stuffed.

Next steps? I don't know... I still would like to lose another 5-10 pounds before my skin removal surgery in May. I thought about recording every other day just to make sure I am staying on track. Any suggestions?
I'll keep you posted!