Counting Our Chickens

There's an interesting post today over at Calianna's Low Carb Cottage about the ease of sticking with a low-carb diet as opposed to a low-fat diet. It got me to thinking about counting.

Now, not having to count is one of the most attractive things about the low-carb way of life. For some people. I don't think I'm one of them.

How many of you keep a food diary, or at least a mental tally of carb grams or calories or points, depending on what way of eating you follow?

I am a faithful chronicler at Fitday, even though it isn't the most user-friendly program. But it works on a Mac, as do I, and it's free. And it makes it easy to keep track of carb grams and also my overall calories. But mostly, like a blog or a diary, it makes me more accountable for what goes in my mouth every day. My only rule is--EVERYTHING has to be entered. So the day I went off the rails and consumed an entire bag of those evilly delicious Sweet Nut'n from Flax-Z-Snax, I faithfully wrote down all 900 calories and 54 grams of carbs of it. It wasn't a pretty day.

But it keeps me honest. Even though no one but me sees that daily summary, it's enough to know if I eat it, I have to write it down.

In the meantime, I don't recall where I stole this cartoon from, but isn't it funny?