Tip for Custom Food nomenclature
 

When a custom food list becomes pretty extensive it can be a challenge to find things, even though foods are listed alphabetically (note: they are alphabetized so long as they are capitalized).

Here's an easy way to keep your list looking more organized.

I add prefixes to foods, and these prefixes then position the foods either at the top or the bottom of my "main list" of foods (the ones I eat frequently and are listed alphbetically).

Here are examples of prefixes, in order, as they might appear on the list:

+ Designates a special food/supplement taken for workouts; appears at the very top of the list

= Designates a daily supplement

a- Designates a beverage; appears below the main list

b- Designates condiments

x Represents a food or drink that I no longer eat or do so infrequently

xx Represents a food I'll probably never eat again or I created while traveling.

xxx Are foods that I will never eat again.

z These are foods that are "sleeping". I will eat them again, but by designating them with the prefix 'z' they appear at the bottom of the custom food list. This eliminates clutter in the main list. Once I start eating them again I remove the 'z'.

NOTE: You don't want to delete custom foods that you've created and no longer eat, because once you do they no longer appear on your food log. With this method, you can simply move the foods down to the bottom of the list by adding an 'x'.


Here's an example of what the list might look like:


+ Creatine (heap tsp)
= B-complex
Banana [^Fiber, ^K, ^Mg]
Barilla Rigatoni (1/2 box), [^^ Fe]
Broccoli Florets, Frozen, Bird's Eye (1 cup is 87 g. = 30 cal) [^ Potassium]
Carrot, large, 7.25-8.5" long, (^ Fiber, ^ K, ^^^ Vitamin A)
Corn, sweet, on the cob
Nuts, Peanuts, Honey Roasted, GV (1/4 cup) [^ Protein, ^ Mg, ^ Sat Fat]
Nuts, Soy (2 Tbsp) [^ Protein, ^ K]
a- Miller 64 beer
a- Orange Juice, CALCIUM, 1 Cup (8 oz.) [^ K, ^ Mg]
b- Barbecue Sauce, Jack Daniel's (2 Tbsp)
b- Ketchup and mustard for burger
x Salad Dressing - Greek Vinaigrette
x Hotdog bun
xx Michelob ULTRA
xx Philly soft pretzel
xxx Vito's Low Salt Salad Dressing #1c (6 tbsp)
z Nuts, Peanuts, Honey Roasted, GV (1/4 cup) [^ Protein, ^ Mg, ^ Sat Fat]

NOTE #1: The ^ symbol means that the food is HIGH in that key nutrient. I add this to my custom foods nomenclature so that when I do a search from within my browser (while all my custom foods are showing) for say, "K" (potassium), I can easily find the 10 foods that have been designated as cotaining high potassium. Then I can choose which one I would like to add to my food journal. It really saves time, especially when 200 custom foods are displayed.

NOTE #2: Custom foods should generally be added from "recent foods" otherwise the quantities will change if added to the journal from the custom foods list. In order to have more freedom in adding it either way, without forgetting what the quantity is for "1 serving", you can always add more to the description in your custom food following this example:

Broccoli Florets, Frozen, Bird's Eye (1 cup is 87 g. = 30 cal) [^ Potassium]

That's a great idea!

I would like to add that one feature I enjoy about the FitDay PC version is that when you SEARCH for a food, it also searches your custom foods--very cool as I have several hundred custom foods.

Regards,
Michael

Thanks Michael. Yeah, I've got close to a hundred custom foods already and I'm still adding. The possibilities of this nomenclature are endless.

Notice that I also designate the foods with high nutrients that I'm trying to achieve e.g. Magnesium for a banana (^Mg)? That's helpful as well of course, especially when someone like me is new to nutrient tracking and won't remember all the details of a particular food. In fact, I've taken the "canned" Nutrition Facts provided by FitDay, then made my own Custom Food, copying it identically, only specifying in the label a specific nutrient, just for this very reason so that I would remember it when I'm planning my daily menu.



It's a good thing I moved from Philly, otherwise the designation for Philly pretzel would not be "xx" and I'd be in a heap of trouble with my weight! Of course my beer consumption would be up as well. ;)

Metric Magic
 

I cook from scratch with ingredients rather than food products, so it seems easy for me to simply list all food values per 100g, and express amounts using metric. For example, the amount of a serving of 150g of brocolli would be typed as 1.5 servings. If you wanted to write a serving amount for 50g, it would be 0.5 of a serving. This is a lot faster than working out different serving size value.

And certainly every tin or packet you would buy has a nutritional label on it, and gives you nutritional values per 100 grams, so this works in the same way as raw ingredients. Then all you have to do is move a decimal point - (and remember which way to move it! )

Vito: Thanks for your tips! Now I can be better organized!

Michael: You've lost a lot of weight! Good for you! Can you give some tips to someone that's struggling? Vicki