It's not something that's at all easy to stick to is all I'm saying. I feel like I would benefit more from advice on how to stay on track or how to avoid falling off track than I would just being told I need to do it. I already know what I need to do. It's repeatedly falling off the track that's my problem.
I found setting my goal, calculating my carbohydrate intake, and recording it in a log to be very helpful for me and to do it religiously. In fact, after losing that initial weight and getting my glucose under control, I stopped calculating and recording my carb intake for a while thinking, "I got this." Almost immediately my glucose levels and weight began to climb again. Out of sight, out of mind. It has been about building new habits and keeping those records for me. If I can't find any nutritional data to indicate the carb load for a particular food, I calculate it using the recipe ingredients and the portion size I'm eating.
For example, yesterday I baked a loaf of whole wheat bread. The ingredients were as follows.
3-3/4 cups white whole wheat flour. (84g carb, 16g fiber) per cup. 84x3.75=315g carbs with 64g fiber per recipe.
1/4 cup honey. (279g carb per cup)
1-1/2 cups water. (0g carb)
1 packet yeast (3g carb, 2g fiber)
Total carbohydrates for the entire loaf of bread: 315+279+3=597g
Fiber or complex carbs may be subtracted out because they do not cause blood glucose spikes so total complex carbs: 64+2=67g.
Net carbs for entire loaf of bread is: 597-67= 530g.
I baked it in a 9" long bread pan so cutting 1/2" thick slices I'll get about 18 slices of bread therefore we can calculate the carb load from each slice: 530/18=29.4g net carbs per 1/2" slice.
Taking the time to go through this process may seem like a lot of tedious work and sometimes it is but over time it gets easier and the end result for me has been that it keeps things in perspective and keeps me on track because it helps me remain focused on my goal, which currently is under 120g of net carbs per day.
So if I intend to eat a slice of this bread for breakfast, that would be my total allowed carb intake for that meal. I can have eggs with it for they have 0g of carbs. Butter has 0g carbs but topping the bread with jelly or honey or peanut butter etc. will add carbs so that would be a no-no. Breakfast sausages or bacon do have some carbs due to the sugars used for curing and seasoning but they are minimal.