I would like to think that I am not the only person who while tracking food, ALWAYS thinks about food. We become so consumed by hitting numbers, missing numbers, eating this, and not having that, and eventually find ourselves never separating our minds from food. I do not believe this is a positive situation for anyone so I would like to shed a little light on the topic.
Tracking macronutrients for weight loss has proven time and time again to work without a flaw. But always thinking about what we are going to eat next, what we can have, what we can not have causes a certain craziness within that makes tracking seem difficult or not worth the “stress”.
Tracking should be used as a tool to reach your goals, not cause more problems, or stress. Rather tracking macros should be used as a tool for: creating a healthy lifestyle, learning portion size, and aid in making better decisions.
The ultimate goal here is most like to create a healthy lifestyle. Longevity and balance of diet and exercise so that we can live a long, healthy, happy life. This is the most important tool that tracking allows us. Once you track for a while you start to understand what portions look like, or what is in the foods you had previously been eating, and how to make good decisions while eating out. More importantly you start to develop habit or and understanding of what to eat to meet your numbers. It becomes habit what to eat pre and post workout, and every other meal through the day. Eventually allowing you to be a less reliant on tracking or eventually not tracking at all.
This however creates speed bumps. When you stop tracking or ease off tracking you may slowly change your portion sizes or start including a little extra here and there. The flexibility I am trying to encourage allows for you to not go crazy tracking but understand that if you see yourself slipping you can use tracking as a tool to get back on track. Timing is also important here. This shouldn’t create an excuse to not track. You have to be honest with yourself and your goals and know that there are times when being spot on and measuring/ tracking diligently is necessary.
I would like to make a point in saying that I am not encouraging a yoyo, on again off again diet. I am simply encouraging everyone to view and use tracking as a tool, allowing you to live your life and not just think you have to eat chicken and broccoli every hour of every day. Flexibility in your diet and exercise is a huge component in the longevity of your program, and longevity is as mentioned earlier the ultimate goal.
Lauren Ciurynski
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