We catch what we watch… plain and simple.
There are about a bazillion food tracking apps for that very reason… because in THEORY monitoring your meals makes food management easier.
If done correctly food tracking brings self awareness, knowledge, accountability, and reduces analysis paralysis about what to eat later in the day.
Those are all HUGE wins in weight loss…
However, more often than not…
food tracking drives people absolutely NUTS!!!!
In coaching hundreds of men and women through weight loss, the biggest mistake I observe is people treating tracking as an “all or nothing” endeavor.
- If they don’t have the time to track every single morsel of food, in the exact brand, in exact quantities consumed then they feel defeated or torment themselves with their data’s “inaccuracy.”
In essence, their good intentions make food awareness an UNSUSTAINABLE behavior so it never becomes habit and they can’t reap the benefits of learning about our food habits.
So, what I want to do today is show you a few tricks on how to track, not obsesses… how to monitor… not micromanage.
I want to show you how the “every day active person” should track so that you stop thinking you have to track w/ the meticulous nature of a food competitor. There is a middle ground!!
- See your calories as a SPECTRUM not a pin point. We have a RANGE of calories to work with!!!! Fat loss is NOT an exact number. {In this week’s Sweat Unfiltered newsletter I’ll show you HOW TO find your fat loss range – Join HERE.} We can be above or below calories by about 100-150 and not worry much at all. Do not bank on precision… put your money on FLUIDITY.
- Don’t track every single morsel of food, especially when short on time (which is probably always!!) I make it a point to track the major doses of protein, carbs, and fats. Kale is nobody’s problem. The exact amount of salad greens I ate, a non-issue! Forget adding in crazy things like vanilla extract or cinnamon. What’s the point????? Don’t spend time on the inconsequential!!!
- If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. I don’t focus on my fiber, salt, or even vitamins because I don’t have a health issue that requires me to do so. I track for body composition purposes so I keep my focus where it belongs– calories and macros. If you’re focused on all the bells and whistles the app provides, you will get confused, lost, and frustrated fast. Stay in the lanes that are pertinent to you!!
- 3-4 days/week. For the every day person simply tracking to look hot and healthy, 365 is overkill. We don’t need to see what we do each and every single day for each and every single meal. If we are tracking to check in on ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to our goals, we have plenty of wiggle room to simply NOT track. Take some days off.
If you are one of those people that works well with tracking but just can’t seem to “keep it up,” then your process, your system of tracking is broken.
Stop micromanaging yourself! Loosen the strings, focus on the what’s impactful to your personal goals/health and if you want to learn the simplest way to calculate your fat loss calorie RANGE, Tuesdays SweatUnfiltered newsletter is going give you BOTH the male and female formula to do just that!! Make sure to subscribe here.
