1. Awareness: Most of my clients report back that after logging just even a few days, they notice they either had no idea how few calories (or specific macro nutrient) they were consuming or how many calories random foods had that they never thought about. Focus on AWARENESS not perfection. If you commit to logging, you will slowly – organically make changes over time without much effort or force.
2. Minimize damage: People often think that when you eat clean, you have to give up the “fun” foods that you enjoy yet a good meal plan will always show you how to keep things you love on your plan. When I program meal plans, depending on the individual’s goals, I program in a set amount of untracked meals so that they don’t have to even worry about what they’re eating a few times per week. More than that though, I provide specific macros/portions to fit their goals and teach them how to reverse engineer what they want.
For example, lets say its one of those weeks where you have multiple work events, a family party, a wedding and you are out of untracked meals. By using a tracking app like myfitness pal, you can put in what you plan to have in anticipation of each event the night before or morning of, then you’ll know how many more calories you have left throughout the day so you don’t go over yet don’t have to miss out.
3. Track whats working/ what is not working: Most people focus on the wrong issue when they don’t see the results they want. They’ll tend to pick whatever thing they consciously (or unconsciously want to stop) or whatever else they think based on their perceptions. Yet our perceptions lie to us. They’re emotional. When you log what you eat, you can see what patterns you are making that could easily be slightly upgraded without much effort.
There is nothing worse then working towards a goal and feeling like you are not getting anywhere. By no means is food logging the end all be all, but its a very simple (and cheap) step you can take today to improve your diet without making too many changes.
If you would like a personalized meal plan created to hit your specific goals for your body type and lifestyle, let me know – Id love to help.
