http://www.stonebrookstrength.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_9681-800×800.jpg
Food Tracking…Do I have to?!?!
First of all let’s get this out of the way, if you want to be successful in your nutrition journey, the answer is YES, you do have to log your food. Will you have to log forever? Not if you create a new healthier lifestyle for yourself full of great habits!
9 months ago, I got tired of feeling like I didn’t look the part of a CrossFit Coach. I made a decision to seek out help. Basically I asked Coach Aaron to babysit me. We had just finished a gym wide nutrition challenge and I decided I wanted to ride on the coattails of that success. I asked Aaron about nutrition accountability and told him in my most defiant voice, “I am NOT tracking my food.”…
“I won’t do it!”….
“Ok fine, I’ll try but it’s not going to be great!”…
“I won’t enjoy it!”…
Well now I have a 273 day streak on the app My Fitness Pal! Can you believe that? I can hardly believe it myself. Last nutrition check-in, Aaron told me he believes I’m ready to take a “break” from tracking. Who knew that would be the hard thing? I’m a pretty competitive person, I’m so close to 1 year of logging my food daily, I almost teared up when Aaron said that. So we compromised, for that week I would only log one meal a day to keep the streak alive. It’s a little experiment to see how the 9 months of habits translates when big brother isn’t watching every move.
At first tracking can seem overwhelming and like it is too hard and complicated. We are really creatures of habit when push comes to shove, so logging eventually becomes a habit and almost second nature. MyFitnessPal has a really great “swipe right” feature. If you consistently log the same meal for breakfast it lets you swipe right to add that full meal to the next day. SO EASY!!! We generally eat the same things and there’s also a “copy from date feature”. Once you get into the groove of logging, the app itself helps you out.
In the last 14 months I’ve lost almost 27 pounds! Being aware of what you’re actually consuming is actually empowering! Would I have been this successful without logging my food and having Aaron babysit me? I don’t believe I would have. We are very good at keeping ourselves oblivious to what is actually going on in our diet. But remember if you don’t log it in the app, your body still logs it!
I was playing around with the app this week and saw they have a free 7 day plan to help you learn the ins and outs of the app. It’s called MyFitnessPal 101. Difficulty-beginner level, I believe you can handle that.
Also, the investment of working with a coach for nutrition accountability is so valuable! It is money and time well spent. Tough love is what we need sometimes. So put on your big kid pants and download the app, get yourself a nutrition coach and get started today!