Learning To Count Everything
This football season I’m weighing and measuring everything I eat everyday.
I’m doing this because I want two things that don’t typically go together.
A body composition below 10% body fat
All the delicious food that comes around this time of year
In the previous post, I explained how my family background impacted my relationship with food for as long as I can remember. To this day, I can eat a full plate of food and still walk away feeling like I didn’t eat enough. That is a very deceptive thought, especially when trying to eat delicious, calorie dense food in quantities that allow you to still cut body fat.
The moment I start thinking I didn't eat enough is when I start feeling hungry. As obvious and strange as it may sound, I had to learn to recognize that after I’ve already eaten, hunger follows the thought, not the other way around.
This is one of the reasons why weighing and measuring everything I eat is necessary to keep me accountable toward achieving and sustaining both my goals. Learning and practicing those healthy eating habits is going to help teach my body and my mind what it needs to consume in a meal VS. how much food feels like enough.
For most people, their goals will never include shooting for a body fat percentage of 10% or lower at any point in their life, let alone during the most festive time of year. I imagine that just sounds like torture to some of you. When the snow starts thawing, the majority are happy with just being able to fit into last summer’s clothes.
So why blog about this? How does MY journey toward abs and Christmas cookies help YOU?
“The way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.” - James Clear
Most people I’ve worked with throughout my career struggle to see consistent and healthy weight loss of any kind on their own. Typically, by the time a person speaks to me about their struggle, they’re either approaching or teetering on the edge of hopelessness. They don’t know why “it's” (fitness and nutrition) not working for them. I’ve met hundreds of people whose lives were at that point, and it's a very hard place to be.
The most common pitfall I’ve helped people identify has been their experience eating food and how they feel after they’ve eaten.
The second most common pitfall I’ve helped people identify has been learning to count everything they eat, and I’m not talking about counting macros. Weighing and measuring your food is extremely tedious, time consuming, and for most peoples’ goals -- unnecessary. The hardest part for people who “practice” grazing without realizing it, is breaking that habit. Grazing IS extremely efficient. Grazers eat when food is easily accessible to them and Grazers eat however much they want. Sounds great doesn’t it? It’s not great if you want to see progress. So how do you go from grazing away from your goal to gaining ground toward your goal?
Step 1: Recognize It. You have to catch yourself grazing.
Step 2: After you recognize it - you have to: Resist It. You know you’re sabotaging yourself by finishing that bag of chips, or polishing off the rest of your kid’s lunch before naptime. Guilting yourself after you’ve eaten doesn’t help break the habit. Breaking the habit involves
Changing your response from automatic to manual - Recognize It.
Form the discipline in those moments to NOT put that food in your mouth. - Resist It.
It's way harder than it sounds, but if a person were to give themself 10 seconds to think about what that handful of chips, those crumbs of granola, the kiddie plate leftovers, and a spoonful of ice cream actually does to their progress… I think I’d be out of a job. The problem when you’re a Grazer is: those things are so spread throughout the day, you don’t feel like you’ve eaten “bad”. But as you’ll see in a moment, those small things can add up quickly.
One of today’s photos is a picture of my son’s dinner plate. I’m not going to lie, I wanted to finish it at the time. I didn’t. Couple bites of sweet potato, a little bit of ground beef, and barely any rice is nothing for a big eater like me. Here’s the numbers behind the food.
21grams Sweet Potato = 4.3g Carb +.4g Pro + 0g Fat = 19cals
15g Ground Beef = 0g Carb + 2.8g Pro + 2.2g Fat = 32cals
9g Rice = 2.5g Carb + .2g Pro + 0g Fat = 12cals
Total Cals = 63cals
After dinner, my son, Hudson, wanted to watch a little PJ Masks and eat some popcorn with dad. I didn’t say no. I grabbed two bowls, a food scale, and the bag of Skinny Pop. Here’s the numbers behind my food.
5g Skinny Pop = 2.7g Carb + .4g Pro + 1.8g Fat = 27 Total cals
Having the memory of watching cartoons with my son = Priceless
The last photo is from earlier that same day when I was weighing and measuring the ingredients for my lunch. There was some granola left in the bottom of the bag. I was so tempted to funnel that goodness straight into my mouth. I didn’t. Here are the numbers behind the food.
12g Granola = 8g Carb +1.2g Pro + 2g Fat = 52cals
“Every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state.” - James Clear
Each day I continue counting what I’m eating brings me closer to my goals. I’m faced with the choice to track what I eat, or to go blind. The numbers strengthen my resolve to stay on track and to avoid the temptation to turn a blind eye to how much I consume. Those uncounted calories add up quickly. In one day, I had 3 opportunities to go off track. The total calorie intake of all those opportunities added up to = 142 Cals. Not bad right? Multiply those calories by 7 days in a week (994 calories), and you may start to rethink finishing your kid’s dinner every night.
In the next post, I’ll share what foods I plan to eat over the course of the football and holiday season GUILT FREE! I hope you’re hungry.
