How to win at dieting

Tomorrow will be two weeks and I can honestly say that I am walking normal now and could even see myself doing a little jog as early as this weekend.

A friend of mine had just begun a new diet. The diet consisted of a restricted calorie intake on workout days and even more restricted intake on non workout days. There was also a prescribed amount of protein, fat and carbohydrates on each of those days.

You know how these diets go. We are all familiar with them. And best results always come with a very strict adherence to these numbers.

How do we calculate these numbers?

Most people need to weigh and measure their food then enter that information into some kind of food tracking app. This is how to truly know if you are achieving the numbers as prescribed with the diet.

I did this in 2003, 2004 and 2005. I tracked everything that entered my mouth for three years. This was before smart phones and before every item was already pre entered into these app databases.

I never missed. If I did I would go back and enter the data. This was eye opening and the accountability that was created in this exercise was tremendous. Accountability to myself.

What I see happening today with peoples effort to lose weight is tracking calories and macronutrients strictly when they are ON a diet. It doesn’t matter what specific diet people are on because most of them require meticulous tracking of food either in calories or macros.

Here’s a thought. Track your food when you are OFF a diet instead of on a diet.

Most of the weight gain and unhealthy habits occur when you are off whatever healthy plan you try to adhere to. This is when you tend to go off the handles and become careless right?

When I tracked for three years it gave me awareness. Awareness of calories in foods. Awareness of the amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in everything I ate. Awareness of how much damage was done on the worst of days. Awareness of what type of food and what amount of it made me feel good. Awareness of how to eat in order to lose body fat.

Key point here is that I did not only track when I was trying to lose weight. I tracked all the time.

What do you do when you’re trying to lose weight? What do you do when you’re not trying to lose weight?

Only you know the answer.

If what you are doing is not working it might be time to try something else. Or you might need to reach out to someone for guidance.

I believe in you. I know this is hard. I know it is frustrating. I get it. Let me know if you need help.