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Shift Weekly: The Unbearable Lightness of Tracking Your Food
Dear Shifters,
Do you know where your calories are right now?
Are they recorded and with you or are they out running around in the food fog ether of "I think I just ate alot but I am not quite sure", "Am I gaining weight today or losing?--I kinda don't know."
Have you been recording your food latley?? If you haven't been, are you getting the results that you want??
“Why should I record my food? I hate journaling food—it’s so boring—it takes time—it makes me too focused on the food!” I hear you lamenting. And I agree that maybe record keeping isn’t the most glamorous of the 9 skills of weight mastery but the mounting evidence that supports it’s correlation with success cannot be denied. Did you know that, according to the National Weight Registry, 6 years after reaching their ideal weight over 60% of masters of weight release are still recording their food every day?
If you want long term weight success you will need to track your food intake, exercise expenditure and weight with some consistency. It’s a brutal fact I am not going to lie to you——but here is the good news—when you are recording your food as a loving scientist and not as a dieter—it can be a fun and interesting challenge that gives you valuable information about yourself. When you “bite it and write it”—the actual act of writing down your food and exercise calms you down because it allows you to see everything in black and white—it takes you out of the illogic and into logic.
You see, most people (even skinny ones) underestimate how much they eat up to 100% (food psychologist Brian Wansink’s research shows non-dieters 20-30%, dieters 40-50% maybe even up to 100%) that means even if we think we are eating only 1200 calories a day—we may be eating 2000 or more calories per day. I know this sounds crazy but I cannot tell you how many clients I have had come to me sure their have a super low metabolism because they are eating virtually nothing—but when they start weighing and recording their food and staying within their body’s daily caloric budget for weight release—they can and do release weight.
The few minutes a day I invest in writing down my food–versus living with low level anxiety all day feeling a bit chaotic—not quite sure if what I am eating is causing me to lose maintain or gain-as time and enegy saving—the effort is worth the payoff—so “when you bite it—write it”.
The majority of masters of long term permanent weight release do. Remember—your Inner Coach needs facts—not fiction—to work effectively with you. The “I’m feeling lighter”—“my pants are a bit looser” not weighing yourself and “trying” to eat less does not drive the brain towards your vision—it needs a clear cut map—and your food and exercise data is part of your map. For those of you how don’t know my struggle with weight—when I refused to weigh myself and write down my food I found that I could wear the same pair of pants 20 pounds up or down the scale—so going by how my clothes felt and just “eating lighter” clearly was not a plan for my success. (see story below)
Q: But writing down food takes so much time Rita—I don’t think I can do it.
A: You are not alone—a lot of people think writing down their food is too uncool—too time consuming, too much—I am here to invite you to see for yourself—the time involved in recording your food—whether it’s on paper or the computer or smart phone—takes minutes. Compare those minutes to the time we spend struggling with our weight, not sure what to eat, if we are gaining weight or losing weight that day, the time we spend taking medicine, feeling pain because of weight related issues. Think about the amount of time we spend in pain emotionally feeling out of control with food, the time spent trying to find clothes and looking at our butts in the mirror—“do I look as fat as I think I do?” Come on, the amount of time it takes to record your food is nothing compared to that. If you “bite it write it”—it will set you free. I know many diets and diet programs have you fill out their sheets and we get a little weary—I myself remember diligently checking off waters I drank, fats I ate—looking to see how many carbs were left for the day. I remember tossing those sheets in the trash—“you can’t make me write down my food—I’ll show you!” Oh yes I showed them alright—I showed them how quickly I could gain it all back and more. So I have been there—I know.
When I made my own Shift many years ago and started by just eating more healthfully and moving more I was not recording my food at first—this worked fine for awhile but then I hit a plateau-and boy was I frustrated, —“hey I am eating so little so healthfully and working out like a maniac—why am I not whizzing down the scale???!” My mentor at the time said, “ Rita write it all down—don’t add it up yet just write down all of your food and exercise for a month and then let’s see what the deal is.” So I did. I was very diligent—I wasn’t doing the calories yes but was recording my food and exercise. I was sure that I would have lost 5 pounds that month—but when I got on the scale I had only lost half a pound—disappointing! “Okay mentor what’s up with that—see I told you my body is broken!!” Well my mentor had me add up all that I ate and exercised that month and—gulp--sure enough—I was only owed a half pound on the scale!!!
What record keeping allowed me to see was that even though I thought I was eating like a bird—I was only doing so a few days of the week. The other four days I was eating more like a big bird and on the weekends—with the wine and the socializing at restaurants- I was eating enough calories to fill in any deficit holes I had created during the week. As for exercise? Well, I thought I was working out like a maniac—but turns out my half hour session of cardio 3 times a week were not a huge calorie burn like I had suspected. So for me to continue to release weight I had to readjust my behaviors and my mindset—which I did—because now I had profound body of evidence to work from—I continued my way down the scale and continue to record keep to this day.
So this week coaching: Know where your calories are and “If you bite it –write it”
Good places to record keep:
-A journal—like a small notebook from the 99 cent store—nothing fancy. A client of mine joked and said the smaller the notebook the less she could write on the page and this kept her mindful of how much she was eating!!
-A calorie tracking website
There are many food tracking websites now—for free and with all the bells and whistles—soon Shift will have one too—Yay!! For the time being here are a few that I recommend:
2-“Lose it”—an app for iPhone users as well as a website.
A tip for easy recording:
The following is something that I do for myself especially when I am busy and writing down food as I eat it seems too labor intensive at the time—this has been a good strategy for me over the years.
-Plan your meals and snacks the day the night before or morning of—making sure you are staying within your calorie budget for weight release and being clear with portions. Then just cross the foods off as you eat them over the day. If you deviate from what is written add the additional item and calories or subtract what you didn’t eat. This gives you the ability to re-jibe your plans for the rest of the day and stay on track and out of “I did bad” fat thinking land.
BTW this only takes a minute or two and it really organizes your mind around your food day—it gives your brain a clear picture—a road map—which makes it easy to follow through on.
Have a great and Shifted week! Remember if you bite it—write it!!
ox Rita
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