Here's Why Food Journals Matter.

How can you expect to have control of your body if you don't know what you're putting into it?

Good Morning!

This past summer, and still to this day, I did something that I ask just about all of my clients to do (or at least try to): I tracked my meals (and snacks) for 90 consecutive days.

There are a few reasons why I’m doing this, but let me first explain something significant about my profession that differentiates it from many others.

When a fitness coach advises a client on making a change, it’s more of an experiment than a concrete fix.

It isn’t like customer service when wifi goes out, telling you the guaranteed way to fix your router. It isn’t quite like asset management (still a risky profession) either, where you can *basically* get a good return from a fixed-income portfolio or mutual fund.

Fitness coaches are in constant trial and error with their clients, and thus with their own processes, and must be aware that what works for one person will not always work for another.

It’s best to assume each person needs their plan, to an extent, while ensuring all needs are met on the movement spectrum (2-3 hours of resistance training a week, 45-90 minutes of endurance training, for those keeping track).

So when I give out any rudimentary suggestion, I must ensure it’s a rule I follow in my fitness.

This is more something I am biased toward; not all fitness coaches do this (although they really, really should).

Tracked Meals

But I wasn’t following this one.

A few months back, I stumbled upon Mike Doehla, the founder of StrongerU. Mike is living every fitness coach’s dream: he sold his company for a hefty profit, retired early, and trains all day.

He created StrongerU on the foundation that tracking meals and food intake should be the fundamental principle for all people’s health and wellness goals. Movement and training are all great, but as the adage goes:

“You can’t out-train a bad diet.”

Fitness Proverb

So Mike hammered home tracked meals.

Many were resistant to it (as clients can be).

But ultimately, users of his platform found that if they committed just a few minutes a day to this simple habit, it made weight loss and achieving the ideal physique (and health mindset, even more importantly) that much more achievable.

I thought to myself after reading this, “Damn. Why don’t I ask my clients to do this?”

And why don’t I try it myself, too?

I, of course, am only an infant business owner and have a long way to go before I even think about selling a company. But I thought, “If I can get my clients to adhere to something that ultimately changes their lives, I’ll become a better coach AND get more referrals.”

So I redownloaded MyFitnessPal and started "walking the walk” for my clients.

I had to see for myself if I was getting pushback for how difficult, tedious, and annoying keeping a food journal was.

Here’s What I Realized When I Tracked Every Last Thing I ate

Honestly, I can understand why people think writing down calories is such a task.

It’s boring, takes minutes out of my day that I could be doing more productive things during (this is a myth), and it can be shocking to see how many calories I consume.

And, like all habits, it took me about a week and a half before I remembered to log every meal. Some days I would forget.

Some days I would willingly leave things off the list because I was embarrassed I’d gone over my mark.

But, the past 30 days have given me a pretty clear insight into what I gravitate towards when I get hungry and what foods I could *probably* do without.

MyFitnessPal has a good way of reminding you what you consistently eat by suggesting meals from previous days, so if there’s a problem meal you want to get rid of (that bagel in the morning, the extra creamer in the coffee, the app will recommend it based on trends.

This instilled a little guilt as if to say, “hm, maybe I shouldn’t have this again.”

If you’re doing it old-fashioned and simply penning it down in a journal, you’re not getting the same calorie estimates that an app would have, but you still get to look back at the previous page, reflect, and say, “That’s got to change.”

Mindful Eating: Timing, Order, and Patience

Whereas the first four months of 2023 were spent occasionally fasting (not something I’d recommend to everyone, but if you want more info on fasting, consider a paid subscription and see my take on it below), May and June were just analyzing my food.

I wasn't as concerned with when I was eating as I was with what and how much I ate.

Reflecting on this gave me more presence of mind about consumption, and patience until my next meal.

“Okay, this burger is 550 calories. I know that now. This will be my last meal of the day.”

It’s not always as cut-and-dry as that pull quote. But I was able to think more critically about my eating habits — something that doesn’t take as much mental energy as you feel it does, I promise — and I was more mindful of what I was eating.

I also learned that the order of my meals mattered, too. If I had veggies, protein, and rice on my plate, eating the veggies first, meat second, and carbs (rice) last, I was usually fuller for longer (this is a HUGE concept I urge you to try).

So if you take anything away from today’s newsletter, know that you’re telling yourself a much more complicated story about your food journey than it should be. There is power in writing things down. I should know — I do it 2-3 a week, and you’re still here, right?

Fasting And My Thoughts On How It Fits With Tracking

I’ve mentioned before in previous newsletters that Intermittent Fasting isn’t for everyone.

It can be a helpful tool, provided someone has enough self-restraint to not overeat in their “eating window.”

The tricky part about fasting with tracking meals is how well you can adhere to reduced calories daily.

Usually, it isn’t the wisest move to drastically reduce calories on a whim, but it is better to reduce them slowly and incrementally until you find a fasting window to adhere to.

As you become better at fasting, it might become even easier to track food because you’re simply not tracking as much.

The below thoughts are an excerpt from a previous newsletter, “Is Fasting Good For Weight Loss, and How Do You Do it?” To read the full newsletter, follow this link.

There are three types of fasting that someone could attempt:

• Time Restrictive fasting — or only eating within a specific window of time — to reduce total calorie intake

• Intermittent Fasting — or spending long, unplanned blocks of time without food — to build hunger resistance

• Fasting Mimicking — or using low-calorie/no-calorie options like soup and tea to keep oneself “full” for longer.