Latest / SOTA Personal Training Podcast / 7 Ways to Make Tracking Macros Easier

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7 Ways to Make Tracking Macros Easier · SOTA Personal Training Podcast

0:01
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the SODA Personal Training
0:04
Podcast. We help busy adults get strong
0:07
and fit and stay that way for a really long time.
0:10
I'm Coach Sean here with Coach Phil.
0:12
What's up, Phil? Hey, gang.
0:13
How we doing we're? Good, merry, merry happy
0:17
holidays. Yeah, Merry Almost Christmas.
0:19
In this holidays episode we're going to talk about 7 is is it
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7? By the way, 77's A.
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Lot. It's seven.
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It's funny. He's like, you know, in the
0:28
spirit of holiday season, we're going to talk about macro
0:30
tracking. What's up?
0:31
Yep, we're. Going to talk about tracking
0:33
your macros. Is there ever a good time to
0:35
talk about tracking macros? All the time is good.
0:39
I agree with that. And seven's a lot.
0:40
So can you? Can these folks really remember
0:42
7 things? I'll spell it out a lot of
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there's some overlap of course, but they're really kind of tips
0:46
and tricks to simplify macro tracking this.
0:49
This is assuming that you are doing it, but if you haven't
0:52
yet, I think this is going to help soften your entry into
0:55
using it. Because if you're serious about
0:57
changing your body composition, this is a non negotiable to
1:00
track in some way shape or form. And the apps are it's right now
1:04
the best way to to do that and get some awareness.
1:07
Yeah, it's cool because I feel like I feel like me and the
1:11
clientele in general here at the gym are on a journey together.
1:16
And what I mean by that is like, you know, we've been talking
1:19
about this on the podcast and just in the gym in general as
1:21
coaches. I've definitely been talking
1:23
about it, you know, for the last like 2 years, right?
1:26
And at the beginning it was like, a lot of people were kind
1:28
of in that vibe of like, OK, you know, I'm, I'm gonna work out,
1:32
but I don't want to change the way I eat.
1:34
I'm not gonna change the way I eat.
1:35
And then after a while it's like, OK, I'll, I'm gonna try to
1:38
start eating healthier, you know?
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And I'm like, well, you know, you'd probably track your macros
1:41
if you really want to like see changes in body composition and
1:44
people be like, well, I'm gonna do that.
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I'm just gonna eat healthier. I'm gonna eat healthier, you
1:49
know, And then I'm like, OK, And then like 6 months later come
1:52
back and we're like, OK, yeah, I think I'm ready to track my
1:55
macros. Like I have a lot of people who
1:58
are finally doing it and like doing it via a lot of
2:02
interesting ways as well, not just the standard apps I got.
2:05
I have a couple clients who are doing it via ChatGPT which.
2:08
Is. Yeah, whatever works.
2:11
Whatever works. It's all doing kind of the same
2:13
thing. It's getting you thinking about
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how much protein, carbs, fats we're eating and how that
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relates to your goals. And it's good to have people
2:21
sometimes arrive at that point where they're like, OK, I think
2:23
I need to do this because what I'm doing is not working because
2:26
we're still stuck in a comfort zone.
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So we got to do something a little more uncomfortable, IE
2:31
level up on their their dieting journey, if you want to call it
2:35
that. All of that word is kind of.
2:36
Leveled up, Yeah, yeah, leveled up became Instagram hashtag you
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in like 2021. Leveled.
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Up, yeah. Leveled up.
2:44
So yeah, my goal with this is to make sure that we're using this
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and recognizing the apps or trach TP or whatever.
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They're all tools. It's not like a second job.
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It shouldn't be, but it tends to feel that way because I think
2:54
people are making a lot of mistakes, which we'll go into,
2:57
but you're overcomplicating it and it's taking up too much
2:59
space in your. The apps are supposed to create
3:02
freedom with your food, but people think it does the
3:04
opposite because they think they're chained to logging and
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and if you do log and you have that awareness, that does create
3:11
freedom so that you know how to intuitively eat better.
3:15
It's just that it's a tool. It's like learning a language
3:17
like you speak 4 languages, Sean.
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Yeah, between 4:00 and 6:00 somewhere, depending on how you
3:23
judge fluency. But yeah, yeah.
3:25
Anyway, go on. Yeah, well.
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And you know, if you were going to relearn those languages every
3:28
time and not use it at all, I mean, you'd have to start kind
3:31
of the basics every single time. And so this is very similar.
3:34
It's like we're, we're learning to use this tool, learning about
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food. I mean, I'm sure you probably
3:39
agree. You can probably look at a plate
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of food at this point and say that's got 40 grams of protein,
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45 grams of carbs, you know maybe 10 of fat about this many
3:46
calories by looking at a plate of food.
3:48
Yes, exactly. But a lot of people don't have
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any of that awareness, so. Right.
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Yeah, big way to frame this but. I mean that, well, that is the
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biggest thing. So many people have told me that
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they're like, OK, yeah, now that I'm doing this, like I just, I
4:00
learned so much. I gained so much awareness and
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then therefore just change some habits automatically because I
4:05
realized some things that. Oh, you know, this food actually
4:09
has this many grams of carbs or fat, and I didn't think it had
4:11
hardly any, you know, as an example.
4:12
Exactly. And one thing I can say with
4:16
complete confidence, I've been training well over a decade now.
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There's one thing that that has been a consistent amongst anyone
4:23
who's had success, and that is the fact that they have tracked
4:27
their macros. Sometimes people get lucky, but
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it's very rare. And unless you want to take a
4:32
chance, this is something you want to do.
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You just got to do it at least once because it's not going to
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be as bad. Everyone who we've gotten to do
4:39
this lately is like, Oh no, it's not that bad at all.
4:41
It's kind of fun. So anyway, that does sound like
4:45
a lot just right in the front end, but we're going to simplify
4:48
it. And yeah, this is for you.
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If you've tried it and you quit, you've never done it or you're
4:54
tracking perfectly but it's stressing you the F out and make
4:56
it. Easy.
4:56
And remember it just once again, the reason we talk about this so
4:59
much is if you truly want to change your body composition,
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you want to burn body fat, you want to gain muscle mass, a
5:06
combination of both. You probably have to track your
5:09
macros and calories in some way, shape or form.
5:13
You probably got to do it. OK, so This is why we harp on it
5:15
so much. Yeah, exactly.
5:17
So for those of you that turn this into a full time job and
5:20
when it shouldn't be, here are the biggest common things that I
5:23
see. Number one is tracking every
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condiment, every spice, every leaf of lettuce in your app.
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You don't have to log those things.
5:33
Don't do it. Don't I encourage you not to do
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it. It's the low calorie.
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It doesn't matter. We're just looking at the things
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that have, you know, a decent calorie allotment with them to
5:43
get those ideas. You don't have to log the
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vegetables. For the most part they're very
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low calorie. Yeah, I can.
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I can mostly agree with that. Yeah, like I don't count.
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Like when I put avocado oil in and I'm, I'm cooking something,
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whatever. Like, oh hell with this, you
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know what I mean? Because like, how would I frame
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it? Like, yes, it does add some
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calories, but when you're doing things in like such a super
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small quantity, it's probably insignificant.
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And then also, how do I explain this?
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No one who tracks and I put myself in this category as well.
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None of us do it 100% accurately.
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It's virtually impossible. But you know, then like let's
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say I track for a week and I didn't include the avocado oil
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or whatever the hell that I was cooking in, right?
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So maybe I'm 100 calories off each day or something like that,
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right? But I know what I thought X
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number of calories meant. And then the next week I just
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adjust, you know, based on the measurements that I, I made.
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So you're adjusting based off your own calculations still.
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Does that make sense? Right.
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So in that sense, you can omit little minor things like that.
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Now, I will say though, that there are some things that get
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really sneaky high calories that people don't realize that fall
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into the category of like added things like, you know, just the
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dressings, like on a salad as an example, like, you know, salad
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dressing. Take out that little packet that
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looks like it's like a ranch dressing thing.
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Squeeze it all over. Let's get two more packets.
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Why not squeeze it all over the place?
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Like? That's probably adding a
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significant amount that you need to be aware of, right?
7:18
That's adding several 100 calories probably.
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So those are things you don't want to miss.
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But like spices, like literally like spinach, like it's probably
7:26
like 20 to 50 calories of spinach.
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Like it would actually be a lot. Like the bag of spinach itself
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is like, yes, 100 calories or something, you know, it's.
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Less than like 50 grams of of 50 calories.
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Like probably not. But he's social logged at once
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to see because yes, they're like, what about my Nana's
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recipe for, you know, XYZ? And they're like, I got to log
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every single small ingredient. It's like, well, yes, yes, you
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do. Or if you use the app, you can
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just search something similar and just say that's that's my
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best guess. Even the studies that they've
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done about tracking with the nutrition labels and everything,
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it's there's all going to be a significant margin of error.
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But at least we're going the right direction.
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Yeah, we're just thinking about the goal is not perfection, it's
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awareness. So just always keep that in your
8:08
back pocket. Just trying to build this into
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your habits so you know how to use this tool properly.
8:13
Yeah. So spinach.
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Skip it. Spices.
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Eat it, but dressing? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But dressing definitely log that because it's primarily like a
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fat in most cases. And that's one of the sneaky
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ones. Peanut butter told you the, I
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think the story about the toast, I thought I was putting 2 and it
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was five. Yeah.
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That's a big difference, no? If you're not logging your
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peanut butter, you're missing a lot there.
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Yes, exactly. Yeah #1 is just an app tracking
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mistake is just chasing perfection when consistency is
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the goal. So I'd rather have someone log 7
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days somewhat imperfectly, then do it perfectly for two, and
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then not at all for the rest of the week because we're trying to
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get the seven day average including the.
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Weekend, this one. OK, this is still a hard one.
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You'd, I mean, I've probably had a dozen odd clients over the
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past few months who have tracked their calories for me and have
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showed me, I would say maybe only two or three of them have
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done it the way I said where it's tracked for five to seven
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days. And don't change the way you
9:13
eat, don't change the way you eat.
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Eat like you normally do for a week and include the weekend
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days. And I hope it's a day that you
9:20
go out for somebody's birthday party on Saturday night.
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And I hope you put down everything that you put into
9:24
your mouth on that night. Like I want to see it.
9:26
I want to see the average. I want to see you trying to make
9:29
it look good or trying to impress me and like, oh, Sean's
9:31
going to judge me because he doesn't eat cookies and I'm
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going to have all these cookies. I want to see it.
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I want to see the average because think of it this way,
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OK? Like let's say that on your good
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days you were eating 1600 calories, but on your not so
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good days you were eating 2600 calories.
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And there's two of those every week.
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And there's five of the good days.
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I would rather see an average of 1900 or 2000, which includes all
9:55
of those days versus just the 1600 days 'cause then in my head
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I think, oh, this person's eating 1600 calories a day and
10:02
not losing weight. They should probably see their
10:04
doctor. Broken metabolism.
10:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Which isn't.
10:08
Which isn't real. You don't have a damaged
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metabolism. You don't you?
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Don't you? Don't so we wanna see the real
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thing. I wanna see your real average.
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And no, I'm not gonna judge you like I'm like I and I think I
10:18
would speak for almost every other coach in here.
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Like we're very non judgmental with that.
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I, I, I think sometimes I give off this vibe, especially on the
10:25
podcast of being like this, like total hard ass.
10:27
Like no cookies, no, you know, alcohol, whatever.
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Which, yeah, yeah, like that's the way I am for myself in my
10:32
own life. But I'm not going to judge you
10:33
for having a damn cookie or a drink.
10:35
I just want to see where you're at.
10:36
No, I just want to see what your average is at.
10:38
That way we can make the correct adjustments.
10:39
Yeah, we're not going to judge, we're going to coach, and we
10:42
can't coach you if you're not honest.
10:44
Yes, exactly. Like, we don't care.
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Like you're starting off. It's hard.
10:46
Like, yeah, log what you have. We want to see it, sure, But
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most importantly, we want you to see it so you know what's
10:52
happening. Yeah.
10:53
Yeah. And then we can say.
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And then we're gonna look at it and say, what do you think of
10:57
this? And you're gonna say, well,
10:58
yeah, that seems a little high. I should probably drop it down.
11:01
We're like, yeah. I mean, we want you to be able
11:04
to solve those problems. We don't want you relying on us.
11:06
We don't have some magic set of keys.
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It's just numbers. Yeah, exactly.
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Like, I just want to beat that drum.
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Like, I want to see honestly what you if I tell you to track,
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I want to see what you honestly eat on average throughout the
11:20
week. Don't sugarcoat it for me, OK?
11:23
I don't care. I'm not going to judge you.
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Seriously. There's people that do way worse
11:26
things in this world than have a cookie and a glass of wine.
11:28
Right. Like, I don't care, OK?
11:30
I just want to see what the average is.
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Doesn't make you a bad person to have those things, it just makes
11:35
you normal. It makes you bad if you lie
11:38
about it to. Us don't lie.
11:39
Don't. Lie to your coaches.
11:41
How you get on the naughty list for this holiday season is you
11:43
lie. Yeah, you lie and you say.
11:48
Yeah, Krampus is coming for you. Exactly.
11:51
Do you know who Krampus is? No, but I'm going to let you
11:54
roll with it, Krampus. Is it like the Grinch's partner?
11:56
I don't freaking know. It's a very dark version of
12:00
Santa Claus. You can look it up.
12:01
I'm not going to, I'm not going to dive into it.
12:04
It's fair. But but no, you're investing in
12:06
your health with us and like you're leaving stuff on the
12:09
table if we're just not doing this stuff to its full effort,
12:13
at least most of the way. So another one I see is people
12:16
treat calorie in like macronutrient allotments, like a
12:19
ceiling. And what happens is if they go
12:22
over their calories on that day, they're like, I blew it,
12:24
whatever, whatever, I'm over. And like, it's like, you know,
12:30
that's it. The weekend shot I'll just start
12:32
again on. Monday Yep.
12:33
So I do whatever I want for the next 48 hours like it's Friday,
12:37
it's Friday. I was supposed to eat 1700.
12:39
I ate 17103 according to the app, so fuck it.
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Now I'm going to go to Crave rooftop.
12:43
Now we're going to have four other drinks.
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I already went over. It doesn't matter.
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Obviously seventeen O 3 versus 3426, it's the same thing.
12:50
It doesn't matter. I went over there's no
12:52
difference whatsoever. So I'm just going to go over for
12:54
the rest of the day. Today we're going to go to Crave
12:56
today we're going to go to brunch at Hen House tomorrow.
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I'm not going to track anything in Hen House.
13:00
I know that nothing in Hen House could be more than 800 calories.
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There's no possible way. It's gonna be fine.
13:03
We're gonna go to Hen House for brunch.
13:04
We're gonna go Cowboy Jacks after that later in the evening.
13:07
People are probably hating on my downtown taste, but anyway, Hen
13:09
House brunch, Cowboy Jacked. After that, we're gonna stay up
13:12
till 3:00 in the morning, and then we're gonna get McDonald's
13:13
at 3:00 AM and then we're gonna go to sleep.
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OK? We're not gonna track any of it.
13:16
OK? But since we already went over
13:18
Friday, it doesn't matter. Max.
13:19
I could gain over the weekend would be like 1/4 of a pound.
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Doesn't matter. OK, none of it matters.
13:23
We're gonna start over on Monday.
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That's right. That's what happens.
13:26
But then we're going to ask you about it.
13:28
And all of those sins will have. To be then you're going to lie
13:30
again, Krampus or whoever, this person.
13:32
And be like, John, this isn't working.
13:34
Yeah, I'm doing all everything you've told me.
13:36
Yep. What about hen house?
13:38
So again, this comes back to honesty, but treat it instead of
13:42
like that ceiling, instead of being like, oh, I went over it.
13:44
Treat it like a dart board. OK, so you've got you've got the
13:48
circular target. You can be up, down, left,
13:50
right, but you're just trying to get on the board.
13:52
So if your protein goal is 120 grams or something like that, it
13:55
might be 100, might be 135, but like just get on the board.
13:59
It's not like if you go over its bust, it doesn't work that way.
14:02
Yeah. So just just don't.
14:04
It's a target. It's think left to right now up
14:07
and down. Yeah, yeah.
14:07
Okay, if I tell you to eat 1800 calories every day for the next
14:11
three months and you're gonna lose 15 lbs, then you could do,
14:15
you know, it's better to be as close to 1800 every day as you
14:17
can, right? But you could do 17101 day, 1900
14:20
the next, 1700 the next, 1900 the next, and you're going to
14:22
land right on the ball. Yeah, 7 day average.
14:24
Like just yeah. This is like a budget.
14:27
It's just a budget and and something that has been helpful
14:29
with some people I've talked to is like you can budget calories
14:33
for a big meal on the weekend. Be like, I'm going to go ham and
14:35
crave this weekend. It's like they have a lighter
14:37
breakfast, eat some more veggies, fill your stomach up,
14:39
get some water in so you can, you know, quote UN quote afford,
14:42
which starts to look like it's like a again, good eating versus
14:45
bad eating, good food, bad food, which it's not the case, but
14:48
that's honestly more helpful because then you are like, OK,
14:52
no, I've I've allotted calories for this meal.
14:55
You can do it guilt free because you know where you're at, But
14:58
this is again, all done with the foundation of I am logging.
15:03
Yep. OK.
15:06
I think that's I think that's kind of it for the common
15:08
mistakes I see I. Think that was three.
15:11
We were supposed to do 7. Well, those are just the
15:13
mistakes and then I've got the the real list of how to simplify
15:16
it. Oh, there's seven more.
15:17
Damn people. Buckle up, we got a lot.
15:19
Here. Well, no, this would be pretty.
15:20
This would be pretty quick. Let's go.
15:21
Pretty self experience. I've got tangents on each one
15:23
I'm sure so. You do.
15:24
I bet you do. Yeah.
15:26
Your tangent allotment went up, apparently.
15:27
Yeah. And he said you get as many as
15:29
you want. Yep, he said he can have.
15:30
You can have more. I don't think he said unlimited.
15:32
No, I get unlimited. I don't have control here so but
15:36
yeah, the ways to make it simple to make it more digestible, no
15:40
pun intended. First one is to start with
15:42
protein only. Like just get in, there's a lot
15:43
of protein. Just get comfortable using the
15:45
apps. I suppose I should say which
15:47
ones we do recommend. We use the Macros first app.
15:50
There's the MyFitnessPal app, although they got bought out by
15:52
Under Armour so you have to pay for premium.
15:55
You don't have to pay for premium.
15:56
For My Fitness Pal, you do. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
16:00
Well for the premium features like the scanning the barcodes
16:04
the last I checked. Yeah, to scan the barcodes.
16:06
I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz I'm still using it, just the
16:09
free version. You can, you can log it, but
16:11
they try to bump you up to premium.
16:13
They're like, don't you want to scan a barcode?
16:15
Click that X button and you say I don't want to pay for premium.
16:18
That's right, don't pay. People don't know how to click
16:20
the X button on a pop up and I don't think we can help them.
16:22
That's right. Anyway, all right, get them.
16:25
Use the free version folks. Yeah, do the free version.
16:28
That's another tip, make it easier.
16:31
But yeah, the insights that you have are there.
16:32
You're just again, getting numbers to bring to us and then
16:34
wanna help advise on things. But if you come in, we do a
16:38
checkpoint or something like that and you're like, I'm not
16:40
seeing the results. I'm gonna say, all right, what
16:43
kind of calorie intake are you getting?
16:46
And you're gonna say, I don't know.
16:47
I'm gonna say, well, I don't know what's happening then
16:49
either. So you get one that you like,
16:52
it's comfortable to use. It should be simple.
16:54
So start with protein. You only get a feel for it and
16:56
then build up from there. It's one way just to start kind
16:59
of stepping into that zone of tracking number 2 is to use
17:03
repeat meals. Yeah, this comes back to
17:05
decision fatigue. And I'm like, I gotta have
17:07
something different every single day.
17:09
And no, you don't. And in a lot of cases you
17:11
shouldn't like find three to five breakfasts that you like
17:16
and then you log that one. You say, my standard breakfast
17:19
version A is about 500 calories, got 40 grams of protein.
17:23
And then you can just copy and paste those meals or you don't
17:26
even have to because you just know breakfast is 500.
17:28
I'm just doing the math on the other end now.
17:30
So that's a really good way to keep it simple.
17:34
The 500 calorie meal approach is really helpful too.
17:37
You can just find meals that are around that allotment.
17:39
You just multiply by 1-2 or three, and so you kind of get an
17:42
idea of where you're at versus thinking about that miniscule
17:45
calorie amount, right? So thinking hundreds, not like
17:48
10s or ones. Yeah, but repeat meals.
17:52
The more robotic you eat the easier it will be.
17:54
But there's a fine line, so find something that works for you.
17:57
Yep, exactly. And especially be robotic with
17:59
your breakfast and your lunch. I mean, dinner you can have.
18:02
Nobody wants to have the most boring dinner every night.
18:04
But like, let's be honest, none of you guys go out for fun meals
18:06
for breakfast or for lunch. Come on.
18:09
Like nobody has fun for breakfast or for lunch.
18:11
The hen house thing was like a once a month joke.
18:13
Like just have a boring breakfast and a boring lunch
18:15
every day. And if you do something fun with
18:17
friends or family for dinner, we won't go for it.
18:18
I want a little variety, but like, yeah.
18:20
Boring doesn't have to be not delicious.
18:23
I mean, that's the other thing It should be.
18:25
It should be simple. Yeah, like, and dress it up and
18:28
seasoning on there. Add some hot sauce.
18:30
Get wild. There you go.
18:31
Yeah. Do something else with your
18:32
eggs, but it's a great staple. Toast, fruit, whatever.
18:35
Just keep it simple and then you build that in your routine.
18:39
Easy enough #3 is to pre log for specifically when you go out to
18:44
eat. A lot of the apps, all the major
18:46
like restaurants, like all the chains are for sure and a lot of
18:49
smaller ones too. You can kind of pre log and
18:51
assess and be like, all right, what's that going to be?
18:54
You can kind of pre plan your meal.
18:55
So you go out, you know exactly what you're going to get and you
18:59
you have a game plan going in. So that can just help you assess
19:03
and make an informed decision when you get there.
19:06
Ma'am, the restaurant 1 is such a huge 1, you know what I mean?
19:11
I was having this conversation with a client yesterday about
19:13
like the, you know, just the different choices to make at a
19:15
restaurant and. You're, you know, at restaurant.
19:18
Yeah. So a little bit go on, no?
19:20
Maddie, Maddie and I made Maddie did all the work on this, but
19:23
she got all these like menu items from local restaurants and
19:28
she did one with the chain restaurant as well and just
19:30
found the the healthiest options.
19:33
Yeah, subjectively, but this will tell you about the
19:35
industry. Is she she called and she was
19:38
like, can I get your nutrition information, which I believe
19:40
legally they need to have somewhere.
19:42
They were, if they were like, no, we we're not.
19:45
We can't give that to you. We're not going to give that to
19:47
you. We're like, but we're trying to
19:48
make a guide so people eat food that can just get the healthiest
19:51
restaurant option at your restaurant.
19:54
Yeah. Not a single one.
19:55
Gave her an ounce of information.
19:58
OK. So she went in there and just,
19:59
you know, intuitively knew all this is going to be the best
20:01
option because it's prepared like this.
20:03
But that just tells you like, you're going over your calories
20:06
if you're eating out. I mean, basically, yeah, that
20:08
was. If it's like a big place, if
20:10
it's Italian restaurant like you just, it's a wash.
20:13
So that was the story I with this one client, you know, not
20:15
going to mention her name, but like, you know, she's on
20:16
essentially 1900 calories right now.
20:18
I was talking about just, you know, went out with friends a
20:22
couple weeks ago and, you know, did the, you know, the thing
20:25
where it's just like, OK, bacon cheeseburger with fries
20:28
basically from a restaurant, pretty simple standard meal,
20:30
right? And, you know, we just got
20:33
talking through it and I'm like, it's not like you can never do
20:36
that. But that does just kind of
20:38
especially probably with the amount of fries they're putting
20:40
on stuff, it puts you way outside the zone of like, you
20:43
know, if somebody's supposed to be eating 1900 calories per day,
20:47
I mean, ideally when it broken up, it shouldn't all just be in
20:50
one meal. Probably that's a 2000 calorie.
20:52
Meal exactly like that pretty much is going to be like 1900
20:55
calories right there. I mean, depending on how many
20:57
fries they give you, depending on how many strips of bacon
20:59
around the thing, depending on how many other trans fat greases
21:01
they put in it, depending on what you know, like, yeah, it's
21:04
it's a lot right there. You know, and I'm not saying you
21:07
can never eat it, but just know that like if you have a meal
21:10
like that and you're supposed to not go over 2000 calories on the
21:12
day, Well, you know yeah, like we already kind of you you kind
21:17
of do with that meal right there.
21:18
And and then like, The thing is in situations like that, this is
21:21
the thing you mentioned that Austin from next door in tangent
21:24
on in a minute. But like, you know, one thing
21:26
that he learned to do well is go to a fast food place or any
21:29
restaurant and just understand what the better of two or three
21:33
different options is. You know, and what I was telling
21:35
his client yesterday was just like, you know, is there one
21:38
aspect of that bacon cheeseburger and fries that we
21:41
could get rid of? Like ideally it would be the
21:43
fries, you know, maybe take the bacon off the burger would help,
21:45
cause most people don't really need extra bacon in their life.
21:48
You know, it does that protein. But like it would probably be
21:51
just sub the fries for like a side salad or some coleslaw or
21:54
something. Or some fruit too, Like are the
21:56
fries even that good? Like in a lot of cases they're
21:59
they're not. So it's just like, am I just
22:00
eating this 'cause these are in front of me?
22:02
And, and yeah, yeah. And that was kind of what this
22:04
client said, too. It's like I don't really need
22:05
the fries that much, Just they're just part of the meal.
22:07
And it's they're just. The things.
22:09
Three times as many as I probably would normally eat
22:11
because they're in front of me. Yeah, 50% more.
22:13
That's just what happens to all of us, our brains.
22:15
Are exactly. So you just gotta pick the
22:17
lesser of evils when you're yes. Yeah, yeah.
22:19
And then you can just still go enjoy the heck out of your time.
22:22
But just like just think about it, just go into it and just pre
22:25
plan. So pre logging can help with
22:27
pre. Logging.
22:28
Then make the waiter or waitress figure out if they actually have
22:31
a fruit cup. Be the only one in there all day
22:33
who's ordered a fruit cup with the burger.
22:35
That's right. And then they'll pull out a week
22:37
old cellophane wrapped kind of that they sprayed with water to
22:40
make it look fresh. Yes, exactly.
22:42
Yuck. Bring your own fruit.
22:44
Correct. Yeah.
22:45
Bring a cup bags full of oranges in with you to the restaurant.
22:49
There you go, just enjoy the. Reaction dude I have a friend
22:52
who he's such an ass like he'll he'll bring OK and this is not
22:56
like bringing a fruit bag, but like he will bring Chipotle into
23:01
another restaurant. We've done this a couple times.
23:03
He he just loves Chipotle and doesn't like the food at that
23:06
many. Restaurants so rude but like.
23:07
So practical, yeah. We'll meet at a restaurant
23:10
somewhere that's kind of like a casual place and it'll be like a
23:12
few friends. And he's like, guys, I brought
23:14
my own Chipotle. And he plops a burrito on the
23:16
table. Sits it on the table and the
23:18
waiter waitress is looking at us like excuse me did somebody just
23:21
serve you Chipotle from our non Chipotle restaurant?
23:25
Like what the fuck? Everyone knows the answer to
23:27
that. Yeah, yeah, it's just hilarious.
23:29
Sir, What are you? Doing we don't allow that here.
23:32
That's very rude. And then by the way, he pays
23:36
zero money to the restaurant, you know, just, yeah, this
23:38
wasn't supposed to be part of the podcast enough.
23:40
Space. No.
23:40
Yeah, I like that. It's a funny tangent.
23:43
Yeah, I have a fruitarian friend I told you about.
23:46
Actually just got his Christmas card, but he, he, he eats
23:49
basically a raw vegan. And then he, he used to eat like
23:51
60% of his diet was from fresh fruit.
23:53
And so we'd go out neat places. He's like, yeah, go wherever.
23:56
Like what are you going to get? He's like, don't worry about it.
23:58
He shows up and he brought in a cub bag one day.
24:01
He brought twenty oranges in a cub bag to like this Asian
24:04
restaurant and he's just eating oranges.
24:06
There's peels all over the table and, and no one batted an eye.
24:10
And we're used to this. We're like, all right, all
24:12
right, we love him. He feels great, but it's, it's a
24:15
weird one. OK, OK #4 is just creating the
24:20
ranges, not targets. And that's kind of what I said
24:23
before is like just again, you're setting that, that
24:25
circular target instead of like a, an absolute ceiling.
24:29
But we talked about that one. But think about like a, a floor
24:32
to ceiling range that you're going for and just be in the
24:34
range, that's all. It's impossible to get exactly
24:39
120 grams of protein unless you're going to go way above and
24:43
beyond. So just again, hit the range.
24:46
That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah #5 again, kind
24:50
of comes back to the top one is stop tracking the non impact
24:53
foods. So like don't you don't have to
24:56
track things like diet soda if you have it, leafy greens, that
25:00
stuff you can just kind of skip forsake of simplicity.
25:04
Because because the calories are so almost insignificant, you
25:07
know what I mean? That like, yeah, yeah.
25:08
The only downside is the apps will track like your your
25:12
vitamins and minerals you're getting.
25:13
So if you want to see those things you do need to log them.
25:15
But sometimes this comes with too great of cost.
25:17
Half the meals, veggies. It's like you don't want to
25:19
spend 5 minutes logging. Yeah, you, you do need to
25:23
simplify like this. There's really there's this is
25:25
going to be like a tangent and a tangent.
25:26
So this this is like a real piece of advice where you have
25:30
to weigh the pros and cons of all this tracking.
25:32
Yeah, is doing it in a like doing it in a way that you make
25:37
sure it helps you, but then at the same time making sure it
25:40
doesn't add too much stress to your life.
25:42
So what I mean by that is just back to me right now being on
25:46
the the Stronger than Austin program, quote UN quote, right.
25:49
So here we go. OK, I'm on like week 4 of this.
25:51
Buckle up. Buckle up for the Stronger than
25:53
Austin program updates. No, so I'm on week 4 of this and
25:57
of course when I went into it, I'm like, OK, I got to track
26:00
food for a while, 'cause I know that I'm not eating in a way
26:03
that's going to build as much strength.
26:05
That way I can be stronger than the Hulk next door, right?
26:08
So I got up my protein, got up my carbs, right?
26:10
I'm going to have to track a little bit.
26:11
So for the first week and a half, two weeks there, I went
26:13
pretty hard with the tracking just to make sure, like, OK,
26:16
I've upped my carbs by 50% everyday, you know, upping my
26:20
protein a little bit, right? But then after that, you know,
26:24
it was a really busy week, week and a half two weeks ago.
26:26
And I'm like, OK, I know where I'm at.
26:29
I've made the adjustments that I've needed to make.
26:32
I know basically about what I'm eating every day now.
26:35
And the tracking is getting to be a little bit cumbersome.
26:37
It's just getting to be like, take an extra 2 minutes, put it
26:40
in the app. Put it in the app when you
26:41
already have like a busy, stressful day.
26:42
Like sometimes hesitant to say this advice, but sometimes you
26:48
do want to tell yourself, OK, it's not a big deal.
26:51
I'm not going to track for today or the next few days because I'm
26:54
already in a routine where I know that I'm eating in that
26:58
range that Phil is talking about.
26:59
Like right around the, you know, let's say for the average
27:02
listener, it is 2000 calories. I already know that exactly what
27:06
I'm going to eat is going to fall somewhere in that 1800 to
27:09
2200 range. And I'm really freaking stressed
27:11
right now and I don't need to waste the extra 2 to 4 minutes
27:14
everyday logging into the iPad. Tedious, tedious, tedious or
27:17
logging into the the thing, whatever, right?
27:20
Because how do I frame it? Like, I know a lot of you
27:24
listening feel this is like every minute of every day counts
27:29
so much. There was a Jeff Bezos quote
27:31
that I heard from a few years ago talking about how he, like,
27:34
manages his time, you know, and he told somebody he's like, I
27:38
have the way that I brush my teeth optimized for efficiency
27:41
because I don't have any freaking time to do anything,
27:43
right? And I've kind of felt the same
27:45
way a little bit recently. Like, you don't have to be a
27:47
triple bajillionaire like Bezos to need that.
27:49
Like we all need that. We all feel that in the society,
27:53
especially if you got kids. Like I got no freaking time,
27:56
right? So for me, a couple weeks ago I
27:58
was having a couple days where I'm just like, God almighty,
28:01
adding this 2 to 4 minutes of tracking is stressing me out
28:05
more than it should, right? So that's when, if you have been
28:08
tracking for a little while already and you already know
28:11
what you're supposed to eat throughout that day, I will
28:14
allow you to say, OK, I'm not going to log it today because
28:18
it's the same routine I've been following for the last however
28:20
many days. And I know basically what
28:22
calorie and macro nutrient range as it falls into and I would
28:25
rather save myself the three 3 to 4 minutes that it takes
28:28
because I have such a busy day and I'm already stressed out.
28:30
Yes, the way it. Should like really evolve into
28:33
is like, you log everything and then you can over time stop
28:38
logging. Yes, more of the healthy stuff
28:40
because that is easier to replicate and you already know
28:43
it. And then you just log the stuff
28:44
that you probably don't want to log.
28:46
But that's the thing that no one logs.
28:48
Yeah, they log their salad. Look at my thing.
28:50
The salad. Something's not adding up here.
28:52
Yes, and so, you know, again, comes back to being honest with
28:56
yourself in this process and what you're doing and just what
29:00
you just what you said right there is like you build
29:03
knowledge, you understand what's happening.
29:05
You have your routines. You you don't have to do it
29:07
less, but it takes practice to get to a point.
29:09
So you got to do it frequently enough that you can build that
29:12
competency with nutrition. And that's number seven.
29:17
It's it's use the app in seasons.
29:19
That's a good way to simplify. It is like do it periodically,
29:22
you know, if you're, if you're running into a roadblock or a
29:25
barrier, This is where these tools come in to get some more
29:28
clarity to one step deeper into what's happening.
29:31
Because if you come in, you're like, I'm doing all the right
29:33
stuff. Like Phil, everything's doing
29:35
everything and I'm not seeing any, any, any results.
29:39
This is like, we got a car and it's got some weird noises, got
29:43
some little rattle. You're like, there's a rattle in
29:44
the car. And I'm like, OK, OK, let's look
29:46
at the hood. And you're like, no, you can't
29:50
look inside. I'm like, what?
29:52
Yeah, yeah, let's figure out what's wrong with the engine.
29:53
You're like, no, I'm not going to open that.
29:55
I'm not going to do that. I was like, well, I can't.
29:58
We can't help you. So that is just, again, you're
30:01
getting, you're getting in there.
30:02
We're seeing what's happening and then we can coach and
30:04
assess, well, your radiators leaking a little bit of oil or
30:07
something if this they don't leak oil, but you know what I
30:09
mean. Yeah.
30:10
It's just about getting clear this he's going to be like,
30:13
Phil, have you got to stop? At the car, Yeah.
30:14
No, that's it. I should have dropped, drawn the
30:17
line a little sooner than that, but you think you get.
30:19
My point is, look under the hood.
30:20
Let's see what's happening. Let's get you running.
30:22
Tip top shape. Yeah, Yeah, the the seasonal
30:26
thing. I mean, I don't know anybody who
30:29
can or should track all the time all year round.
30:33
I mean, I'm probably out of all the people that, you know,
30:37
either coach or work out at this gym.
30:39
I'm probably as strict as anybody with nutrition.
30:42
And if I tracked everything all year round, I'd be, I would go
30:46
freaking nuts. Like, I mean, don't get me
30:49
wrong, it's very useful. And if you have very specific
30:52
goals that you need to hit and you're like, I need to lose 15
30:55
lbs within three months, well, you got to track, you got to
30:57
track very strictly throughout that time, right?
31:00
But to do it all year long, throughout every year of your
31:02
life, you probably will develop a dysfunctional relationship
31:05
with it. You know, so there's a limit to
31:07
how much you want to do this. I probably over the last five
31:10
years, I've probably think of it this way.
31:12
I've probably tracked my macros for a total of 1 year throughout
31:16
that five years in like different month or two spurts
31:19
throughout the time because it's always to get like a RE like a
31:22
gauge again. There was like a new direction
31:24
with where you wanted to go, so you had to reassess.
31:26
Retrack. Yeah.
31:28
Exactly. And then you can eat a little
31:29
bit more intuitively after that. Exactly but.
31:32
When you want to change directions with something,
31:34
whether it's up, down, left, right, you got to, you gotta
31:36
just kind of refocus and and identify that path and that's
31:40
what tracking will do. Yeah, And, and most people, if
31:42
you track for the first time, I can almost promise you you're
31:45
going to be way off. You know what you thought I have
31:49
so many clients who will tell me like, you know, yeah, I, I've
31:53
never tracked, but I, I think I eat a lot of protein, you know
31:56
what I mean? Or like, I think I think I do
31:57
pretty good with that. Yeah.
31:58
It's. Like 35.
31:59
Grams. Yeah, yeah, Literally.
32:01
Yeah. And that's OK.
32:03
That's. Part of this journey you're
32:04
like. Oh, I had no idea.
32:06
Well, let's up that and all of a sudden, like, wow, I'm meeting.
32:09
I'm meeting way better because I'm more full and I'm actually
32:11
getting stronger now. It's just you had to look
32:13
through that door. Yeah, yeah.
32:15
I'm trying to think of other like pitfalls.
32:18
Was that the end of the list? Did we do 7?
32:21
There was one more and just had to do with zooming out to weekly
32:24
averages, but we also cover that.
32:26
Yeah, previously. So again, it's just the bigger
32:28
picture average, not like day-to-day good bad.
32:31
And once again, weekly averages. I'm going to say it again.
32:34
If people have been listening this long, they obviously are
32:37
here for good information. I'm going to say it again.
32:39
I'm going to say it for the 100th time.
32:41
Okay, the weekends count, the week ends count.
32:46
OK, so it's it's it's hen house counts, cowboy jacks counts, the
32:52
Timberwolves game counts, all of it counts.
32:55
You know, and I know that it's hard, like it's hard.
32:57
This is one of the pitfalls of the weekends too, is it's like
32:59
it's hard to log things on the weekends.
33:02
So what you should do is just make your best estimate at it,
33:05
because at least if you do that, you're like still kind of
33:08
trying, you know what I mean? Like the worst move you can do
33:11
on the weekends is be like, I well, fuck it, it's the weekend.
33:13
I'm not going to track. So now I'm going to go to Hen
33:15
House, and then I'm gonna hang out downtown for a little bit
33:17
longer. And then I got invited to go to
33:19
the Timberwolves game later. So we're gonna hang out at Tom's
33:21
Watch Bar at 5 PMI don't know what I had at Hen House in the
33:23
morning, but it was probably like somewhere.
33:25
Around like 2500. Calories, couple mouses, couple
33:26
mimosas and then a 2500 calorie brunch with.
33:28
Some doughs and then we. Went to Tom's Watch bar and I
33:31
don't know what they have at Tom's Watch bar but I can
33:33
guarantee it also as well. Over 1000 calories.
33:35
And then there was alcohol at Tom's Watch bar.
33:36
Why would there be alcohol at Tom's Watch bar?
33:38
I don't know. And then we went through the
33:40
Skyway and then we went to the Timberwolves game.
33:41
Then we went to the Timberwolves game.
33:43
We got the freaking Hormel hot dog.
33:44
That's right. Get me up dude.
33:46
I have not had a Hormel hot dog since like a long time ago.
33:51
But they are good, right? So we had Hormel hot dogs and
33:54
then some of the mini doughnuts. Those things are fire.
33:56
By the way, so good, yeah. I know I grew up on mini
33:59
doughnuts. Dude, that's my go to.
34:00
If I go to Twins game I'm like where are those mini doughnuts?
34:02
Oh my God, there they are. I'll stay in line for 30
34:04
minutes. I don't care.
34:06
Yes, yes. I only go to one Twins game
34:09
every two years. Exactly.
34:11
Oh my God. And and that's how your Saturday
34:13
ends up at 5000 calories. Yep.
34:15
And then you're. Like I'll start on Monday.
34:17
Yep. But the Wolves win.
34:19
That's right. I gotta, we gotta probably just
34:24
a couple more minutes, but just a couple kind of kind of closing
34:27
notes who tracking is for, you know, people who are data
34:31
oriented are going to love it. You'll probably start logging
34:32
yourself other people. It's it's going to be beneficial
34:36
because you're not maybe data oriented.
34:38
But again, we can coach you better.
34:41
It's best if you're doing these directional changes in your
34:43
goals short term or performance based, then we do want to.
34:46
That's going to be where it's most impactful.
34:49
If you're highly stressed, if you have a history of disordered
34:52
eating, if you are, you know, if you're skipping meals and you
34:56
don't have much of A plan in place, it really won't benefit
34:59
you as much. But you just need a simpler
35:02
approach. And maybe it's not tracking in
35:04
an app. There are many ways to do it.
35:06
We're not going to cover this today, but this one is just,
35:09
it's tried and true. It's, it can help foster a good
35:13
relationship with food if we can look at it through the right
35:15
lens. It's just a tool, right?
35:17
So it's just a matter of balancing nutrient balance with
35:20
calorie balance. And and that is the ticket to
35:24
forward momentum if you've been stuck.
35:27
Boom. That's that's probably it.
35:31
I think it's just, yeah, closing notes.
35:32
If, if tracking feels hard, you're probably doing it too
35:35
much or you're just, you're probably doing it in a little
35:38
bit of a slightly different way. So use these tricks and tactics
35:42
and, you know, we're here to help.
35:44
So I'm like, we'll take you through the app, We'll show you
35:46
how to do it. We'll make it easy.
35:47
But everyone who does this, once I get them to lean into it,
35:50
they're like, wow, this is actually not nearly as bad.
35:53
This is actually kind of fun. So kind of fun is a strong way
35:57
to phrase it, but Yep, it's one. Person told me that once over
35:59
the last 10 years but. OK, just recent take a roll in.
36:02
My mind and guess what? He's he's hitting his goals,
36:05
he's going to hit his target weight goal.
36:06
We're still putting on muscle. It's getting jacked.
36:09
And he's having fun. OK, hell yeah.
36:12
That's it for me. That's it.
36:14
No, that's the most important thing, folks.
36:16
The weekends count and the. Weekends.
36:19
Christmas counts. The holidays count.
36:22
It does. Yeah, 'cause.
36:24
You know what? You know what also adds up
36:25
versus the the Tom's Bakery, whatever.
36:28
House watch bar that's. A real place.
36:29
Oh yeah, yeah. So those will add up.
36:31
But you know what also adds up for your parents is like the
36:33
five goldfish here and there and like the passing by the
36:36
Christmas cookies. I'm just going to have one more
36:39
that happened. This Katie made a bunch of these
36:40
cookies and made some tiny ones for our children because they
36:43
don't need more sugar. And like I realized I was like,
36:46
I think I actually just by passing back and forth
36:48
throughout the day, I probably had twelve of these little ones
36:51
and I'm like, well, shit, that's like 5 regular ones.
36:54
So those little things add up. So if you're logging, sometimes
36:56
you might say, I don't want to log that.
36:58
I'm not going to have it because I don't even want to get my app.
37:00
I want to log it because that's annoying.
37:02
Yep. And it's necessary.
37:03
So then yeah, yeah, yeah. 1000 calories of goldfish later,
37:07
yeah, that's. Right.
37:09
That's how it goes. All right, gang, reach out if
37:11
you need help with this. We're here to help.
37:12
This is a massive tool. We're going to keep leaning into
37:14
it and And you should too. Yep, you're gonna It's going to
37:18
be pretty life changing if you can adopt some of these things.
37:21
Yep. We're here to help.
37:22
Happy Holidays and a happy New Year coming up soon.
37:24
That's right. Thanks everybody.
37:26
Alright, thanks, Phil. Bye bye.