3 Reasons To Start Tracking Your Food…

Hey guys, what's up? And welcome to tonight's video. So tonight we're going to be talking around nutrition, and we're going to be talking about the specific habit of tracking your food. Now, it's not something that everyone wants to do, not something that everyone has to do, but it can be very effective for helping you reach your, your health and body transformation goals. Now, the first reason why I would recommend that you track your food is simply awareness. Most of us tend to eat quite mindlessly and as a result end up with a body that we don't want. We're often lacking in energy, we're often overweight, we've got inflammation, joint aches and pains and things, poor recovery, poor hormonal function, and all these different types of things that go on. Some of us even disease and illness, and much of that will come from our food intake. Our dietary intake plays a significant role, of course, in how healthy our body can be. And also the way that it expresses itself on a daily basis and how you feel. So, the first thing is awareness. We want to bring awareness to what we're doing. Most of us, as I say, eat quite mindlessly, and then when we start actually writing down the foods that we're having, the time that we're having it, etc., what we realize is, holy shit, I'm actually eating like this? And most of us, we find we're basically eating like a kid, a kid that's been let off his leash and free to kind of run wild. Most of us, as you probably know, opt for convenience over quality, and as a result, we end up with a convenient but poor quality body. So that's the first thing, like, we want to bring some level of awareness to what we're doing. The second thing is accountability. What it helps us do is actually become more accountable to ourselves, because 9 times out of 10, when we realize, holy shit, I'm eating that much bread, or I'm eating this many sweets, treats, biscuits, and all the rest of it. When we realize that clearly written down in front of us, quite often we then go, "Oh shit, I need to do something about this. I need to change it." And it becomes much easier for us to hold ourselves accountable to particularly, sorry, to the changes that we said we're going to make. Oh, well, I have this particular goal to reach this particular point in my body that requires me eating like X, Y, and Z. Whenever you get to the point where you're writing down these things and you realize, oh shit, that doesn't actually match that's not in alignment with the way I said I was going to eat, or it's not in alignment with the way I need to eat in order to achieve this particular outcome, quite often it can be the kick that we need to actually prevent us from eating that thing. So instead of going, "Ah, fuck it, I'm going to stuff my face anyway," because we know we're going to write it down, quite often we will then, not always because it depends how deeply ingrained these habits are, but it will give us at least an opportunity, a moment to reflect and decide for ourselves, is this the route I want to go down? Is this the food I'm going to eat? Or am I actually going to choose something that's going to help me move towards my goal? Now, of course, the goal itself is irrelevant. You might be trying to build muscle, you might be trying to reduce pain, inflammation, you might be trying to help tissues repair after an injury, you might be trying to burn fat, you might just be trying to improve overall health. Doesn't matter what the goal is, having that extra layer of accountability to kind of keep you on track and keep you mindful of what you're about to do and what you're about to stuff your face with is obviously going to be of great benefit. And then the next thing is, which I've kind of alluded to already, is ultimately the achievement of your goals. It becomes much, much easier to hit your particular targets when you eat specific to those targets. Let's face it, if I want to gain muscle, that's going to be a slightly different eating protocol or dietary method to if I want to just burn fat. If I want to increase my, my physical performance, that might be different again to me trying to recover from, uh, high blood pressure or diabetes or cancer and so on. So the specific goal that we have is likely to have specific nuances involved, and writing down and tracking is one of the best ways that you can actually ensure that you're eating in alignment with the outcome that you want to achieve. Now, the advantage with tracking food is it doesn't have to be forever. For most people, 2 to 4 weeks is enough to kind of get them on track, make them realize their poor habits and so on. And it's often enough to help them realize what is good eating for me. Now, some people, maybe it's gonna have to be a little bit longer. Others, maybe you can do it in a week. But what you want is to get to this point where you're writing it down But you're preparing your meals and they become automatically in alignment with the outcome that you want without you having to write it down. So initially, it tends to be, oh, well, if I write down what I'm eating, then we tweak the food as we go. Eventually, you'll get to a point where you can intuitively, you'll just know intuitively, this is a meal that will serve my goal. So therefore, I'm going to eat this particular meal in these particular ratios, as in this much protein, fat, and carbs. Carb. But you'll kind of inherently learn that as a result of writing down your food for a couple of weeks to help kind of get your mind into the game of eating in alignment with your goals. Now, it sounds pretty boring. "What the fuck, I'm writing down my food?" And like always worrying or thinking about what you're eating. As I mentioned, it's temporary. The catch-22 is another thing that is also boring is being stuck in an unhealthy overweight tired and lethargic body that you don't want. A body that takes power away from you and doesn't enable you to step up and live the life in— or sorry, live your life in the manner that you wish to. Most of us don't have a body that we want, and therefore it causes us to lack in the way that we show up, mainly because we perceive lack in ourselves. So we don't show up as confident or with the self-esteem that we could or would if we had the body that we want. So sacrificing a couple of weeks to track your food shouldn't really be that big of a deal. Let's face it, most of us have been sacrificing our body for months, years, maybe even decades, eating for convenience rather than quality. So taking a couple of weeks to write down what we're eating, get our kind of mind into, into a place where it needs to be to help us move towards our goals, shouldn't be that big of a deal for us. So, that's where I'll leave it today, guys. So, the 3 things are awareness is the first one, accountability is our, is our second benefit, and then the third one is essentially achieving our goals. It makes it much, much easier to achieve the outcomes that we want when we know what it is that we're putting in our mouths and when we stay conscious and mindful of what it is. Any questions, guys, or if you want me to dig into this more specifically, or even provide you with a tracking sheet, I have lots of different tracking sheets for different dietary outcomes that people want. Let me know. Stick a comment below and I can get something over to you to help you move forward and obviously help you achieve your goals over the coming months. Any questions, let me know, and if not, I look forward to chatting with you guys in my next video. Thanks for watching.