I get asked all the time, WHAT are you doing? Since May of 2020 I have been following “If it Fits Your Macros.” Meaning, if the food I want fits into my macro count, I go for it! My personal goal was to eat clean but still enjoy life. Meaning even though I COULD skip lunch and eat McDonals for dinner, that wouldn’t be the best choice even though it did in fact fit my macros. But also gave myself some food freedom to enjoy an occasional dinner out or celebratory dessert!
A fit friend once told me that you have to get your mindset wrapped around the fact that food is “fuel.” And that really stuck with me! And honestly, it didn’t take but a week or two of tracking macros for me to start understanding how important my food choices really were. I could eat whole, healthy foods and a lot of them or I could eat a small amount of processed, unhealthy food and be left hungry (hangry actually!) Or even worse.... bloated and miserable!
One thing I really love about about If it fits your macros (IIFYM) is that fact that I can still enjoy my favorites! Don’t get me wrong, there are still lots of sacrifices and I can’t (or have a desire to) overindulge in donuts but what I can do is enjoy sweets here and there and plan to go out to eat without ruining my whole diet or having to start over! I’ve never been a fan of diets that told me I couldn’t eat XY or Z and I had to do this that or the other. I don’t really like being told what to do. 😜 So being in control of my food and still being able to lose weight (& now maintain that weight) and hit my goal was a clear winner for me!
I want to share 3 things I dropped very quickly and realized they just weren’t worth it! Again, when following macros it’s your choice what you eat/drink and that really is the beauty! I’m not suggesting that you should NEVER partake in these drinks but for me, it just wasn’t wroth it! And with 100% honesty I can say I don’t miss them!
- Starbucks: I’m not a coffee drinker but your girl loves a little bit of coffee with a bunch of milk and sugar and junk added to it! LOL I got in an awful habit of grabbing a white chocolate mocha during the winter months every single time I left the house and a caramel frappuccino during the summer. The WCM has over 400 calories and over 50 carbs and their frappuccino close to 500 calories and 65 carbs. Now- you may decide it’s worth it and you MUST have your Starbucks drink. But for me, there was no way I wanted to drink 1/3 (give or take) of my daily available carbs when I would get no nutritional value from the drink and it most certainly wasn’t going to fill up my stomach or help me meet my fitness gains! So I stopped going to Starbucks completely! Bonus: I've saved so much money too!
- Alcohol: I’ve never been a huge drinker but do love a good margarita with tacos! Margaritas aren’t “macro friendly” so I found alternatives like the popular carbonated drinks or just a glass of wine. But what I found was, even with just one drink, I felt sluggish the next morning. It’s like my body was rejecting the alcohol. And can you blame it? I was focused SO much on eating clean then really throw my body off with a drink. There are so many reasons drinking doesn’t mix with weight loss or fitness gains. I’m not going to try and convince you (just google it!) but I quickly decided to quit drinking completely and that it wasn’t worth it for me!
- Sprite: I stopped drinking what us southern folks call COKE years and years ago. But occasionally would grab a sprite when out to eat, mainly because I’m a water snob or because I just wanted something with a taste! We’ve never kept coke of any kind in our house and like I said it was rare that I would grab one anyway. So saying bye to Sprite wasn’t difficult. Not too long into my maco journey I met some friends at a lunch location that has pretty yucky tasting water so I grabbed a sprite. About the time I was half way through it, I scanned it into My Fitness Pal and about fell out of my chair when I saw the carb count! I was floored! Again, just not wroth it and I quickly realized why I was having such a hard time losing a pound or two! So many of the LIQUIDS I was consuming were not setting me up for success!!!
Again, I’m not here to convince you to make the same decisions I did! But what I am here to tell you is: cut out the junk and you'll feel better and you can eat more! Meaning you will be full and content and more likely to stick to the plan!
