Dear diary,
Today I ate 2 eggs for breakfast…….nothing until dinner..and I'm too annoyed with tracking this to finish up the day....
Hmmm.
I’ve seen countless nutrition and weight loss experts write about the importance of using a food journal to help clients lose weight. The theory is it helps you keep track of everything you put into your mouth. And I couldn’t agree more. Most experts believe people mindlessly eat and underestimate how many calories they take in each day. But – there’s another major benefit of food tracking and this one might come as a surprise. For the most part, athletes attempt to eat healthy. There’s an occasional splurge but folks tend to keep a moderately clean diet to accompany all their hard work. So what does that mean when it comes to tracking food? It’s much easier to UNDER EAT than you might think. Enter the diary. You might think you’re eating SO MUCH FOOD, whether you really are or not. The only way to know for sure is to plug it all in and let the calculator be the judge. There’s a great mobile app called My Fitness Pal and its capabilities are pretty impressive. The food database is enormous and you can also monitor macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats) as well as other nutritional details like your sodium or even your iron intake. But here's the important piece of this "pie" when it comes to food and your performance - it's a tangible thing you can track and study and what athlete doesn't want that? Did you crash on your track workout but you crushed it the week before? Check the food log to note what's different and whether it's something you can actually see.
I am not a nutritionist and it’s important for me to stress that. I am, however, an athlete and an endurance coach, who’s been training and competing for more than 20 years. I do know what works for me, what’s too much food and definitely what’s too little and it all starts with the raw data that’s so easy to use. This is not about a diet and it’s definitely not a fad. It just comes down to knowledge and the ability to arm yourself with one more set of tools. Sound like a lot of work and something that’s just a little too overwhelming? Stop it. You’ve just spent hundreds of dollars on race entries, thousand dollar bike tires and a pair of brand new shoes. But guess what? All the gear in the world can’t feed you. It won’t fuel your body to do all the things you want it to do. So come on and take the 3 minutes per meal to point and click your breakfast, lunch and dinner and really bump up your own nutritional IQ.