So you just met with your nutrition coach and set up your calories and macronutrients on MyFitnessPals. A day or two later, you notice you went over your daily allotment by 140 calories and 15 fat grams. Your send your nutrition coach panicked messages asking “What do I do?”
Your nutrition coach tells you not to worry, that going over by a small amount won’t drastically impact your progress. When you meet with them a month in, you start talking about the behavior changes you have made throughout the month. During the conversation, you share how you have been late night binging and not logging the binge.
This scenario is more common than you would expect.
During the day, it is easy to stick to your the plan. You eat pre-planned meals, drink water, and log your food. Then, after an exhausting day of work, putting the kids to bed, and cleaning up, something happens. You have an extra snack or two thinking it will not make a big impact, and you don’t log it. Then, you do it again.
It is important to avoid getting caught up in the small details of the meal plan, especially when you are starting out. Trying to maintain the exact number of calories and macronutrients is overwhelming, especially if you have tougher habits to break such as night time eating, eating pre-processed foods, drinking sugary drinks, etc.
Instead of focusing on the small details, focus on the big pictures of changing habits. You should focus on building a solid foundation of eating quality foods, fueling around their workouts, and properly hydrating, even if you go over your calories. Then, once you have a solid long-term foundation with those behaviors, you can dial in the details with the macronutrients.
The goal of a healthy lifestyle is not calorie counting. The goal is to focus on 1-2 positive behavior changes at a time. This will make this healthy lifestyle manageable in the long run.
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