Dissecting and Understanding Our Own Diet
So here is where the hard part comes - analyzing yourself.
Step one to being successful in making changes and creating lifelong habits that lead to easily maintainable fat loss is to start where you currently stand and really see it.
What kind of Confucius styled rhetoric am I spouting here? Let me try and break it down with a even stranger story ...
Did You Check Your Oil?
In my youth I knew this older woman whose solution to everything that went wrong with an automobile was to "check the oil.""My car won't start, turn the key and nothing!"
"Did you check the oil?"
"Shoot I have a flat!"
"Did you check the oil?"
"I ran out of gas."
"Did you check the oil?"
It did not matter how obvious it was that the alternator was out, the tire had a nail in it, and the gas tank was empty - all solutions to car troubles were fixed by checking the oil. In her mind there was never a need to stop and look at the condition of the car to discover any clues as to WHY the car had an issue - the solution of checking the oil, (which at some point in her life must have solved many a car problem or been taught to her?), was always the place to start.
I have discovered the exact same concept of focusing on the solution to be true when it comes to dealing with fat loss. We look in the mirror and say:
"Ugh, I'm so fat!"
And for some reason we hear the mirror respond with,
"Have you tried dieting?"
So it is we jump on the dieting bandwagon, maybe even rushing into some sort of work-out program, never taking a moment to truly SEE the condition of our "car" (body) to discover the clues as to WHY we have an issue.
This is a truly serious problem as for many this can lead to the exact opposite of being over fat; by instead becoming underweight - sometimes to a degree that is so unhealthy we could die. Anorexia and bulimia are the extreme form of always "checking the oil" and never truly seeing the condition of the "car" we live in and are responsible for.
We are not automobiles, yet in a way our body is much like an automobile. VVVRRROOMM! VVVRRROOOMMM!!!
We are the drivers of our own body vehicle.
What we often forget is that not only are we the driver but we are also the mechanic. In order to be able to drive such a great machine we have to be great mechanics. In order to be great mechanics we have to understand how our car operates. The first step in understanding our car is to understand our fuel. The food we put in our body is the fuel that allows it to continue to thrive and operate under the demands we command of it and that is the first place we will be focusing as mechanics: HOW WE FUEL OUR BODY.
The Challenge
For two full weeks the only thing we will focus on is journaling our current fuel intake.
Many will be tempted to eat all the right things in all the right portions during the next two weeks. Don't.
Many will be tempted to not account for and leave out of their journaling any of the indiscretions they make in food choices on a regular basis. Such as ordering take out pizza twice in one week, eating a full pint of ice cream in one sitting, or snacking on half a bag of their favorite Halloween candy. Don't.
Many will beat themselves up with every item they write down. Don't.
JUST WRITE IT.
All of it.
Don't be ashamed. Don't hide anything. Don't make changes.
JUST WRITE IT.
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| This is a very simple format you can follow that will aid in track everything you need for the next couple of weeks! |
Remember we are NOT fixing anything in our car right now, we are not changing any oil, we are just observing our car, the fuel we put in it, and how it reacts to the types of fuel we give it.
How you write this is up to you. There are however things you MUST be responsible for writing down:
- What you ate.
- What time you ate it.
- How you felt before you ate.
- How you felt 20 minutes after you ate.
- How much you ate. Don't over think this one, just jot down if you think you ate a normal portion, more than, or even less than.
As well, if you would like to share your journal entries with me privately I am up for that. I can be a secondary set of "mechanics eyes", one that may be a little more familiar with the effects the type of fuel you intake has on the body. However, in the long run it will be you whom take on the ultimate understanding of your bodies fueling needs.
That level of analysis comes later; for now, JUST WRITE!
There are many free and pay sites that allow you to track your food. Feel free to journal there if you would like however DO NOT use their tools and review everything with a fine toothed comb. The goal is to get it down so you can review it later and understand better what fuel you are feeding your body.
Excuses?
You will come up with so many of them as to why you just could not journal that day: "I was so busy" or even "my dog ate my journal." They will all be valid reasons and here is the thing, I don't care. This is for you and about you and NO ONE is going to reprimand you for not doing this, except yourself.
Remember that part - YOU are doing this. YOU are the mechanic. The only person whom you have to explain not doing this to is YOU.
I will however state that I know, like me, many of you have already put in plenty of time, effort, and expense to lose fat. Even if it only lasted a few weeks, you made the effort. The effort asked for here is to write, to use a piece of paper and pen and write. It's perhaps the least amount of effort you have ever made in your fat loss journey. So be diligent with it. Give yourself this chance to really make it all happen!
~TigressSky~
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