I have met exactly one person in my life that is willing and able to count and track all of her food intake on a massive spreadsheet.  Well, I never even actually met her, she is a twitter pal.  Her system is amazing, she tracks just about everything and when I asked her to add the tracking of her mood before and after eating each thing, she did that too.  I know, exhausting, right?

Most of us are not astro- physicists (I think that’s what she said, it was some unimaginable math-y job) with this kind of drive.  I think it is impossible to keep track of all the numbers when what we really want to track is the nutrients.  The object of the game, for most of us, is to get to the end of the day with enough nutrients to rebuild our cells without so much fuel that there is an overage to be stored.  The measurement is the result which is decided by your pants or measured on your scale after the fact.  There is no judge or jury but you and how you feel.

Which is exactly why so many find it hard to control such a pleasurable act: eating.  If there were no cops on the road, we would all speed. If there were no laws or social mores in place we would all steal or borrow what we need/want.  If there no marriage vows existed, we would all, well, you know.

In my practice, I do refer to calories as a benchmark but never ask anyone to count them.  It is a semi-useful  tool to obtain a snapshot of a typical day, for sure.  I mean, if you know you are eating 3000 and burning 2000 you get an idea of why you are gaining weight.  I suggest that you use your scale as a guide while on a weight lose regime (if you have one that measures % body fat, that’s even better!) When you are in your daily life, I say, use your jeans.  If they are tight, eat less until they are not.

As a matter of course, the only thing I ever ask people to count is their fruits and vegetables.   We want 2 fruits and 8 vegetables each and every day in order to protect our health.  Whatever the issue is, fruits and vegetables were designed just for it: diabetes, cancer, blood pressure, weight control. You name it; there is good evidence that these babies are preventing it. And, as for weight control, vegetables fill you up with an enviable ratio of a wallop of nutrients for pinch of calories.

Most of us (like 75%) find it difficult to get the recommended 8-10 servings. How will you count your fruits and vegetables today?

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Ally Ferguson 2010-09-22 00:57:31 Well, so I'm the person mentioned in the blog, and I guess I'm feeling kind of bad now. :( The point of my spreadsheet was to take all the work out of tracking (which I thought we were supposed to be doing actually). To stick with your analogy -- I don't see my tracking efforts as a "control" (i.e. the policeman preventing me from speeding) I see it as a "support" that helps get me where I want to go (like a roadmap). I'll be the first to confess I have a lot of emotional issues surrounding food, and if I track what I eat it means I can avoid all the guilt and wondering if I'm really doing right by my body. It took me a long time to see it that way. And it actually has made my life easier, especially now that I have tools to help me, like my spreadsheet. A lot of it was stuff I was doing already, like weekly meal planning. I'm not saying everybody should track, I'm really really not. But I like it...

Ally Ferguson 2010-09-22 01:11:21 Oh shoot! It cut off the rest of my comment. Oh well, nerdy AND wordy, that's me! :P

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