How Much Do You Know About YOUR Nutrition Numbers?

We had a little "pop quiz" after our Hurricane training this morning. Here were the questions:

1. How many of you here are concerned about your body weight, body fat, body composition?

2. How many calories a week/day do you need to eat under your current calorie maintenance number to lose 1 pound of fat per week?

3. What is your current calorie maintenance number, based on what?

4. How many calories per day do you need to eat to lose 1 pound of fat a week?

5. How many calories a day are you eating, based on what?

Here are the answers:

1. 99% responded in the affirmative, and everyone else is a mime. :)

2. 3500

3. A lot of "ummm's" and "I don't know's" on this one

4. ditto

5. double ditto

And that isn't all bad, because we need to crawl before we walk, and the foundation is PPW, or

what

we eat before we worry about how

much

we eat. Because there is a big difference between eating 1500 calories of lean protein and veggies and 1500 calories of toaster pastries and mashed potatoes! And there is some also

great

news if you didn't know your numbers.

It's fixable!

That's right, you can calculate what these numbers are, and then actually plan your nutrition around those numbers to achieve your goals. You don't have to spin your wheels wondering, feeling frustrated and not getting anywhere, and that truly is most excellent news. Now I understand that some people may have a metabolic rate that is "broken". But that can be fixed too. The problem often is that we are not putting the work in to see if it actually is broken, or we are just eating too much. The only way we can really find that out is to do the work, keep good records, see what happens, and adjust as needed. I love what nutrition coach Leigh Peele has to say "You

want

it to be your fault." Because if it's your fault, which it usually is, then as we said before it can be fixed. That being said the harsh truth is some of us don't want to fix it bad enough. We say we want to change our body composition, but we are not willing to do the work it takes. We want to blame it on genetics, or thyroid or aliens from the 3rd dimension. I know, because I was there for way too long. If anyone was "broken" I was. 100 pounds overweight, high blood pressure, crazy blood sugars, the whole deal. Nancy and I were talking it about it this weekend. It's entirely predictable what will happen if we don't pay at least some attention to the amount we are eating on a regular basis. It's also predictable what will happen if I measure and weigh my food and eat according to my current energy needs.

So what about it?

Do you know your numbers? If you are a client, you have the tools available, you just have to take advantage of them! For instance when is the last time you had your body composition tested? When is the last time you kept a food log for an entire week? When was the last time you looked at a food label? When is the last time you planned what you were going to eat and then ate the plan? These are all proactive steps to reaching your goals. Without

doing

you are just dreaming. Make It Happen  - today! Coach Dean