8 Ways to Make Macro Counting Simple (For Getting Started or Getting Back on Track)
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Are you just getting into macro counting but it feels too daunting? Or, having you gotten off track with your macro counting and can’t seem to get yourself going again? Which ever one you are, this episode of Embrace Your Real is for you. I’m going to share a few ways that will make macro counting feel SO SUPER simple that you’ll have no problem getting back on track or getting started in the first place.
What I discuss:
Start with tracking protein only
Track breakfast and lunch only
Prep ingredients.
Prep your snacks
Commit to macro counting for just two weeks.
Be conscious, but not obsessive.
Realize sometimes you need to choose memories over macros.
Get some help!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: www.macrocountingmadesimple.com
If you want more from me, be sure to check out…
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Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get hugs, girl. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Embrace, your old podcast. If you are just getting into macro accounting, but maybe it feels too daunting or you've gotten off track with macro accounting and can't seem to get yourself back going again, whichever one you are, this episode is going to be for you. I'm going to be sharing a few ways to help macro accounting feel super simple that will hopefully have you sticking to it so that you can create a lifelong habit from it, right? Whether that's tracking the majority of people who macro track do not track for the rest of their life, they have learned what they need to learn. And then they go on into either intuitive eating, mindfully eating, sometimes, you know, sometimes going back and checking in with your macros every once in a while once you really get the hang of it and you are kind of really educated around food, but in regardless of where you are, this episode is going to help you with where you're at. But before I dove in, I wanted to share. The super secret reveal comes from a really me mom of two. She gave a five star review and said, thank you, thank you, Julie, for using your platform for real motivation, real content, and just being you. This podcast is a long time coming and I'm so excited for you and everyone you are reaching and motivating to embrace the real.
I'm a mom of two amazing kiddos, but I still struggle to put myself first. And ever since coming upon your Instagram, it was the best thing that happened to me. You really made me feel like it's okay to put myself first. I would love to meet you in person one day and thank you for all the happiness and joy you've brought into my life. I am loving this podcast. I love this so much and I hope that I can meet every single one of you guys. I wish that I could get every single one of you guys in a room together. You guys are just my family. You guys are my people. And I'm so grateful for every single one of you guys who leave a reading interview. I know it takes time out of your day and time is so precious, but I really do appreciate you. I appreciate you taking time to do that. And I just love reading them both on air. And then also just in my spare time, when I go and check out the reviews, it just brings joy to my heart truly on the days and I'm not feeling so great. I will bring up some of the reviews and just remind myself of my why. And you guys are my wife, like truly speaking to you, and I'm so glad that this podcast is helping you. So if you could leave a rating interview, that just helps the podcast tremendously. It also just helps me know what is helping you so you can go to any Apple device type and embrace surreal and then you'll see the rating interview section down at the bottom. Okay, so let's dove into the eight ways to make macro accounting more simple.
Number one is to start tracking protein only. Now, protein is the most important macronutrient when it comes to building muscle, seeing better results and just overall maintaining your results. So if you were to commit to track one macro only, it would be tracking your protein hands down. I've been talking about this a lot recently because when you are tracking your protein, only when you're getting started like that is the perfect way to get consistent, especially if you're traveling or if your schedule is just all over the place. I know in the summertime schedules are all out of whack. The kids are out of school. Your normal schedule from, you know, the normal schedule that happens back in the fall just isn't the same right now. And so if you can just track your protein only, I'm telling you, it will help so much. It's better to track your protein than nothing at all. And that's for a few reasons. Like I mentioned above, you need protein to build muscle and maintain muscle, but protein is also one of the hardest macronutrient to hit daily. So most of us have no problem hitting our carbon fat goals, but protein is where we typically suffer. So if we are hitting our protein goals, we are most likely going to eat less carbs and fats than we would otherwise, simply because we are tracking our protein. And also protein is the most satiating macros. So it's really hard to overeat protein as it makes you feel super full. So if you're eating enough protein daily again, you're likely going to not go over your macros simply because you are feeling well. There actually was just chatting with one of my closest girlfriends this past week and she was telling me about how her mom wants to start tracking macros and she has gotten out of tracking macros.
She's since had two kids and she was like, Man, I just remember what it felt like to eat enough protein. Like that was the one thing that she was like, when I ate enough protein, I felt so good. I felt like I was nourishing my body. I felt like I had so much energy and clarity and she was just going on and on and she's like, I don't know if there's science behind it, but. And I'm like, Yes, there is so much science behind that. But more than that, you know, the protein is the most satiating macro. And so if you can just focus on that, I'm telling you that, would that in and of itself would be an entire it would be a game changer if you can hit your macro your protein macro goal daily. So if you are just kind of starting out with macro counting or if it just feels super overwhelming to you, just start tracking your protein for now until you get into the swing of things. Or maybe you'll love that so much and you're like, I don't feel like I need to track the other two macros. Totally fine. Just track your protein and make sure you're getting in enough. Protein number two, track breakfast and lunch only. So this is another good option for someone who feels like Mac or counting might be daunting, or they're just struggling to be consistent. So instead of starting out by tracking every single meal, just commit to tracking breakfast and lunch. It is typically pretty easy to do because most people that I've seen eat the same thing or close to the same thing every morning, and people will typically alternate between a few lunches. But again, they are typically eating similar things for lunch.
So once you calculate your breakfast and calculate your lunch once and you save that to your macro tracking app. So whether that's my fitness power, my macros plus or whatever macro tracking app you use every time you eat it, you don't need to retract it completely. You don't need to, you know, enter that in manually because you already have it saved. All you need to do is just measure and weigh out your food or whatever it is that you're tracking. Like if it's a pre-made sandwich, obviously you don't have to measure and weigh that. But I know my breakfast that I have been eating nonstop for the last, I don't know, maybe six months. Like I think I maybe missed having this is my breakfast for maybe one or two days. I know that sounds crazy. We are going on vacation, so maybe that will change. We're on vacation. But I was thinking about it. I was like, Man, when we're on vacation, I think I want to stick to a similar breakfast just because it makes me feel so good. So, I mean, I've been having my protein Orange Julius Doop kind of protein shake, which is amazing. I actually have that recipe on my reel on my main page. So Julia Ledbetter on Instagram and basically it's just orange juice and protein powder and ice and almond milk and then I blend it. It's delicious. So all I need to do is, you know, measure out eight ounces of the orange juice and then four ounces of almond milk, one scoop of protein powder and then ice and then blend it up and then form kind of my calves. In fact, I've been having an oatmeal, so I've been having oatmeal, which is, you know, 40 grams of quick oats.
And then I have 50 grams of blueberries, one packet of trivia, and then I microwave that. And then I put about anywhere from 10 to 14 grams of almond butter on top. And I'm telling you, it is so delicious. And it keeps me full and satisfied for a long time. Like if at least two, if not 3 hours, which for me is really good because I feel like I tend to get hungry pretty quickly, but this meal keeps me feeling satisfied. I don't feel bloated afterwards, I just feel really good. So doing that, all that to say, if you can track your breakfast and lunch only, that will help you get into the swing of being consistent with that. And then once you kind of get consistent with that, you can add in dinner, you can start tracking dinner because I know dinner typically tends to vary from person to person a lot more than your breakfast and lunch. And if you're not tracking dinner, I would just recommends paying attention to your protein intake at dinner if nothing else. Right? Like there are so many ways to be intentional about nourishing your body without feeling like you need to track every single macronutrient. And I feel like that's where I'm at now, and it's because I've taken the time to learn how to do it and feel educated and empowered around food. So now I'm like, okay, I know about how much this is and I'm definitely going to track my protein. But for the other macros, I'm not going to be, you know, within 1 to 5 grams, maybe, maybe within 10 to 15, but sometimes not even that. And that's okay. Number three, prep ingredients. Now, a lot of people find meal.
Prepping is not fun. It's daunting, it's overwhelming. They hate spending 2 hours on Sunday during their free time, you know, slaving away in the kitchen. I get it. I wouldn't want to do the same either. It's it works great for some people and some people absolutely love it. And they thrive by meal prepping. Other people don't. So here's kind of my advice. If you hate mail prepping prep ingredients only not the entire meal so you can batch cook the shredded chicken, the ground turkey, the roasted chicken breast, whatever it is. You can also batch cook the quinoa, the sweet potatoes, the brown rice or whatever, you know, whatever you are wanting that week and then kind of just portion them out into different containers. And then when it comes to meal time, you have your carb, you have a protein and then whatever other fat typically, you know, and avocados, great for fat. And obviously you can't really meal prep that ahead of time or the avocado will go brown, but you'll have all of those things. And also when it comes to like vegetables, I always encourage people when you go to the store and you get your vegetables, I know it's annoying, but take 10 to 20 minutes and wash all of your vegetables and cut them and prep them. And you will see that you will more times than not finish out your veggies and your fruits rather than them going bad in the produce store because you forgot that you had them. Or you're like, Man, it's just so much time and I don't have enough time, you know, to wash the grapes or to cut the peppers or whatever it is. Take the time. It's literally going to take you 10 to 20 minutes, but you'll thank yourself throughout the week because it will save you so much time.
And then if you want to go in and add like, you know, create a salad, you already have it or, you know, make a stir fry or a burrito bowl or whatever it is you already have all of. Those veggies all prepped for you. So not essentially prepped into a meal per se, but just prepped out so that they're much easier for you to use throughout the week. Number four is to prep your snacks. So one thing that I found kind of the biggest struggle among my macroeconomy, simple ladies, is that they struggle with their snacks when it comes to eating a mid-afternoon snack. They just really don't know what to eat or if they are on the go and they need a quick snack, they don't really know what to grab. So planning out your snacks is going to make this much easier. Plus, planning high protein snacks is going to make this even easier as again, protein is typically the hardest macro to hit. So when it comes to snacking, people struggle to not overdo it, right? If they're eating nuts, they want to eat a few handfuls or maybe a half a bag of chips or whatever the snack might be. Portion control tends to be the issue that I have found, so I recommend portioning out those into separate containers or plastic baggies. Easy for you to grab so that you don't need to measure or weigh it throughout the week. And I know again, this is one of those things that you're like, I don't have the time for this. I'm telling you, if you take 5 to 10 minutes to portion out some of your snacks, whether or if you don't even want to do that, they have like the 100 calorie packs, whether it's chips or it's nuts or whatever it is.
There are so many different snacks. And I'm even just thinking off the top of my head, like even the one container yogurts, those are great. You can also get string cheeses. Those are also pre-portioned. I mean, there's endless options now, which is awesome. So if you want to go that route, then you don't have to measure it and kind of spend that time. But if you are wanting to save some money, you know, going to Costco and getting some like bulk almonds and then taking the time to just kind of measure out like, okay, this is a portion of almonds that way. It's super quick and efficient throughout the week. So some great snack ideas that are simple to kind of grab on the go are the single serving containers of Greek yogurt, like I mentioned, single serving containers of cottage cheese. Those are delicious, by the way. They have single strips of beef jerky. They do have beef jerky that comes in like pre-portioned servings, which is awesome. A protein shake. I know the Alani New protein shakes are pretty good. Like, honestly, I was really surprised. I've had the cookies and cream and the munchies flavor. I personally like the munchies better. Josh prefers that cookies and cream. I'm like, This is so us. We are like the exact opposite. And I feel like that's why we work so well together is because we're totally opposite. Like, I'm the sweet tooth, he's the salty tooth. And it's just any time we do something, it's like we love the opposite thing, which typically tends to work out and it's just fun. But anyways, those are awesome. I also love protein bars. I really love the one bars, the birthday cake, the dark chocolate. Those are really delicious, but there are endless amounts of options.
Also rice cakes. I know that rice cakes get a bad rap, but rice cakes are so convenient and they can be so helpful when it comes to just yummy snacks. So those are kind of just some good snack ideas for on the go. Again, just planning ahead with snacks is going to make your life so much more easy. Number five is to commit to macro accounting for just two weeks. Sometimes all we need to get over is the barrier to entry. The goal is to make this as simple as possible. So if you can't wrap your head around doing this long term, then just start with committing to it for two weeks. Here's a thing after two weeks, when you get the hang of it, when it becomes something that you're doing on a regular basis, you'll realize how simple it is. You'll get into a groove of it, and then, more importantly, you'll realize how much better you feel when it comes to nourishing your body. And then maybe after that two weeks, you don't want to do it totally fine. I tend to find that most women, after two weeks, they want to keep going because they want to feel better. They want to continue nourishing their body. And you're more likely to not throw in the towel just because you have found that you are not only feeling better, but you're also eating all the foods that are yummy. You have food, freedom in that, and you're still nourishing your body with what it needs. But that is a good tip for you if you're just kind of starting out or re starting out. Number six is to be conscious, but not obsessive. Now, one reason why people don't remain consistent with macro accounting, I have found, is personally because they think that they need to do it perfectly.
And when they're not doing it perfectly, they get frustrated and they give up. It's not about being perfect. It's about being aware and being consistent. And so we're not trying to develop compulsive behaviors here. That's not the goal of it. We are trying to honor our body by giving it what it needs. So don't obsess over like do the best that you can and give yourself grace when you don't do it perfectly. You don't need to do it perfectly to see results, but you do need to be consistent if you do want to see results. So I always say imperfect, but consistent action leads to results. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you do have to be consistent. So do the best you can. Don't obsess when you get off track. Just get back on track with the next meal without obsessing about it. Number seven realize sometimes you need to choose memories over macros now to kind of piggyback off that last. That I was just talking about. Sometimes it's important to go live your life without tracking your food. Obviously, you can't do this all the time. But if there's special occasions or, you know, a special weekend getaway or holiday, give yourself some grace. Don't stress about the macros and just worry about making amazing memories. Remember that one day of eating only healthy foods or salads isn't going to give you results overnight in the same way. One day or heck, even a few days or a week of not tracking your macros isn't going to ruin your results long term. Be mindful, practice grace and just know that it becomes so much easier over time. And lastly, number eight, get some help. Now I know that macro accounting can be overwhelming when trying to figure out the numbers when it comes to the macros that you should have, what phase you should be in, and like how to get into that phase, don't stress yourself out and just get help.
That's one thing that I've learned over the years when it comes to my health and fitness journey is that the times that I have paid for a coach and I paid for a coach, the first I would say, I think two and a half years of my journey, I paid a coach in my health and fitness journey simply because I didn't know what I was doing. And I am telling you it was the best investment because when you're paying for someone to coach you through something, especially when it comes to your health and fitness, that is one of the best investments that you can make. Great. Your health and fitness is you taking care of this shell that you have. You only have one body to live in. So really make sure that you're being mindful and know that the investment in yourself is not going to come back void. So don't stress. Get some help that way. You know for a fact that your macros are correct. You know for a fact that the effort that you're putting into macro counting is right. And you're not just, you know, going to track these macros that you're shooting for and then you realize, oh, that's not what I need, because you were just copying somebody else's macros that you saw on Instagram like please, please, please get some help if that's what you need. I do have a course. It's called the Macro Accounting Meets Simple Online Academy. We give you a step by step guide for getting your macros calculated in any phase. So we give you an extensive questionnaire form and then you fill that out and that gives us a great understanding of where you are at. And then we recommend a phase for you, and then we show you step by step how we calculate your macros.
Plus, if you have any questions you can always ask us. We have a private Facebook group. We have you have access to our email address, like you have access to us. We are not ones to just give you something and be like, okay, bye. Don't ask us questions. No, we want to empower you. We want you to feel educated so that you don't feel like you have to rely on a coach for the rest of your life. So if you want to learn more about that, you can head over to macro accounting made simple dot com. Again, that's macro accounting made simple dot com. I will add that to the show notes so that you can easily go find the link there. But we are here to help you. I know the times that I have, not just in my health and fitness but also in my business. When I've hired business coaches, they have helped me tremendously when it comes to just building out my business, and it's an investment that you will thank yourself for. So let me recap those eight things to help you make macro accounting more simple for getting started or getting back on track. Number one, start with tracking protein only. Number two, track breakfast and lunch only. Number three, prep ingredients. Number four, prep your snacks. Number five, commit to macro counting for just two weeks. Number six, be conscious, but not obsessive. Number seven, realize sometimes you need to choose memories over macros and number eight get some help. So I hope that that was helpful for you. I hope that this gave you some ideas. Maybe this gave you some guidance when it comes to either getting back on track or just starting with macros. I know it can feel super intimidating, I know it can feel daunting, but it doesn't have to.
Again, I have included the link for the macro accounting meets simple online academy in the show notes below, so you can definitely check that out. Thank you so much for tuning in. I would love to hear your thoughts in this episode. I would love to hear your aha moment. So be sure to screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story or whatever social platform you're using. We love connect with you guys. That is all that I have for today's app. I'll talk to you in the next one. Love you. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie. A lot better. Yes, it's with within in the middle for that Daily Post workout. Real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.