Macro Counting or Intuitive Eating?
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Do you ever wonder if you should always count your macros or if you should transition into intuitive eating? Or, have you tried intuitive eating and it just didn't seem to work for you? This is exactly what I discuss in this episode of Embrace Your Real!
If you're trying to macro count, or intuitive eat, or find a balance between the two, this episode is for you. I share my best recommendations, as well as five tips for successfully intuitively eating.
If you're ready to learn more about macro counting, check out the two links below!
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 dish you 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 it, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. Is macro counting something you should do forever? If you count your macros, should you always count your macros or should you transition to intuitive eating? If so, when to transition to intuitive eating? This is exactly what I'm going to discuss in today's bonus episode of Embrace Your Real. But before I dive in, it would mean the absolute world to me if you quickly press pause on this episode and took a moment to subscribe to this podcast, this way you will always be notified when new episodes release and you will never miss an episode. Plus, subscribing greatly helps the growth of this podcast. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Okay, let's get back to this bonus episode. I want to make something super clear though. There is no right or wrong answer to these questions as it is completely up to you. I want you to look at macro counting as a tool to help you learn the fundamentals of what your body needs to function optimally, not necessarily as a way of life. In my experience, I found that once a person becomes more comfortable, confident, and at peace with his or her relationship with food, they can start incorporating intuitive eating methods into their lifestyle, but you'll always have macro counting in your toolbox for when you need it. So maybe you're using macro counting as a guide to ensure that you are fueling your body optimally, but when you're going on vacation you're using intuitive eating tools and tips to help you have fun, but not be stressed when you're on vacation.
Or maybe when you're struggling to nourish your body with what it needs, or maybe when you're low in energy, you have the opportunity to check in with yourself. And having known the tool of macro counting, to see if you are properly fueling and nourishing your body. If you've been macro counting and you're thinking about transitioning into intuitive eating, my recommendation is to slowly ease into the approach rather than dive in head first. I will always encourage people to learn macro counting as a tool, because I truly believe that it will fundamentally change the way that you will look at how to properly fuel your body. When you just go straight into intuitive eating, oftentimes all of these prior misconceptions about food, labeling them as good or bad, those still stick with you. So if you just try to go into intuitive eating right away, all of those things are still going to be in the back of your head and it's likely going to hinder you from actually properly nourishing your body with what it needs through intuitive eating.
So if you want to start slowly easing into it after you've been macro counting, I would say at least for 6 to 12 if not longer months, after macro counting for at least 12 or so months. And I say that because I really want you to get a hang on macro counting. I really want you to see what it feels like to consistently feel your body, not just for a month or two months or three months, but consistently feel your body go through the different phases that I've talked about. Body fat loss, reverse diet, maintenance mode, all of those things and see how your body changes. See how you're energy levels change, see how your mindset changes, see how your goals progress. It's really important that you allow yourself that time to macro count so that you can learn through and through the tool of it so that you can easily slowly transition starting to incorporate intuitive eating.
So maybe this is once you've done that, starting with a meal a week and slowly build into more untracked meals into your plan, giving yourself the ability to eat in moderation. Remember, when I say eating an untracked meal, it's not eating a cheat meal and going all out. I don't want you to reverse into this negative relationship with food. I want you to start to utilize the tools, start to utilize what you've learned with hunger cues and how it feels to allow your body to feel full. And that's what will allow you to slowly start to incorporate this into your weekly plan. As you continue that with more consistency, you might have the possibility of building a full week of intuitive eating naturally into a full month and so on and so forth. I recommend a slow approach because I want you to still reach your health and fitness goals. And I know it can be overwhelming if you just take a super deep dive into intuitive eating too soon without having the fundamentals that you've learned.
So here's some useful tips for intuitive eating. Number one, make sure your meals revolve around protein to help reach your protein requirements. So this means when building out a meal, having learned the tool of macro counting and having seen what foods are protein dominant. I've talked about this in so many other episodes, but seeing the foods that are protein dominant and secondary protein dominant, that will allow you to build a plate off of that first to ensure that you are getting enough protein. Number two, guesstimate your macros by using your hands as guides to portion out protein, carbs and fats. I dive a lot deeper into using your hands as a guide into my macro counting made simple online academy. So definitely check that out if you haven't already.
Number three, keep track of your water intake because this will help you stay full and it will help you curb your hungers that may arise from boredom, mindless eating and or stress eating. Remember I've told you this before, but oftentimes we mistake being under hydrated for a hunger cue. So it's really important that you track your water intake to ensure that you are number one, drinking enough water, because that will help so much in so many different areas, energy, debloating, all of those things. But two, it's also going to ensure that you're not just mindless eating.
Number four, try to eat with no external distractions, such as television, computers or phones. I know that's hard, but especially when you first start out, it will help you listen to your body for cues to let you know when you're full. Because I don't know about you, but if I take out a bag of pita chips, for me, it's those Stacy's sea salt pita chips. I could literally eat an entire bag of those in one sitting. And especially if I have a distraction, if I'm scrolling and I'm distracted in my mind, it becomes mindless and I just keep picking up more chips and more chips. Or if I'm watching a show or if I am just completely distracted, I am not in tune with my body. It's so important that you release all distractions to allow yourself to truly listen to your body for those cues.
And number five, prepare as many meals as possible. Not eating from bags or packages, but whole foods, which will help you to get the right amount of vitamins and minerals from nutrient dense food groups on your plate. That being said, remember, this approach is similar to macro counting, as it's important for you to practice consistency over perfection. There will be some days where you'll eat more or less than others. Focus on eating foods in moderation instead of deprivation. And again, I will go back to, I've seen so much success in people slowly transition to intuitive eating, or just even use intuitive eating on vacations or for certain seasons of their life when they have the fundamental tool of properly nourishing their body and what that looks like and how much that looks like.
Because before I started counting macros, if someone would have asked me how much protein do you need per day, I would have said 30 grams. I had no concept whatsoever of protein, no concept of carbs. I was actually scared of carbs. I was even scared of protein. I thought it was going to make me bulky, which is why I didn't think you needed to eat a lot. And fats, I thought fat would make me fat. And so just immersing myself into learning the tool of macro counting and simply looking at it as that. I don't look at macro counting as a diet. I don't believe it's a diet. I believe that it is a tool to help you properly nourish your body. And when you have that under your belt, it will make transition into intuitive eating. Whether that is for life. You want to intuitive eat for the rest of your life. Having learned the tool of properly feeling your body, or again, if you just want to use it on vacation or for certain seasons of your life, it will make it so much easier.
If you want to learn the powerful tool of macro counting, I have two options for you. The first option is the macro counting made simple online academy. This is open year round. So this is my deep dive into macro counting. We really teach you the fundamental tools. We empower you by teaching you step-by-step how we calculated it. So you don't have to rely on us for life. We truly believe that we are put on this earth to be coaches to empower you so that you don't have to feel like you're relying on a coach for the rest of your life.
No one likes that feeling. It's not freeing. It's not something that you can actually thrive with in a sustainable lifestyle, in my opinion. So that is that, that is the first option that you can learn about the tool of macro counting. Again, it's a deep dive. We have video modules, we have a private community Facebook group. You can go to www.macrocountingmadesimple.com. Again, that's www.macrocountingmadesimple.com. Or the second way if you want to learn the tool of macro counting is in my four week honor your body challenge. In this challenge it's designed to help you get back on track with your health and fitness goals to help you honor your body with movement, macros and mindset practices. So in this challenge, we actually teach you a condensed version of macro counting. So there's no video modules. It's not a super deep dive, but we will show you step-by-step how we calculated your macros. We will teach you the fundamentals of macro counting.
And you also get a jumpstart meal plan which has over 25 recipes and a seven day meal plan that just kind of shows you how easy it can be to implement these delicious recipes into your daily and weekly intake. So that is available, but these challenges only are a few times a year. So right now, if you're listening to this before May 17th 2021, the honor your body challenge is open for enrollment. So if you want to learn more about that, you can go to www.honoryourbodychallenge.com. Again, that's www.honoryourbodychallenge.com. But those are the two ways that I will teach you macro counting. Macro counting made simple online academy, think of that as a super deep dive into macro counting, really immersing yourself into that. Second way, honor your body challenge is still learning about macro counting, it's just a very condensed version of it.
I hope that this was helpful for you. I hope that you got some tips or tricks out of this. I would love to hear your aha moments. So be sure to screenshot this, post it up on your story, tag me, Julie Ledbetter, and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
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 Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A 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.