This is the second part in a two-part series about learning to build a long-term successful and healthy relationship with food. In this post, I’m going to lay out a program that we’re offering here at M2 Performance Nutrition designed to teach you about your diet and how to move from through phases of macro tracking and intuitive eating. If you’re interested, click here and let us know!
As we discussed in Part 1, if you have goals that are focused mostly on being healthy, having energy in and out of the gym and just looking good naked, then eventually moving from macro tracking to an intuitive eating approach is something to consider for long term success. We’re here to help with that process.
How does it work?
You and your M2 coach will develop a timeline to move through various phases that focus on either tracking macros or eating intuitively without weighing and measuring.
The first stage is dedicated to learning what an appropriate diet looks like for your goals through weighing and measuring your food. You will also track your sleep, stress, hunger, energy levels and performance in and out of the gym. If you’ve been tracking for a good while (with M2 or with another program) you may be able to skip through this step pretty quickly. This stage can take 1-3 months depending upon the person.
The next stages are designed to reduce the macro tracking back from 6-7 days a week down to 1-2. However, while you may not be weighing your food every day of the week, we want you to continue to assess all of the other aspects of your life such as energy levels, sleep quality and performance. By doing so, you’ll be able to tell whether or not your intuitive eating is doing a reasonably good job at replicating your dietary needs that you learned while weighing and measuring.
The overall goal is to continue to feel great and have all the energy you need while not weighing and measuring your food as consistently.
The final stage is essentially a month of intuitive eating, with rare days here and there just to “fact-check” your visual food scale. Is your idea of what 6 ounces of chicken breast really 6 ounces? We continue to monitor and track all the lifestyle aspects for one more month just to make sure we’re physically feeling the way that we want to feel.
Ultimately, for the best results, precision matters. However, finding the right balance that allows you to have a healthy relationship with food and the energy to live your life is another goal worth chasing as well. If you’re interested in this program, shoot us a message, we’d love to help.