My Love/Hate Relationship With My Fitness Pal
Today I want to chat about My Fitness Pal which in my opinion is a great nutrition education tool. I have said this many times but I do understand that for some it can be tricky and tiresome to get the knack of, and for some people, it is just not for them.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the app personally. I used it religiously on and off for about 3 years when I was competing to help me to make weight for competition days and sometimes drop into a lower weight category. Dropping from a 80kg super heavy weight (which, I’ll be honest, I think is a stupid name for that category because being over 77kg is not really ‘super heavy’) to a 69kg lifter, all the while maintaining muscle mass, strength and performance, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart is ZERO CRAIC. I was training about 15 hours a week at the time. My memory of the entire experience is being cold, tired, and hungry.
My team won the Championship that year but I left that competition day saying ‘never ever again’
You see, for me to lose those 11kgs meant sacrifices were sky high but at that time in my life I wanted to challenge myself and push myself to the limit. ‘See what I was made of’ I suppose. I did it, I lifted well but I will never, ever do that again.
That was towards the end of my 3 years of using MFP and, I’ll be honest, I had to retrain myself on how to eat intuitively. It was a really stressful time for me but I am thankful for all of these experiences because I learned a lot which stands to me to a great extent as a coach now. I use MFP every so often now for a few days to re-educate myself but generally I eat ‘intuitively’ nowadays. I say ‘intuitively’ because my self-education on portions, ingredients, macros is so deeply learned and ingrained after using MFP for so long I do wonder can I call it intuitive at all? That question is for another email maybe ;)
If I have this love/hate relationship, then why do I still recommend MFP to clients?
Because as I said at the start of this email, if you can get your head around the app, it is a remarkable educational tool. Teaching portion sizes, what the breakdown of carbs, proteins, fats actually is in our food and how many cals you truly are consuming on a daily basis. It is a scientific fact that humans tend to overestimate their good choices and underestimate their bad choices. Using MFP you can see all your choices right there in black and white and some people love the accountability. It really works for them, which is awesome. I would love all of my clients to try it even for 2-3 weeks for these reasons.
BUT …. I understand for a lot of reasons, documenting your food intake this intricately, does not suit everyone . So, what then?
Here are some tips
Eating mindfully and using handwritten food diary can work well.
Intermittently weighing your portions out from time to time to have a visual of what X grams of oats looks like for example. I use cups a lot at home for my portions and find this quick and easy too.
If I’m having a treat like ice cream I sometimes (not always) choose a low cal version or use a small bowl. Ben and Jerry's low cal options are YUM.
I try to eat veg with each meal, have protein with each meal.
Double think my snack choices and try to catch myself mindlessly eating and notice how I am feeling before tucking in. ie happy, sad, stressed, bored, procrastinating. Just before writing this blog, I reached for a mince pie with cream before reminding myself ‘Emma it’s 10.30am of a Wednesday, this is not the time for mince pies, have it later if you still want it!’
Drink lots of water everyday
For me the sacrifices I had to make to get to and then maintain that 69kg body weight was not worth it. I have a deep acceptance of my body and know that it has returned to it's 'mean'. I train, I eat well but I am also having a damn good time living my life and not letting it be dictated by an app all of the time.
Always searching for balance
Em x
