YOU MUST TRACK WHAT YOU EAT IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED!!!!!!!
*Warning = This post will NOT be popular. This post is “tough love” for those of you who say the following:
“I am eating healthy but I’m not losing any weight.”
“I am following the calorie guidelines but I’m not seeing any changes.”
“No matter what I do, I can’t lose the stubborn fat”
“My metabolism must have just slowed down at my age and I can’t lose the weight.”
I see the above comments on P90X discussion boards all the time. At first, I used to think to myself, “That’s got to be frustrating”. I can’t imagine putting in all the effort into the workouts and nutrition, like I have been for the last 4 months, and not seeing any changes in my body. What a bummer that would be! It would make me want to give up. And often, these people who are on the message boards saying the above quotes are the ones who DO give up and stop before reaching their goals. This is tragic.
But do you know what? I’ve been reading these types of discussions for a while now, and almost EVERY time, as the specifics are spelled out about the person making the claim, the TRUTH comes out after a little probing by others. What’s the TRUTH? They ARE NOT eating right. They are NOT eating healthy, even though they’ve tricked themselves into thinking they are!!! Let me explain:
In my opinion, ANYONE (yes ANYONE) who has extra body fat to lose WILL see that body fat start to go away if they follow the P90X nutrition guidelines. It doesn’t matter if they are young or old, male or female. If they actually do what the guide says, it WILL work. They may need to tweak the total calories down a tad, but it WILL work … EVERY TIME! The only exception that I can see is a medical condition like hypothyroidism or other illness.
So, if it will work EVERY time, why do so many people have these frustrations about not seeing changes on the P90X diet? It’s because when they get brutally honest with themselves, despite what they say initially, they are NOT following the diet! Period! They are cheating. They aren’t getting the right percentages. They aren’t timing the meals properly. They are lying to themselves!
Most of the time, after a little probing, they will offer up exactly what they eat each day, and usually it is very high carbs at every meal and low in protein. They will say “I just can’t eat that much protein”. Or they will say “It’s too hard to eat every 3 hours, so I don’t”. But then we discover they are grazing on their kids’ chicken nuggets and fries since they skipped their healthy snack. Or they are grossly underestimating the damage that the dressing on their salad or the oil/butter in their meat preparation is doing to their real nutrition #’s. As they spell out what they really eat, the evidence goes on and on.
My proof? Well, clearly it worked amazingly for me because I committed to NEVER cheat and to always follow the Fat Shredder % exactly, every day. How can I be sure? I tracked everything I ate. EVERYTHING! This is so important. Studies have found that people who write down what they eat will consume 1/3 less calories than people who “eat healthy” (by their own definition). When I hear someone say they aren’t following the nutrition guidelines and not tracking what they eat, but that they are “eating healthy” and “making wise food choices”, the red flags go up! This is a recipe for disaster! Do yourself a favor and commit to tracking what you eat. Plan ahead what calorie level you need based on your goals, what % you will eat of proteins, carbs, and fats, and stick to it! I promise it will work!
Want more proof? Look at my wife! She decided to start P90X with me for my round 2, so she’s only been doing it for about 2 months. The catch is, she hasn’t been getting up to do the workouts with me very often so her grade on the workouts is miserable!! (she’s only done about 10 workouts in the entire first 2 months!! She must have a lousy coach! Haha!). However, by pure default she has been following the nutrition plan because she eats what I eat. And guess what! She’s starting to see a big change in her midsection already, even though she’s a total slacker on the workouts! (Just like they say, abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym). It’s all about the diet. And she’s a 33 year old mother of 5 who is 5’5″ and 125 lbs. That’s about as different of a body type from me as possible, but the same principles still work!!
So how do you start with tracking calories? Let me advise all of you who have an iPhone to get the app “Tap & Track”. I use it every day to track everything I eat. Every bite goes in there (talk about an incentive NOT to try a bite of my kids’ chicken nugget, knowing I’ll have to go through the hassle of recording it!!). I can tell you exactly what I ate any day in the last 4 months, with calorie breakdowns of protein, carbs, and fat. It’s because I am serious about getting results. If you are serious, you’ll do the same. Otherwise, don’t make excuses for why you aren’t seeing the results you want!
If you don’t have an iPhone, use a program on the computer like www.fitday.com or www.myfitnesspal.com. On those websites, you can search for the nutritional info of any food you are eating, and record it. As you do this for everything you eat during the day, you can quickly look at how you are doing on %protein, %carbs, %fat, and overall calories. That way you can adjust what you eat so that you are hitting the targets for each category each day. I can’t emphasize enough how important this will be to your success with this program.
See, I told you this was tough love. Y’all know I do love you! But I want you to succeed, and blowing warm fuzzies at you while you justify bad eating habits isn’t going to help you! That’s why I’ve got to shoot you straight. Let me know if you are struggling in this area, or post any comments and questions. By nailing the nutrition, my results were better than most. That’s what I want for all of you who have chosen to make me your coach and join teamRIPPED!
Bring it!!
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
