Why Measuring Your Food is a GAME CHANGER to Reach Your Goals

Have you ever heard the quote, “what’s measured gets managed,” or “what’s measured gets done.”

It’s a simple concept that makes tons of sense, conceptually, but is it all that simple in practice?

Here is the thing, if you want to achieve a goal when it comes to your health or wellness you will have to find a way to measure your success. It starts with setting a specific goal, not a broad or vague one like “I want to lose weight.” If you’re serious about achieving a goal and reaching an outcome you will need to drill down on what that goal or outcome is. My suggestion is to use the SMART acronym to help you structure a specific goal with a date or deadline or you can watch my video on How To Create Bulletproof Goals. That’s the first thing we have to measure because we won’t know how far we’ve come if we don’t have a starting point, or a destination.

I believe the true game-changer, especially when it comes to goals like building muscle or losing fat, is measuring and tracking your food intake. This is extremely important for a few reasons:

it provides structure, a plan, or routine:

when you start to measure your food intake it creates more of a structure or routine into your day because it does take effort to input what you’re eating. The more you plan ahead the better because that will ultimately be more efficient. tip: if you’re going out to eat, check the menu before you go out and input what you plan to order before you go to the restaurant. This way when you get there you don’t impulse order and you can plan the rest of your day around that meal.

…but also allows for flexibility:

the idea of tracking food is that it should give you more flexibility. Have you ever done a diet plan or program and it tells you exactly what you can and cannot eat? I mean that can be good because it takes the thinking out of it, for a short amount of time, until the program is over or until you’re over it. Tracking your food using macronutrients allows you to have flexibility in your choices without being so rigid on a plan or program.

it holds you accountable:

what gets measured gets managed. You can’t deny the numbers or the nutrients that are in black and white. if you measure your food intake, honestly, it helps to keep you accountable. It helps to be even more accountable if you work with a coach or professional who will check to see what you’re eating and how you can make changes or improvements.

it teaches you the foundations of making healthy choices:

when you begin to measure macronutrients you start to understand what serving sizes are and what type of fuel certain foods give you. Any food will either be a protein, carbohydrate, or a fat. So if I choose to eat a serving of my favorite candy versus a serving of white rice I can validate how much of each I can have for the same type of nutrient, which is a carbohydrate in this case. You also start to realize that condiments, alcohol, and extras like coffee additives can add up to your daily food intake pretty quickly!

it allows you to assess what is working and what needs to be changed:

if something is not working you can look back on what you’ve been doing which will help in determining what needs to change. Most of the time, especially women, are drastically undereating. If you’re tracking you can identify that and change it by increasing your calories, or by changing your macronutrients!

There are some downsides to measuring or tracking food. There could be a tendency to become attached to the results you get while tracking which plays into the all or nothing mindset I see with people all the time. You’re either on point with your tracking, or you’re off the wall since you’re not tracking, which defeats the purpose. Sometimes tracking and measuring could also become obsessive, where people will use it as a means of control, again defeating the purpose of flexibility and creating foundations.

If you’re ready to make the commitment to measuring what you eat, at least 90% of the time, I would recommend downloading the MyFitnessPal app, as well as purchasing a food scale like the Ozeri Kitchen & Food scale, to get started.

What’s measured gets done right?! So if you really want to get serious about your goal or destination start by measuring what you’re doing to get there! The idea is to create a solid foundation and understanding of what foods fuel us and how, while being held accountable and while having the flexibility to enjoy the foods we love along the way!