As a nutrition coach, I work with clients to integrate a simple, sustainable, and satisfying approach to their nutrition…and it DOESN’T include dieting because let’s face it, diets suck and don’t work.

They don’t work for many reasons but one of them is because they are TOO HARD to figure out! Running a full-time business while being all things mom and wife is hard enough…now I gotta count calories, and points, and track my macros??

No. Thank, You.

Because life is crazy busy already, not only does it take too much time to figure all that out, but tracking it all on one of those popular apps, like “My Fitness Pal” is NOT NECESSARY. 

Now, I should say that I use MFP, but I don’t use it the way most people do.

I use it to look up food, not track it.

Let me take a step back.  The way I teach my clients to eat is by the meal, not by the day.  So, instead of thinking about how many calories, points, proteins, fats, or carbs we can eat each day, we just focus on how much we should be eating for each meal. 

And, the best part is that every meal has the same portions so if you know what your portions are, why in the world would you have to track it?

Let’s break it down a bit.  When folks work with me, I teach them the exact amount of proteins, fats, and carbs they should have at EVERY meal.  Notice I say MEAL too, not snacks. We eat ALL day and we eat MEALS each time we eat. Each meal consists of protein, fat, and carb and we eat it every 3-4 hours.

The concept is called “PFC Every 3” and is designed to keep our blood sugar stabilized.  By stabilizing our blood sugar consistently we actually start to boost our metabolism and turn our bodies into lean, fat-burning machines.  It’s literally the OPPOSITE of a diet.

So, when we eat the same portion sizes of PFC consistently every day, what is there to track?  No longer do we have to keep a running total of how many calories we are consuming at each meal, thus watching our available ones dwindle away…and no more “lost days” because you ate all your calories during a hearty breakfast.

Go overboard on a meal? No worries, you probably won’t be hungry at the 3-hour mark, so just be sure to eat by the 4th hour and if you still aren’t hungry, have a ½ a meal and then you will likely be hungry again in 3 hours, ready for your next meal.  

Because you make up for it on the next meal and you know what every meal’s portions should be, you can throw away your tracking systems and stop thinking so much about what you can and can’t eat!  It’s freeing!!!!

I did say that I use MFP to look up food, not to track it.

So, because I know how many proteins, fats, and carbs I should have at each meal, I like to use My Fitness Pal or Nutritionix to simply look up the PFCs of the various foods I am eating, if I don’t know them off the top of my head.  If I want salmon, I can look it up and see how many ounces fit my protein and fat count for one meal. If I want some popcorn and am not sure how much would fit my carb count, I simply look it up and now I know! 

SOOO much easier, right?!?!  

Carrie