We all can remember a time in our life where we were eating what we wanted… when we wanted… and what was going on in our lives dictated our diet.
For me, I think back to my freshman year of college. To no surprise doing this I gained 20 pounds my freshman fall first semester of college so yeah… I won’t be doing that to lose weight.
For many women like myself, eating what you want when you want just isn’t going to work.
Not because you eat unhealthy foods (I naturally love fruits, veggies and good for me foods) – but it just isn’t enough structure to maintain weight or even lose weight.
*In fact, during stressful periods of our lives it can lead to unintentional weight gain, and sometimes even feeling out of control in our bodies because we really aren’t fully connected to what our bodies always need.
That’s why today’s focus is on how to create structure for fat loss without logging your food… and without going full blown into intuitive eating. Because the grey area between these two approaches is where you’ll see the MOST results.
What I’m teaching you this week is actually part of a bigger framework I’ve been refining for years.
THIS ISN’T INTUITIVE EATING… YOU NEED STRUCTURE & HERE’S HOW:
1) Intuitively, Emotionally Eating vs. Lose Weight Without Food Logging
Fat loss without logging your food is a delicate balance. I want you to lean into your emotions and intuitions, but I don’t want you to do that without any structure or guardrails in place.
That’s why it’s important to understand that losing weight without logging your food is not a free-for-all. It is not eating what and when you want. It involves making specific and calculated choices around how we structure our day in our routines and the choices we make when we choose to eat – while also using our intuition to guide the changes we make based upon how our body is responding.
2) What Can Replace Food Logging And Still Give Me Structure?
There are easy ways to replace the structure of food logging without completely letting loose:
- A repeatable meal schedule
- Repeatable meals with realistic portion sizes
- Portion size awareness to hit at every meal
- A strong connection (or even reconnection) with our hunger and fullness cues to help guide how much we are eating as we “diet”
- Focus on executing our habits, and tracking how well we execute them
- Focus on indicators of progress such as weight, body composition and strength in the gym to determine if your typical dietary choices are working, or if you need to make modifications to your portions to get into fat loss mode (even without logging)
3) What Is Portion Control Awareness?
When losing weight without logging, it can be helpful to have benchmarks of easy portion sizes to help guide your journey. However… Since you’re not logging your food, it is not practical to just follow portion sizes blindly when in reality you’re not weighing and measuring food in the first place.
To replace this, I suggest learning what visual portion sizes can look like (such as what is a realistic portion of chicken… usually the palm of your hand is great) so you can understand how on track or off track you are from where you should be each meal.
4) How To Use Your Appetite To Your Advantage
Alongside portion control awareness, you will want to pair an awareness of the food you have on your plate with how you actually feel when you eat it.
This helps replace the structure of calorie and macro logging because you’re going to be connected with your body and using that to help guide how much you’re eating.
But keep in mind that it is hard to use your hunger and fullness cues to guide how much you are eating if you’re not eating consistent meals and you’re not eating consistent portion sizes of the foods that you need in your meals.
This is why having a basic understanding of portions is key for segwaying into using your hunger and fullness cues to guide you as you shed weight. The goal is to get full with meals, but use your appetite to your advantage.
Test the waters. See how you feel modifying portions within a reasonable amount and how your appetite responds. By getting in tune with your appetite you can “diet” and lose weight without logging your food, and instead testing out modifications to your portions to see how it goes for you.
And the best part is you can begin to experiment with this, now!
On tomorrow’s blog, we’re digging into how to lose fat and lean out without logging!
PS: If you loved today’s blog, you’re going to looooove what I have been working on for MONTHS! I’ve seriously been asked for years to create something that provides structure but helps women lose weight and maintain every pound they lose without having to log their food. If you’re ready for that…. Get ready because I’ll announce it later this week!