Eating healthy while traveling can be a real pain. Particularly, if you’re on a diet. Or if you’re kind of like me — mindful of what’s going inside your mouth.
I’ve been tracking my food for the past one year (without missing a single day!) and am convinced that we grossly underestimate what we eat. What seems like a handful (let’s say… nuts) can easily use up 1/3rd of your daily calorie intake!
And then you complain why the heck you aren’t losing weight. Or worse, gain weight!
There are times when you assume you’re eating healthy, but that just may not be the case. And that’s where tracking can be super helpful. Consider this super-healthy breakfast I opted while staying at a 4-star hotel chain: a bowl of muesli with a tablespoon of honey, 200 grams (a cup) of plain yogurt and a handful of nuts. Since this was my post-workout meal, I added a protein bar too.
Super healthy, right?
Here’s what my tracker read:
Yikes! A whopping 1,199 calories! And that’s just my breakfast… my target calorie intake for the day is 2,300! (I’m cutting down to a different weight class for an upcoming powerlifting meet.) As you can tell, the portion sizes for my lunch and dinner were quite small. But despite my best intentions, I overshot my goal by 30 calories. Not a big deal, but a point worth noting. Because “healthy food” screw things up for me!
The point is this: let’s not leave things to assumptions. Track everything, especially if it’s important to you. Be it food (preferably before you actually eat), training, work, time, drinks, finances and anything in between. If it’s important to you. Track it!
Peter Drucker said it the best, “what gets measured, gets done!”