When you think of logging or tracking your food, what's the first emotion that comes to mind? Is it freedom? Or is it guilt and stress? Today we're going to transform food logging into a positive empowering tool for achieving your fitness and nutrition goals without the obsession, or neuroticism common with most food blogging, apps and approaches. Tune in to learn the practical tips and mindset shifts that will completely change your relationship with food and help you make sustainable progress toward a body you love. Welcome to the wit's end weights podcast. I'm your host Philip pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger. Optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition will uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Whitson weights community Welcome to another solo episode of The Whitson weights podcast. In our last episode 163 The most important overlooked secret to sculpting a body you'll love with Kate galley, we talked about taking care of the most important person in your life. And that is yourself. You learn how to master your inner dialogue, prioritize your health, happiness, and tailor your self care practices to fit your lifestyle. You also gain some practical tools to reshape your daily routine. So it aligns with your core values and propels you toward your best self. If joy and happiness are truly important to you. Today for episode 160. For food logging, that doesn't suck. We're diving into the world of food logging, and discussing how to make it a pleasurable, positive and helpful experience. And if that sounds foreign to you, then you definitely want to listen to this episode, because it can be all of those things. We're going to explore the key principles behind effective food logging, and share some best practices to keep it practical and avoid becoming obsessive or neurotic about it. You'll learn how to approach food logging with a neutral, non judgmental mindset. So that it promotes the whole reason that we do this, which is self awareness, and sustainable progress. Those are the reasons we log if we log at all, we're going to share some practical strategies for making logging a consistent habit without getting bogged down in the details. So that you focus on the big picture, which is nourishing your body and achieving your goals. That's all we're trying to do. You'll also discover how to use your logging data as a tool for self discovery and experimentation. And that is what empowers you to make positive changes based on that discovery and based on experimenting over time, that align with your unique needs and preferences. Now, before we get into it, this is the last week of enrollment for Whitson weights physique University at the launch price before it goes up forever. In Whitson weights physique University, which we now call WW PU. It's a semi private group coaching experience, and we teach you how to do food logging in a way that does bring you massive freedom and progress without the frustrations most people have when it comes to tracking. In fact, one of the courses in there is called macro factor mastery, where we teach you not only how to set up and set up your initial goal in macro factor, which is the food login app we use. But then additional courses and the course will expand over time, additional modules on all of the various features in the app to make the most of it. And not just using it but using it in a practical simple way, with all the little hacks and tricks behind it. Not only that if you are just looking to transform your physique, if you're trying to take your your workout program your nutrition to the next level, which awaits physique University has everything you need. And I mean that in the literal sense, because it took us a while to develop what would be in the program to make sure that it's as close to a one on one experience as possible in a group setting, so you get the best of both. So we give you right at the beginning, a done for you personalized nutrition plan, you don't get that with a lot of group coaching programs. You also get custom designed courses on everything from metabolism to training, to menopause to nutrition. And yes, even the macro factor course I mentioned. And you get a monthly workout programs dropped every month with at least seven programs in there right now. And they're tailored to different goals and experience levels, different equipment access. And all of this stuff is tied to a private community where you can check in, get one on one guidance and join a live coaching call every week. So it's just a ton of stuff in there to keep you going to really keep you accountable and really to just not let you drop off the radar and let you continue to make progress toward your physique goals. So if you're ready to apply the principles of freedom based food logging from today's episode, to actually enjoy the process of building your physique include eating the food side of it, whether you need a bit of fat loss or you want to build some muscle, just go to Whitson weights.com/physique or click the link in my show notes to enroll in Whitson weights physique University. I'll repeat that. Again. It's Whitson weights.com/physique. Or just click the link in my show notes. It is a monthly cancel anytime program. And I made sure to include a 21 day money back guarantee, so it is completely risk free for you. Okay, let's dive into today's topic. Food logging, that doesn't suck. So here's the thing. Food logging is often described to me as this very tedious, very stressful chores. It's one of those things that a lot of people, they these hear it and they think calorie counting, and cumbersome apps, and weighing every single gram of every single ingredients, and all of these other negative things as well as the app itself, shaming you and berating you and notifying you and bugging you. And it's just this tedious, stressful thing. But it doesn't have to be that way at all. It can be quite the opposite. I and many other others in our community, my clients, we've been tracking for a long time, in some cases, not because we have to, but because it's so easy, and part of our routine and habit. And it helps us meet our goals with very little FOSS very little time that the you know, benefit to cost ratio is so high, why not. But for a lot of people, they don't have that experience with food logging, which is one of the reasons I wanted to make this episode. And if you approach food logging, first of all with the right mindset, right, but also the right strategies, because the actual tool you use the way you do it, no matter the mindset, it can definitely derail you if it's not meant for you and it doesn't serve the purpose we want it to. But with the right mindset and strategies, food logging can be one of the most incredibly valuable tools for building awareness of your eating habits, the balance of your nutrition, whether you're making progress toward your goals. And there's this debate, it seems between intuitive eating and counting macros. And I don't think there has to be, I think you can actually do both. In fact, in one of the, in the physique Foundation's course, in Whitson weights, physique University, which I'm sorry, you're going to hear me talk about this a lot. But it's because I'm excited of the content that we're putting in there. And in this particular course, I have a lesson and it's called, let me see if I can remember this, right? Intuitive Eating while counting macros, something like that. And the idea is, there are lots of things you can be doing, that contribute toward a natural awareness of your body and your hunger cues, that make it easier to meet your goals, even if you weren't tracking. And then when combined with tracking give you the ultimate precision, and the best of both worlds. And I think that's a great flexible way to be because you can toggle between either extreme or the other, depending on your season of life. And depending on what goal you're going after, you can do two full on intuitive eating for a while then do full on tracking, or anything in between. So I like to combine strategies from both and I don't think there has to be an either or in this case. So I want to talk about some principles of food logging today that you might not often think about, okay, not just okay, here's how you log food on a scale and then log it. That's not what this episode is about. So the first principle about food logging, that doesn't suck is, is to focus on the big picture instead of getting bogged down in the details. And there's multiple ways to do this. So one of those is, instead of trying to hit your precise macro targets every day, why don't you step back and think about macros in the course of a week. So what that does is allows you to flex to go up and down on any given day, maybe you've been a little bit under protein for few days, maybe go a little over on a few days, maybe a little under calories, maybe a little over calories. First of all, you're never going to hit the exact number anyway, even if you are trying to it's just not going to happen. It's just not possible. And even if you thought you did, you didn't do it because of the inherent error in food labels and in just the foods in the database. But secondly, it doesn't matter to your body that you're that close to the targets every single day, you just need to be in the ballpark. And so I like to think of terms, not terms, I like to think of things on a weekly basis to allow for that day to day natural variability in our diet. It takes the pressure off of being quote unquote, perfect, which we shouldn't be striving for anyway. And that's how we get a big picture. Now, the other way to have a big picture is instead of even thinking about the targets as exact targets, we think of minimums. And so I like to coach my clients. And can we do this in the group coaching as well, to have a minimum for each of your macros when you're using something like macro factor or any other food logging app, and it has an exact number to hit. Generally the protein I think of the protein number as a minimum, and then the fats and carbs the minimums are lower than the actual target and so it gives you a lot of this flexibility to go up or down. sort of really simplify it, do this number one, hit your protein. Number two, hit your calories. And that's it. And if you hit your protein and calories, it almost doesn't matter what the composition is, except for like extreme cases where you're very low calories or something like that. So that's a way to be a little bit big picture. And then the third way to big, big picture is actually when you're logging your food, you don't have to log every single ingredient. Now, you want to log all the energy in the macros for the most part, but you don't have to do it. By logging every ingredient. I'll give you an example, if you make a salad that has like 14 ingredients, because as all these vegetables and might have some seeds, and nuts, and fruit and dressing and whatever else, there are entries in most food logging apps, for a garden salad, or a Caesar salad, or a house salad or a chef salad. And if that's close enough, and you just logged the total grams, you're probably in the ballpark of what you need, without all the stress of stressing over every single ingredient. And you can apply this to so many things like when you go to a restaurant, you're just trying to find something's close enough and get close enough in terms of the quantity. And honestly that if you're within 30%, you're going to be making massive progress, compared to just not tracking at all. And that's the way to balance the to the balance of tracking versus not being so bogged down in the details. The second principle is on the mindset side, having a mindset of what are called neutral self awareness, instead of judgment. So the goal here is you're trying to build this picture of what your diet looks like, over time. That's, that's the very first reason that we track at all, this is why I encourage people not to go into a dieting phase, or even a muscle building phase on day one, when they start tracking, just spend a good four, six, maybe eight weeks tracking, and not intentionally trying to gain or lose weight, just to build a picture of your diet. And as you do that the goal isn't to beat yourself up over whatever you think is quote unquote, bad, or any indulgences or any inaccuracies, or this came up. So this and this came up. So this that isn't the goal. The goal is just to have this neutral self awareness like, okay, that's, that's my eating pattern like, and when this happens, that's my eating pattern. And when I'm on the weekends, that's my eating pattern. This is what I ate for breakfast, this is how much protein I get, here's the micros I get, you start to build this little library in your head of data that says, Okay, this is me right now. Cool, then, by doing that objectively and not attaching any moral value to it, you gain the most valuable insight possible. And that is a baseline from which to shift in certain directions, right? Very objectively, and without the stress or the guilt. Because that's not the point. The point is to say, here's where I am, here's my goal, to meet my goal, I have certain nutritional needs, and I have certain lifestyle preferences. And I'm going to make my diet shifted pattern toward that by adding in the things that I want and the things that I need to contribute toward those guidelines and meet my goals. Okay, so we establish that baseline by being neutrally self aware. And as we develop that to get within a week or two, we start to get creative lightbulb moments of oh, okay, if I know that to build muscle, I need a decent amount of protein, you know, at least that point seven grams per pound, and I'm getting half that. Well, that's good, objective data that I want to add more protein in somehow. And then I then it gets to be this fun process of all what are all the fun things that I like to eat that have protein? Let's go figure that out. Oh, now how do I do it? Now? How do I fit in this breakfast, and you start to make these fun little changes that allow you to add in the things you want and need, rather than making it the stressful thing? Okay, so that's that's that principle? Well, a tangent to that real quick, because I think this is important is that, you know, research does show us that shame and guilt are big problems in this field. We talk about food and eating. And they lead to worse adherents and outcomes, right, just the fact that you're ashamed or you're guilty, you feel guilty of your food choices, or what you might not even feel or choices, you feel like you're just compelled to eat them, thereby cause you not to adhere to your diet. Whereas if we have some self compassion and this level of neutrality and objectivity, we're gonna get better results. So when we pick the food login app, it's very important to find one that avoids shame based messaging or design elements or notifications that make you feel bad, because you didn't perfectly stick to your nutrition plan. So this is one of the few times in this episode where I'm going to explicitly call out macro factor. I use this for food login, I encourage you to as well I've talked about it many, many times for good reason. It's one of the only apps probably the only app that has this adherents neutral approach. All it does is it Trade logs your food or when you log your food. It shows you the numbers, but it doesn't give them a judgement. It doesn't say that they're over under and that's good or bad. It will it will show you positive, negative, but it won't say it's good or bad or give you red font or notify you like, Oh, you just went five calories over. Because first of all, it doesn't know precisely Are you trying to go over under does it even matter to you that much. And then secondly, there's really no value from an evidence standpoint, that that helps people. And so when you pick your app like that tool alone can make or break your long term success here. Having that neutral, non judgmental approach and tool. To help you learn, all you want to do is learn from your choices, and make progress and sustainable return. That's all you were trying to do. So, again, I am going to mention macro factor a couple times in this episode, because if you want an app that is adherents neutral, besides all the other things that does it, no other apps does like track your targets against your dynamic metabolism, like adjust to your metabolism dynamically. Go download macro factor, use my code, Whitson weights all one word, you'll get an extra week on the free trial. So when you go on the first page, you toggle Yes, I have an affiliate code, you'll see it go from one week to two weeks. Then you enter my code all one word all spelled out with and weights. And you'll get the extra week. Try it out. If you don't like it, don't use it. But I guarantee not guarantee but I almost guarantee that you will. Hey, this is Philip and I hope you're enjoying this episode of weights and weights. I started Whitson weights to help people who want to build muscle lose fat and actually look like they lift. I've noticed that when people improve their strength and physique, they not only look and feel better, they transform other areas of their life, their health, their mental resilience and their confidence in everything they do. And since you're listening to this podcast, I assume you want the same things the same success, whether you recently started lifting, or you've been at this for a while and want to optimize and reach a new level of success. Either way, my one on one coaching focused on engineering your physique and body composition is for you. If you want expert guidance and want to get results faster, easier, and with fewer frustrations along the way to actually look like you lift, go to Whitson weights.com and click on coaching, or use the link in my show notes to apply today, I'll ask you a few short questions to decide if we're a good fit. If we are, we'll get you started this week. Now back to the show. Okay, so the next thing about the practical side of food logging, that doesn't suck is the practice of logging your meals and snacks as soon as possible after you eat, instead of trying to remember everything at the end of the day. Because this does two things. First, it definitely makes it more accurate. Because in the moment, you're going to have the best information then your brain starts to fade over the day as the day goes on and gets less and less accurate. But it also makes the process feel a lot easier and less daunting. Because to do it in the moment might take 30 seconds. But if you eat five times a day, or six times a day to do it at the end of the day. Now that all adds up to like a five to 10 minute ordeal that feels like a chore sometimes. And this is one of the most common early issues with some of my clients where they'll say, Oh, I couldn't get to it till the end of the day. And you start to see a an issue with their how they feel about the process and the adherence. And one of the quickest solutions to that is just let's log as you eat, it'll become a habit. And it'll actually feel easier that way. And you'll see how quick and easy it is. Because one of the benefits is most people have a routine, most people are eating a lot of the same things for lunch breakfast snacks, day after day after day, with small exceptions being going out to eat and the weekends and things like that. And so when you go like with an app like macro factor, and it's lunchtime, it will usually have the recent foods at that time of day automatically at the top, which makes it even easier to just don't copy paste done. Right. And sometimes they're even the same exact quantities. So that's how you can make it very quick and easy to the point where you're spending no more than like three to five minutes at the entire day logging food utmost and that's what we're talking about here making it not suck, okay. Okay, now when we talk about like what to log, you definitely want to log everything because you know, if you if you leave anything out the app will think that you ate less food for example, but we're trying to log the main things predominantly your your primary protein sources, your carb sources, added fats, you know, we're not trying to track every condiment or garnish or you know, tiny, extra little vegetable that has very few calories. I also don't want you to track supplements necessarily. The caveat there is if the supplements are inconsistent, and I don't mean protein powder, protein powder, you do track because that's a lot of calories. I mean something like fish oil, fish oil has some calories from the fat, but I don't track it because I take the same amount every single day. And all that matters from a tracking perspective is the change over time, you know, how did your calories and macros change? So I wouldn't log all those things. The exception being if you really want to see your micronutrients, and you're taking some multivitamin, and you want, you know, contributes to those Feel free. And in that case, you should be able to just copy and paste day after day after day. So we're looking for consistency, rather than 100.000% precision, we're looking for, believe it or not, around 70 to 80% precision. So just keep that in mind that we're trying to make it less stressful, and less overwhelming. That's one way to do it. We you know, a lot of you eat very healthy dishes that have a lot of ingredients it might have, you might have pasta with peppers with me with a whole bunch of seasoning, like just pick the ones that have the most calories and log those. And even when you have, let's say three different ingredients that are similar, you might go with one of them, like if you have, I don't know, let's go with fruit. If you have strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, maybe just log it as strawberries. It's close enough, you know, again, with the exception of some micros, and things like that, if you if you really hung up on that. Okay, the next thing about using food logging in a positive way that will make you enjoy the process is thinking of it as a tool of self discovery and experimentation, rather than trying to stick to a predefined plan or meal plan. I do like using food logging apps to help you plan your meals early on, when you're trying to figure out oh, how do I get this much protein. But once you figure that out, you get out, you start to develop the intuitive sets. There's the intuitive eating again, for how to compose your meals and your ingredients to get where you need to go. And in that case, I'd rather you use the food login as a way to discover and experiment. Because as you log in and observe your patterns over time, you can see identify, you know areas where you want to make these small, sustainable tweaks, small, sustainable tweaks, a small sustainable tweaks to better align with your goals and preferences. So if you eat 30 grams of protein a day and you need to eat 130 grams, I'm not asking you to say to yourself, oh, I need to add 100 grams in tomorrow, and exactly get to the number. It's no, it's Oh, I'm at 30. Eventually, I want to get to 130. So now I can titrate myself up slowly and make sure I track that with the app. And I'll see myself get there. Over time, I might add more protein at breakfast, I might experiment with some new fun recipes, I have more vegetables, I might find, you know satisfying foods that are just as good as other more calorie dense foods that I tend to overeat and replace them with these other foods. I'll tell you what that is for me lately. Minja creamy recipes I got I got the ninja creamy and I make you know a whole pint of ice cream that's 300 calories with like 40 grams of protein. And it's so satisfying as it tastes just like ice cream, ah, that that kills two birds with one stone no three birds, it gives me the protein, it tends to be filling because of all the protein. And it satisfies my sweet tooth for the ice cream, and the texture and all the other things I told you I love food. Don't get me started. Okay, so self discovery and experimentation. I'll tell you a couple other ways you can use it that way. I love it for things like fiber, and saturated fat. If you're having some digestive issues, or you're not sure you're getting enough fiber, logging your food, great way to see that over time, you can see a I'm getting like 15 grams, maybe I want to be at 30 on average. And again, I'm gonna I'm going to mention macro factor. I know others, like chronometer are pretty good at nutrient tracking a macro factor if you go to your food log, and you tap the macros at the top, you can see like one three day or one day three day week long, month long and six months or something averages again, don't quote me on the actual numbers. But they're averages of all your micros and breakdowns of your macros, including fiber, but you could look at saturated fat and say, okay, my too high saturated fat, or are there minerals like magnesium or phosphorus that you're concerned about? Maybe iron, all of that. It's fantastic. But you use it as a fun process of collecting data and discovery, not as a tool for shaming and judgment. That's where we're going with this. Okay, last thing, I think this is the last thing in my notes, at least. It's really important with anything we do with nutrition, with training, with our mindset development with our self care with our sleep, it's important to celebrate your progress, celebrate the small wins and focus on the positive changes that we make, rather than dwelling on what we perceive as failures. And I say it that way on purpose. We perceive as failures, none of the things we'd ever do in this game of food and tracking is a failure. It's just a choice that has a result. And we can look at that and collect the data. And then there are always solutions that help us out as individuals overcome those roadblocks. It's a skill, we practice. We learn we develop over time it's a learning process. Every single day is an opportunity to gather data to reflect on the outcome, what we've measured and make small improvements. And because of that, I think food logging is such a powerful, almost necessary tool for a lot of people. And I'll tell you why. Sometimes the counter argument to this is, you know, oh, you know, we've done that with Weight Watchers, we've done that with diets where you track and you track food, or you count calories. And let's, let's do Intuitive Eating instead. And then I look at the process for this into so called intuitive eating, and involves all of this other tracking in terms of journals and diaries, and food scales and portions. And this net, which to me is very stressful and overwhelming. And it may not be to you because there's something for everyone. But I don't know why, like just tracking what you eat for two seconds is somehow this awful thing for some people, I just don't get it, other than the fact that the way it's been done for years has been counterproductive, right? Shaming you making you feel like you're imperfect, just because you missed a you know, a number, you know, making you feel like you have to log every single gram of every ingredient, all those things. And that's why I think today's episode is to let you know that there's a way to log food where it is this empowering, little easy tool that's very stress free and guilt free, and helps you meet your goals because it gives you data and awareness. Just like your budget and your bank account gives you data on where your money's going. That's really all it is. Right? And you don't have to do it the rest of your life. But you could, I bet you're going to be using a budget for most of your life. Unless you're filthy rich, you're probably using a budget. Well, even if you're filthy rich, you probably should be using a budget, right? So by approaching this whole thing with more curiosity, like, oh, I want to log because I want to see what's going on, like what's going on when I eat, and then self compassion, like, Okay, I don't need to judge myself or feel guilty. I just want to know what's going on. And I want to make choices and ask for help. If I'm not sure what to do next, then you'll be much more likely to stick with it long term and reap the benefits. Okay, so I mentioned already, if you're looking for a good tool in terms of the app, because most people aren't doing these notebooks or spreadsheets anymore, right? We have modern software that's really helpful in this regard, if it's designed well. And if you're looking for a tool to support the food logging, like we talked about here, you definitely want to check out macro factor, because it embodies a lot of these principles. It takes a flexible, non judgmental approach to tracking. And it also provides personalized recommendations based on your goal. And based on your progress. One of the cool things it does, in fact, I think I might have talked about it on the muscle building blueprint episode is, you know, yeah, losing fat, I'll say is, is quote unquote, easy in the sense that you go into the deficit you need for the fat loss you need. And it is what it is for everybody. And I'm oversimplifying, but just in terms of the calorie deficit. But when you're trying to build muscle, everybody builds muscle at a different ratio of muscle to fat. When people lose fat, if you're training and you're training, effectively, you're gonna lose mostly fat and very little muscle. And the ratio is roughly the same for most people. But when you're gaining muscle, you're gaining different ratios. Normally, it's around 5050. And macro factor assumes that, but for some people like a beginner, it might be a lot more muscle. For an advanced person, it might be a lot less, if you get injured or your like, take breaks, it will be less. And so the app can actually detect what ratio you're gaining, and adjust the surplus accordingly. That is pretty cool. Like that's the exciting and curious part about it. Because just by seeing how to adjust your surplus, you can know that what it's seen about your ability to build muscle, right? Amazing. The insights that you can get like that are the reason I do like to track and that's why I track a lot of things right I track HRV, which you either you already heard about or shortly going to hear about in a quick wits episode. I track obviously my lifts, and I track my my body measurements, I track my biofeedback, all of those things. And the reason I love macro factor for the food logging part is besides the adherence neutral approach that doesn't shame you, or berate you for missing your targets. It's the only app on the market that dynamically adjusts to your metabolism. That's important. It's not like chronometer, My Fitness Pal and all the other ones and just stay away from the free apps because the free apps tend to be they make you the product and that's why they're so annoying and badly designed, let's be honest. But these other apps, they make you come up with a targets based on a formula, or they give you a target based on a formula not based on your actual response to food and weight. Well, macro factor does dynamically adjust so then you'll know okay, I need to eat this much to be in this surplus, or I need to eat as much to be in this deficit, and you'll know where your targets are. Calorie and macro targets are exactly where they need to be each week, based on the goal you've selected. Lose Fat, build muscle, maintain whatever it is. So again, you can download macro factor and use my code wits and waits for an extra free week on the free trial. The link is in the show notes or just go to your app store, search for macro factor all one word, download it and enter my code, wits and weights all one word when you set it up. Alright, so what did we learn today, I hope we learned that food logging doesn't have to suck by focusing on the big picture, right? Cultivating self awareness without judgment, prioritizing the things that actually matter, approaching it with curiosity and self compassion. I am a believer and I walked the walk every day and so to those in our community and our clients that you can make food logging a practical and positive, long term part of your sustainable health and fitness journey. Alright, and whether you join Whitson weights physique university or you just want to try this on your own, don't forget to download macro factor and use it for free with my code, wits and weights. The link is in your show notes. Hit me up on IG at Whitson weights with any questions, I'll help you set it up. Maybe I'll send you a video that I have to do that. And as a bonus, there is a course in WWE pu called macro factor mastery that will walk you through an entire setup process and how to start your first goal. And everyone who joins WWE, you will have instant access to that. And again the link to enroll this week at the launch price before it goes up is in the show notes or you can go to Whitson weights.com/physique Okay, and our next episode 165 The Stealth mind trick to turn excuses into action with Paul Salter. Paul is back on the show to teach you how to turn your excuses your self sabotage, procrastination, and your perfectionism into massive action by digging beneath the surface to the subconscious mind. As always, stay strong, and I'll talk to you next time here on The wit's end weights podcast. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of wit's end weights. If you found value in today's episode, and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights. Please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the Follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong