Tracking Macros Leads To Food Freedom

00:00Hey, hey, real quick, if you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand that methodology on how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today. There is no food that is inherently bad. However, our behaviors and our attitudes towards certain foods can be problematic. Macro tracking and understanding macros helps in recognizing and managing these behaviors. So for instance, it's not ever about not having bagels. It's not ever about not having dessert. It's about understanding how to enjoy the dessert and enjoy the bagels in moderation and balance with other nutritionists.

00:52What is going on, my friends? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if this is one of your first episodes, welcome to the show with Nikki Stock, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And on this podcast, we deep dive in and talking about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikki Stock. And welcome to today's episode, episode 128, where I am going to deep dive into debunking some common macronutrient tracking myths around time and restriction.

01:37So I hear this all of the time, especially to somebody that is new to the macronutrient world. And really, this is like, overall, it's kind of like a parallel to any parallel to anything in life, right? Like, whenever there's something new, that needs to be learned, that this human has never done before, right? Whether it be technology, whether it be, whether it be, whether it be, I don't know, like those are parallels, right?

02:11To learning new skills that can be an absolute game changer for you and whatever type of result that skill will serve you. And this parallel is macronutrients. And the common thing that I hear is like, I don't have enough time to track my macronutrients. Or macronutrient, macronutrients and tracking them are actually restrictive. This is what I hear all the time. And these things could not be any further from the truth, one.

02:43And two, they are just an excuse from actually implementing the time that it takes to say, you know, learn technology or to ride a bike, right? Anything that is or requires time and energy to learn something, there's always some type of restriction to learn it out of the gate, even with weight training, right? There's some type of like, oh, this is gonna take way too long to learn. I'm trying to think in my brain of something that for me that is maybe recent.

03:16Whether it be like learning a new system that I have to use for Warrior Babe or like a, or, you know, I don't know, the parallels, right? You can think of the parallels in life that this is very frequent that I see. And so what I want to spend time with here is like, I want to tackle these common misconceptions that I hear about all the time, tracking macronutrients, one being that it takes too much time and the other one being that it's actually restrictive. And debunk the fact that like how really tracking your macronutrients leads to food freedom.

03:48And it leads to this invaluable lifelong skill. So first, I want to talk about the time factor. Like any new skill, like I'm talking about here, technology, riding a bike, tracking macros, it takes a little bit of practice at the start. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes a quick and routine part of your day. So think of it as like an investment in your health, my friends. A few minutes daily that pays off immensely in the long run, right?

04:21At the beginning, I hear all the time, it's taking me a half an hour to an hour to an hour and a half to put all my meals inside of my fitness pal and to actually get it to line, to get to my macros to be negative five or plus or minus five in my protein, plus or minus five in my carbs, plus or minus five in my fats. And I don't have that time. I don't have this time of day, you know, to do this and put that. Well, think about the flip side. But wouldn't it be worth it to spend this time to do this so that maybe in a couple of years you don't have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or, you know, more of the health risks that you could be, you could endure?

04:56Or second to that, the physical appearance, you want to change it? It ain't going to get nowhere just ignoring the nutrition aspect, right? So wouldn't that be worth it to understand this, to spend some time doing this so that that said result that you want, whether it be health markers or whether it be, whether it be the physical appearance or whether it just be longevity, wouldn't you spend the time right now to figure that out so that those things don't happen and it's literally in your control to control? So this one gets to me because as you guys know in the last episode, if you just,

05:30if you haven't listened to it, definitely go listen to it. I think it's a really good one. In episode 127, I kind of talk about this, like the people that have the time excuse, it's like you really don't want it that bad. You got to want it and you got to want the outcome and you got to want the healthy lifestyle that you could have or that you could improve upon. And you got to want the physical appearance in order to actually devote the time that it takes to do these skill sets or to do the things that are in alignment with you getting to that goal. If you don't do the things that are in alignment with getting to that goal, you will not get to that goal.

06:05Point blank. Okay, so it yes, tracking macronutrients. Yes, out of the gate. I would blunt honest with you. It takes time. It could take you an hour to go around your entire kitchen barcode scanning some things and putting it into my fitness pal. It could take you an hour and a half. It takes a bit of practice at the start, just like sitting down, opening up a new computer and setting it up and or learning Zoom. Think back in 2020, you guys, when you had to learn Zoom for the first time and click on mute or turn the video on or connect it to the settings to allow the computer to use your camera.

06:44All of these things imply practice and time at the start. Think about how fast you are with Zoom nowadays. It's like second nature. Think about how you are with your iPhone nowadays. You had to learn that stuff years and years ago, right? How to use it. This is no different. But yeah, this is actually something that will serve you in terms of your health, which is huge. So when I hear people say I don't have enough time to do this or it takes too much time, there's so much to unpack that, that I want to get deeper with that individual and be like, like create.

07:19It's hard to do that on a podcast with you guys because I really love individual connection points. That's why you go inside of Warrior Babe, we have one-on-one coaching and our coaches coach women around these specific topics. And we get deeper into like, oh, what's really the, this is a smoke screen, right? I don't have enough time. It's a smoke screen. What's really going on? What's a little bit deeper? Can you tell me a little bit more? So once we get to that point, we can coach on that. And I love doing that. Our coaches love doing that because this is surface level excuses. And I'm just going on a rant. This is surface level excuses.

07:49So let's like, what really is it like, oh, I'm nervous that once I am actually successful in this concept and actually do this, what is my success going to look like? Fear of success. Totally normal. What are my friends going to think of? Social pressure, right? All of these. And then we're getting deeper. And we're like, okay, cool. We can coach on this. That's what's so fun about the transformative process of changing women's lives. It's like, okay, you have this. I'm not going to accept this excuse. So let's just unpack it a little bit more, right?

08:22Because like I said, bringing it back. Practice at the start. You're spending maybe an hour doing this for the first, I don't know, couple weeks. But I promise you, I literally put my word and my life on this. That if you consistently do this practice time and time again at the beginning of your journey for the first couple of weeks, I guarantee you, you will get so much faster at it. What was once an hour and a half procedure of you tracking your macros, putting them inside my fitness pal the day before, setting your day up for success.

08:55What was once an hour and a half will then become an hour. And then it'll become 45 minutes. And then it'll become 30 minutes. And then it'll become 10 minutes. And it'll become nine years later when I'm still doing it, three minutes. And I can literally open up my phone in the afternoon, open up my fitness pal and track already all the food that I've ate at like 5 p.m. Just so I can get a rough ballpark of what I have to eat for the rest of the day. No joke. So think of it as an investment in your health. A few minutes to an hour daily that will immensely, immensely pay off in the long run.

09:33Okay. Next thing I want to kind of, I'm going to go back and forth. We tried time and restriction because I think this one marries in really, really well here. So macro tracking isn't about restriction, first and foremost. It is about the balance and understanding of the macronutrients. Macronutrients empowers you to enjoy a variety of foods without eliminating anything from your everyday eating diet routine habits. And when you understand the macronutrient consumption of foods or composition of foods,

10:08you can make informed choices and decisions and enjoy your meals without guilt or fear. So to dive a little bit deeper here. Should I even bring this up? A couple of days ago, somebody left our VIP program because I eat bagels on an everyday basis. And I'm like, bro, really? Like sending love to this individual because this is my personal preference. I freaking love bagels. There's nothing wrong with bagels, first and foremost.

10:41And it's my personal choice to want to be able to eat food that I enjoy on a daily basis. When majority, and I remind you guys to like down a little rabbit hole here. What you see on Instagram, especially a photo, is five seconds of my day. And also maybe a video is like 30 minutes, 30 seconds to one minute of my day. And I've done a really poor job of sharing my entire day with you guys. So like there's way other better quality food that makes up the rest of my meal programming in a day outside of bagels.

11:17But if I want a freaking bagel, I'm going to eat a bagel. I preach the fact that you can have what you want. And it just has to fit in balance with your like 80%, 90% whole quality foods. The rest can be whatever your little heart desires so that nothing feels restrictive. And I ain't going to restrict bagels from my diet, first and foremost. Secondly, there is no, there is nothing, there's, it's so important to understand this. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show.

11:50It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it and there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. There is no food that is inherently bad. However, our behaviors and our attitudes towards certain foods can be problematic. Macro tracking and understanding macros helps in recognizing and managing these behaviors.

12:25So for instance, it's not ever about not having bagels. It's not ever about not having dessert. It's about understanding how to enjoy the dessert and enjoy the bagels in moderation and balance it with other nutritional needs and quality food. Okay. So there's, it's, there's nothing bad. There's no carbs are not bad. Bagels are not bad. Bread is not bad. Um, all of the things that inherently you label bad is not bad.

13:01It is your behavior and your attitude towards it that makes it problematically bad. Okay. I need you to understand that and grasp that concept because if you can, and you can accept that, then it will free, free, free, freeingly open you mentally to accept that all food is fine. It's just the moderation and balance of which you put it into your day that is the most important. Okay.

13:32There's nothing that is inherently bad. Your attitude and behavior coupled by it is what makes it problematically bad. So all in all, understanding macronutrients, and I say this all of the time, my friends, all of the time, understanding macronutrients is a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. Why? Because you are learning portion sizes. You are learning what different foods are made up of. You are learning how those specific foods impact your body, your mood, your sleep,

14:05your physiology, all the things. Okay. This knowledge that you gain by learning portion sizes, by looking at the plate when you're tracking your food, and then over time recognizing, oh, okay, this is like a handful of rice, or this is like a handful of mashed potatoes, or like this is four ounces of chicken. Knowing this, this knowledge, it allows you to have control over your diet rather than your diet having control over you. And when you have control over your diet in a way that supports your overall health and fitness goals,

14:39it is an absolute game changer in terms of feeling free and allowing food freedom and having the skill to serve you and the results that you are wanting to accomplish. You learn how to incorporate all types of foods into your diet in a balanced way, right? You literally can have your cake and you can eat it too. It's just about understanding how to fit treats into your macro so that you can enjoy the foods you love while still working towards your goals.

15:10Like, you guys probably know this if you follow me for a long time. I have on a consistent stocking schedule inside of my cabinet, dove chocolate. Dark dove chocolate. The little red wrappers of chocolate. I have that at the end of every single night because that is so freaking good. And I want that because if I restrict it and I say, no, well, guess what I'm going to do?

15:41I'm going to eat it anyway. It's like me telling you not to think of a pink elephant right now. Are you thinking of a pink elephant? Yeah. Same thing goes with food. You say, no, you're not going to allow yourself to have this food. You're going to eat the food. I don't care how disciplined or how all the things you are. It's just the way it's just human brains. Human brains. So you got to understand, like, if what I'm trying to just get across here and, like, completely debunk and have you guys really your perspective shifts on these two type of things,

16:15one being time, one being the restriction that people consider macro tracking to be, which I don't, I cannot fully grasp that because I know so much about macronutrients. It is so freaking empowering. It educates you on nutritional value of foods. It helps you make choices that fuel your body effectively. And this knowledge gives you the freedom to eat a diverse range of foods while all still getting the results that you want. There's this YouTube that's going to come out, I think, in, like, maybe later this month or around this time period on YouTube, on Warrior Babes channel on YouTube,

16:47where I literally tell you guys and share the story first of, like, my fitness journey and then second and why I got started. And then second, like, how I transitioned from the bodybuilding world into the macronutrient world because they both are vastly different in the way you approach food. And what would have happened if I didn't give all my time and dedication to learning macronutrients? I would still be doing a hamster wheel and stuck and unhappy and experiencing so much pain with the way that, the only way that I learned.

17:17If I didn't have an open mind, open perspective, an open, you know, wanting to learn and being curious about things, which I highly encourage you guys do the same thing because if you are stuck in thinking that one way is the one way that's going to serve you for the rest of your life, that is just, or like, you know, maybe approaches that you've done in for fitness or approaches that you've done with following your nutrition or approaches that you've done in certain ways and you think that that has gotten you success before and you try it again and it didn't and then you're, like, trying to make that one thing. It's like sticking a circle into a square hole.

17:49What's that saying? It's just something along those lines. It's not going to work, right? So it's like being open and being accepting and being understanding and being patient with learning something new. And I share that in YouTube because if I hadn't found this world of macronutrients and I haven't found the food freedom that it gives you and the education that gives you and the knowledge that it gives you and the empowering feeling that it gives you with understanding all of the things around food, I would have been so stuck. Like, I would have still been so stuck. So I want you guys, like, leaving this podcast today.

18:22First of all, think about, change the perspective that you guys may have if you do think this. I challenge you to change the perspective on time and I challenge you to be like, okay, I said this, where did I say this? I said this somewhere. I think it's inside of our VIP program. But I said, maybe you can't do this. Don't say, like, I can't do this. Like, don't say I can't do this, first and foremost. Say, I can't do this yet. Because that word yet changes the narrative for you to accept that maybe down the line, maybe in like a couple of weeks, you're really going to grasp the fact of like,

18:54okay, I can actually do this, right? I may not be able to do it right now, but I'm going to put the time and effort into it and I'm going to reap the rewards in a couple of weeks because I'm going to stay patient with the process. I'm not going to get, you may get frustrated, but you're not going to give up. It's okay to get frustrated, but don't give up. Okay, embrace it as, embrace macro tracking in this world, not as a chore, but as a path to food freedom and a healthier lifestyle because that's exactly what it will give you. And again, mark my words for it on my life. It is exactly what it will give you.

19:26Macro tracking isn't going to give you unhealthy, unless you're, you know, approaching it of the wrong way and eating McDonald's burgers and all that stuff on a routine basis every single day to fit into your macros, a different ballpark, it's a different thing to unpack. But if you're doing it in a sense that you're doing quality food, you're consistent with it, it will lead you to a healthier and overall happier lifestyle because you now have this different outlook on food because you understand it a little bit more.

19:57And the way you will fully understand it is by learning what food is made up of and every food consists of a protein, a fat, and a carb. So this skill, it will seriously, it will empower you to make informed decisions about your diet, about what's in alignment with your goals. And now, like now, here, right now, and into the future, this is something that you will take for the rest of your life, okay? So leaving this podcast, one, it is not a time restriction.

20:28It's how bad do you want the other side of it, which is a healthier lifestyle, getting the results you want of food freedom. How bad do you want that? And then time is irrelevant because you're gonna, if you want it that bad, you're gonna do the work that it takes to get to that point. And then restriction, I don't know. Actually, I do by just saying that because people think that they're following a diet, so they have to eliminate certain foods. And so macronutrient, because they're putting it into like a app

20:59or like they're putting the food into it and they're like, oh, but I've been told that I can't have this or this is bad. It has nothing to do with macronutrients. It is your attitude and your behaviors that are attached to that food from other things or that you've tried or done or people saying on the internet that you've held onto and now you're applying it to following macronutrients, okay? All right, so with all that being said,

21:29I hope I've changed or maybe, maybe not. Maybe you gotta come back in a couple of months, listen to this podcast again and it don't resonate. But maybe for some of you, it's resonating and it's hitting home and I hope that it is. And you guys leave this podcast with a different approach to macronutrients. All right, my friends, I love you. I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out. Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle, feel more confident, do it alongside one of our 30 plus professional coaches. Work one-on-one with her to eliminate

22:00all of the guesswork that you may have and all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. And to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.