You ARE what you eat

Really, its true. And, I am willing to say that no matter how you try, you cannot work out a bad diet. I will back that up more in a moment. But, first, what is it that you do eat? Many of us do not even have a Food Plan. What is worse, most of us just are not aware of what we are eating on a regular basis. Either because we are eating pre-packaged foods which are full of stealthy ingredients or maybe we are just in denial, I venture to bet that most of us either get too much or too little of something that our bodies need.

There are some good ways to be truly aware of what you’re eating short of getting out a pen and paper and logging the intake. Pen and paper does work well. That is exactly how April helped me a year ago. Thanks April! If you want to go techno, there are oodles of options.

Fitday is a good site to track food intake and activity. It has some spiffy graphing and reporting functions. If you are taking your nutrition so seriously that you have considered a nutritional consultation, your consultant would probably appreciate all of the bells and whistles. MyFoodDiary is good too, but a little less flashy. Some of you have already heard of LogsItAll. The designer is a believer in CrossFit and does what he can to make the site user friendly. He even responds to emails and accepts suggestions with grace. The food logging on this site is not flashy at all, but it is convenient if you are putting all your CrossFit accomplishments there already.

But, none of those will do you any good unless you actually log it, accurately. If ya drank it or ate it counts. It is not a confessional, and no one will make you penance for the honesty to yourself. You might be surprised what you learn about you and your relationship with food. And, by the way, do you have a food plan? Notice, I did not ask if you ‘diet’. I just don’t like the idea of a diet. It seems to imply a short-term fix for a long-term situation; flawed at best.

Whether you currently subscribe to the Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet, Zone, Intermittent Fasting, South Beach, Paleo or the USDA Food Pyramid, or something else your Food Plan (whatever it is) has to meet Your Needs (whatever they are). So, what are they? What is it you are asking your body to do? Pick up heavy stuff? Lean out? Drop lbs? Move faster? Once you recognize what you are eating, would it help your body accomplish those things if you changed the Plan around a little? Only you and your log really know. This goes back to what I poked you with earlier. You cannot work out a bad diet. Think of it this way. Maybe you are picking up some seriously heavy weight. Maybe you do create a slight breeze because you are just so fast. But, could it be even better?

All of us put out a lot of time, effort and some cash on our workouts. Whether you log your intake or not, I wonder if we sabotage some of our potential accomplishments by the food choices we make.

So, what is your Food Plan? By the way, my Food Plan does include Treats. It does not include Cheats. More on that another day…