WHAT'S THE CATCH?

Seriously, right? Ice Cream? Chips? Cookies? Chocolate? Pizza? YES! But let me explain a little bit more…

CATCH #1: Flexible dieting doesn’t mean being able to binge every day.

Just because you’re making your macros fit, doesn’t mean you’re setting your body up for optimal performance… I learned this the hard way.

Previous to flexible dieting, I was eating a high protein, high fat, low carb diet. This meant eggs, bacon, steak, etc. So when I began flexible dieting, I was shocked to see my allotment of carbohydrates- it was huge! I could eat almost ANYTHING! The world was my oyster and I said, “Let’s eat a crap ton of cup-o-noodles!” Well you can probably imagine that I quickly ran out of carbs and a decent amount of fat, so if I ate all this in the morning, the rest of my day is pretty much ruined. I’d be stuck eating boiled chicken breasts and slamming protein shakes… not fun. Did it fit my macros? Sure. But was it a good choice? HELL NO.

You still want to make healthy choices, which will be another blog post, but this is something to keep in mind as you begin the follow a flexible diet.

CATCH #2: Progress is the result of consistency and time.

Six months ago, I had decided that my training routine needed something different nutrition wise. I was in the gym at least five days a week for two to three hours at a time and felt…fluffy (if you will). Not fat, not skinny, but not really lean either. Energy levels were okay at best, but I thought I was supposed to be tired all the time since I was training so much. Food wise, I was liberal with my proteins and fats, extremely conservative with my carbs, but never really worried about how much I was eating. I read someone else’s blog about flexible dieting and it was intriguing enough to try. And hey, if it helped me in the gym AND leaned me out, sweet! So over the next six months, I began to follow a flexible diet.

The first few weeks were a bit tough- measuring and weighing everything was tedious, calculating and constantly checking My Fitness Pal was annoying, and I wasn’t sure if I was seeing results yet. After about 4 weeks, I had dropped 6 lbs. I went from 136 lbs to 130 lbs, which is actually way too much weight to lose for what I want. My energy levels were low too. So from here, I adjusted and I increased my macros. It took a few times of adjusting over the next few months, but now, I sit at a more comfortable weight of 133 lbs and I’m happy with the way I look.

What I’m saying is… it takes time! It took me 6 months to get to where I am with flexible dieting and for some of you, it may take longer than 6 months to get to where you want to be. It’s a huge trial and error process, but once you find a good set of macro numbers that suit you well, you will see results. It may take some adjusting, and even after you find your numbers, you may adjust again, but in the end, flexible dieting is a great way to empirically figure out how much you should eat. We all come from different backgrounds of how we eat, how we move, how we work out, etc… so as you embark on this journey, be patient and trust the process! Be consistent and let time do it’s thang :)