6 COMMON FLEXIBLE DIETING MISTAKES - RIKI LONG (GUEST BLOGGER!)

Riki Long is a CrossFit and weightlifting athlete with accolades that include appearances at the 2014 North East CrossFit Games Regionals and the 2014 American Open (48kg). Additional to being a great athlete, she is a fellow flexible dieter and coach as well!!

I had the incredible opportunity to meet Riki while competing in Miami, FL at Wodapalooza and it sorta went down like this:

Tiffany sees Riki….(Damn it, don’t be a weirdo!)…(Posts on Riki’s Instagram, “Hey we were in the same heat for the last WOD and stood in line together, but I didn’t wanna be creepy and scream ‘I FOLLOW YOU ON INSTAGRAM!’…”)

Needless to say, Riki was able to look past my awkwardness because we have since been able to chat back and forth about flexible dieting and it has been such a great learning experience. I’ve asked her to share some of her knowledge for Eat Ice Cream Get Abs, so below are her 6 common mistakes that flexible dieters make.

Be sure to follow her on Instagram (@lil_riki_) and check out her website (www.LilRikiFitness.com) for more information on her and flexible dieting!

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Fitness and dieting. We all have our own methods. Dieting seems to be the hardest part though, right? I mean we spend hours upon hours at the gym, whether its globo gym or a CrossFit Box, but our gainz (and losses) are still not reflecting our gym dedication! “Why don’t I have pecs like Rich Froning?” “ I want to snatch as much as Morghan King.” –What gives?   Dieting is hard because we make it hard. I want to talk about the 6 common mistakes people make when practicing flexible dieting. Fix these mistakes, and you are well on your way to being a macro counting pro:

1. NOT measuring their food in grams- “But the package says 2 tablespoons of peanut butter is 16 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbs and 6 grams of protein.” Correct, but if you see the back label, there is a number in the parentheses that probably says 32 grams in weight. A peanut butter connoisseur’s single tablespoon would most likely be bigger than the average person’s tablespoon. For accuracy and consistency, measure it out in grams. You’d be surprised by how much your single servings should look.
2. Forgetting to track supplements- In the beginning I neglected this for a month. Most athletes take some type of fish oil. Oil. What is oil? Fat, so it needs to be logged in. Even fiber capsules need to be logged, yes its fiber but we count all carbs, not just the net carbs.
3. Calorie dense versus volume- This is where people start abusing the flexible diet. I will have clients complaining to me that they are starving and I need to adjust their macros. Sometimes they’re not even on a cut! So the first thing I ask is for their food log:  What you see above is poor planning and calorie dense foods. Now, there is nothing wrong with consuming any of these foods, but now this person only has 100 calories to work with for dinner. Perhaps instead of the rice at lunch, this person could have had broccoli and saved some carbs for later. A quest bar is fine, but for a person that is only consuming 1300 calories per day, this is probably not the best idea. Plan your days ahead of time, eat for volume, and make sure you get in your micros before picking out bagels and quest bars.
4. Not planning- See above! I’m serious guys. The reason why so many people fail on their diets is because of piss poor planning. Don’t just wing it and then get mad at your coach because YOU didn’t hit your macros. Plan!
5. Not double checking MFP- Beware, friends! Some people out there only count calories, or net carbs. There are so many entries for bananas in the My Fitness Pal app. Which one do you use? First, look at the entries with the most confirmations, second be sure you can measure it in grams (not cups, length, number of bruises, etc.), and lastly, research that it is correct using the interwebs. This goes for the scanner too. I have scanned a loaf of bread and the company used the same exact bar code on their hotdog buns apparently. You can’t trust anyone!
6. Food avoidance- I stayed a “clean” eater for about two weeks until I had my first doughnut on flexible dieting, ahem, first six doughnuts…Yeah, I went hard in the paint. It didn’t stop there either; I was on a sugar high and ate any sugary, gluten filled processed treat I could get my hands on. When you taboo a food, you usually crave it more. This is how the binge process comes about. Be a STRICT dieter, not a RESTRICTED dieter.

Have questions about some of this?? ASK AWAY!!

WAITING FOR WEIGHT

I received an email from a client the other day asking me,

“If you have had them, how do you handle emotional days ? I have had a few.. And I am most vulnerable at bad choices during these days. For me.. I have been having more here lately. Sometimes the choices are not as bad as others. Any suggestions?”

At first I laughed hysterically because I think I’m probably one of the most emotional people on this planet. I’m that person who thinks a twisted ankle is the end of an athletic career and I’m also that person who could watch YouTube videos of kittens being rescued from trees and just cry about it out of pure joy and restoration of my faith in human kind. So HA! IF I have emotional days… Please, I could be a walking advertisement for Kleenex…

 

It was ironic to get this question because the psychological issues that surround food were topics I had been thinking about in the recent days. 

• Why is it so hard for some people to stick to a diet? 
• Why do MOST people quit? 
• Why it is easier for a doctor to prescribe medication when simple changes in diet and exercise could resolve SO MANY health issues??

While I don’t have clear cut answers for these questions, I think that the general answer is simply that results don’t come fast enough for people. 

Long gone are the days of waiting…for ANYTHING! Hell, I can’t go 5 minutes without checking my cell phone, but when I think about it, what did I do when cell phones weren’t so common? We all remember “dial-up internet”, right? (I just aged myself for sure right there) Internet was this new amazing thing and now we want to throw our lap top the second we see the little sand timer icon. We no longer have to wait for every day things in our lives, so why should we have to wait for weight?

  To answer the original question, though, I have emotional days ALL the time. Food is such a psychological issue that simply knowing that clean foods are good for you just isn’t enough to keep a person on the right path. 

Even the most strong willed people have bad days and make poor choices. Sometimes, eating 3 cups of ice cream is necessary to experience a catharsis that is somewhat therapeutic for the heart and soul. But the truth of the matter is, it all comes down to how much you want to reach your goals. 
What’s hard for me is that making a good choice doesn’t yield immediate results. If I choose to eat broccoli instead of a cookie, my body doesn’t get any healthier or more fit in that moment… it doesn’t even get healthier in the next week. I have to constantly remind myself that making good choices is an investment into my future self. Making a good choice is like putting $10 away into your savings account. Eventually, with enough good choices, that small dollar amount will grow…with interest! Every time you make a good choice, you take your mind through the exercise of being healthy which, in turn, primes your mind for making another good choice in the future. The more and more you practice making good choices, the easier it gets. Additionally, there is also research that proves the more exposure we have to specific foods, the more we end up having a preference for them over other foods. So the more often we eat “clean”, the easier it becomes over time. 
On the flip side, though… it’s important to understand that it’s COMPLETELY OKAY to have a bad day. Just like making a good choice doesn’t yield immediate results, a bad choice doesn’t make my body go to waste right away either. If I choose to eat a cookie instead of broccoli, my body doesn’t get any worse in that moment. Any type of body change (fat loss or weight gain) requires time and consistency. So don’t let yourself feel guilty- Allow yourself to feel empowered that you have complete control because you have the tools and knowledge to make the next choice a good one. 

Food is so weird and it takes up so much room in our heads, but it’s important to know that everyone has bad days. Being healthy is HARD. But what’s even harder is dealing with obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes… 

So the next time you find yourself in a slump reaching for your 4th pop tart, first ask yourself if it’s worth it. Sure, you won’t be set back from reaching your goals in that moment, but you sure aren’t getting any closer. Ask yourself if you will be guilt-free after eating it. Ask yourself if you will be regret-free it in 10 minutes. If your answers are YES, then by all means, tear into that pop tart!!! That tart won’t even KNOW what hit ’em! …But if your answers are NO, pump the brakes and make a different choice.

Being healthy is a result of repeated choices that are in the favor of, well, HEALTH! In order to be healthy, we must face challenges dealing with food and diet ALL the time. The more we practice making good choices, the more adept we are to continue this pattern of behavior. The more we continue this behavior, the less we have to wait to reach our goals!

 

DO'S AND DON'TS FOR FLEXIBLE DIETING

The following are tips (from personal experience) that will make this journey just a little less difficult:

DO’s

1. Do include your supplements that have macro properties into My Fitness Pal – Examples of this include fish oils, protein, etc. If it has macro’s, log it!
2. Do check My Fitness Pal: MFP has a way of changing your total calories on you as you lose/gain weight. For example, if you enter that you gained 2 lbs, and your goals in MFP are to lose weight, MPF will CHANGE YOUR TOTAL CALORIES in an effort to help you continue to lose weight. This is quite thoughtful, but drives a flexible dieter CRAZY!!! The point of macro tracking is to make sure you hit the same numbers every day, which is hard if MFP changes your total calories, thus changing your macro allotment.
3. Celebrate the little successes – So you haven’t lost weight, but you’ve hit 3 PRs (Personal Records) in the gym this week! FU*K YES! Or maybe you’ve gained weight, but you’re looking in the mirror and your stomach is looking flatter?! CELEBRATION!!! Don’t always think about the number on the scale- as cliche as that sounds. Take into consideration other things that are the result of your hard work and flexible dieting: how you feel, how you perform, what your friends are saying about how you look, etc… Take those WINS and celebrate!

DON’Ts

1. Don’t enter foods into My Fitness Pal that have trace amounts or 0 macro properties – For example, black coffee has 0 carbs, 0 fats, and 0 proteins according to MFP. So even though it’s 5 calories, it has no macro value and is therefore a waste of time to enter. Simply enter in the sugar and cream (if you do that)! Of course, you CAN add it if you WANT TO, but I tend to leave it out just because it won’t matter in the big scheme of things for me.
2. Don’t enter in your exercise to MFP – Adding exercise to MFP will add extra calories into your daily allotted calories which will change the number of macros you are allowed to eat (according to MFP). Remember the point of macro tracking is the hit the SAME numbers every day. If you enter in your exercise, you end up throwing those numbers off.
3. Don’t worry about total calories – Total calories is something to NOT worry about when tracking your macros. Theoretically, it should all even out and if you hit your macro numbers, your calories SHOULD read 0 by the end of the day, but sometimes it doesn’t. THAT’S OKAY. It’s okay for you to be under or over your calories, so long as you are hitting your macros. SO- IGNORE THE CALORIES (When did you ever think you could say THAT?!)
4. Don’t be too hard on yourself – Yes, it’s important to hit your numbers, but life happens. Take it all in stride and know that it’s not the end of the world to have a bad eating day. Flexible dieting is wonderful because it’s something you can end up doing for a lifetime, so one bad day among a lifetime of eating? NO BIG DEAL. Get back at it the next day… or maybe the day after… :)

Email me with questions as you have them! Coming soon: FAQs!

Interested in joining the next group? Email me! eaticecreamgetabs@gmail.com You should have a response within 1-2 days :)

ONE BAD DAY AIN'T NO THANG

I was talking with a friend of mine who’s also giving this whole flexible dieting thing a “go” and she was telling me how she was feeling a bit discouraged lately.

“This weekend was hard for me and I want to get back at it. I need to lose this dang weight. I’m so tired of being fat.”

I think we can all relate to this statement in some way or another. At some point, we’ve all felt like our nutrition wasn’t top notch, or our food choices were poor. How many times have we said to ourselves before, “I REALLY shouldn’t have eaten that…” Or “Ugh, I ate WAY too much…” Or even more recently, how many times have we been down on ourselves about our macros? “I SO did NOT hit my macros today!!”

It’s important to remember that bad days happen. While they can seem like they set us back by a mile or more, they happen. BUT at the same time, here’s another way to think about the whole concept of a new diet:

One day of good eating isn’t good enough to get you the results you want, right?  Well the same goes for bad days- one bad day of eating isn’t good enough to set you back. Whether you are eating right or eating poorly, your outcome is always going to be the result of time and consistency. Do you spend more time eating well? Or do you spend more time eating poorly?

On weekends, I tend to be looser with my macros sometimes and what keeps me feeling guilt-free is the fact that one or two messed up days aren’t going to set me back. On that same note however, one day of eating my macros down to the last gram won’t make me meet my goals either. Meeting my goals takes TIME and CONSISTENCY.

Time and consistency are the 2 things to keep in mind as you continue to follow a flexible diet. As long as you have these 2 things in mind, you can rest assured that you are at least always heading in the right direction.

TIME AND CONSISTENCY!!

HATERS GON' HATE

Yep… the second some of your friends see you bring out the food scale to measure that brownie you’re about to eat, you’re going to hear it.

“Dude, just eat the stupid brownie.”

“Uh…what. are. you doing.”

“Seriously? Why are you even weighing that? It’s not going to matter.”

“I can’t believe you even do that. I could never live like that.”

You’re going to hear it all. People who don’t understand your goals, ambitions, and priorities will NOT understand why you and your food scale have become BFFs. In all honesty, though, what they think shouldn’t matter… but you already knew that :)

What I’ve found to help me stay focused and successful with flexible dieting (other than not caring what people think about my food scale) is to surround myself with a good and healthy support system. You want to be around people that will lift you up and not bash you when you’re carefully pouring half and half into your coffee one tablespoon at a time. The last thing you want to hear when you’re trying something new and different is, “(eye roll) Really?” People who say those things are going to bring you down and make you more likely to make poor choices. Eyes on the prize, people!

I have had countless evenings of coming home, too tired from work and the gym, to prepare a meal on top of figuring out how many macros I had left to eat for the day. Luckily, my support system at home is just that – SUPPORTIVE- and encourages me to get my ass off the couch and helps me prepare a meal that fits my macros. During those times, I could easily say, “Fu*k it, I’m just going to heat up whatever’s left over in the fridge,” but I don’t. My support system could easily say the same thing to avoid dealing with me whining about my stupid macros, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t because he is supportive- and I encourage you to surround yourself with those people: positive, supportive, and healthy people.

If you have to, let your friends or family members know that this is important to you! It sounds cheesy, but seriously, you want to create an environment around yourself that is conducive to a successful flexible diet. Another way to create a good support system is to let them join you!! Have kids? Let them weigh their food; let them practice making good food choices! There are just countless ways to find good supports in all aspects of our lives.

So… let them roll their eyes and laugh. Let them call you insane. But when you’re chillin’ and relaxin’ with your ice cream and abs, they’ll probably end up asking you how you did it :)