Macros tracking in Iceland
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Trying to change body composition when you get to a certain age.
I have been struggling to lose some weight for quite a while now - it seems like once I hit 60 that my metabolism decided it was going to do its own thing no matter what I did. I talked about it a bit in this blog post (The Stories We Tell Ourselves).
It’s been frustrating as exercise and cutting out certain things hasn’t made a bit of difference. I’ve also noticed that my energy level has been low and I haven’t seemed to be as keen to be active as I usually am.
Weighing food for macros counting.
A good friend of mine suggested that I listen to her new favourite podcast - Biceps After Babies Radio (link to podcast) which is about altering body composition by tracking macros (protein, carbs, fats, calories and fibre) and also doing progressive overload weight training. I liked the approach and decided to sign up for Macros 101 which is an 8 week program to guide you through not only figuring out your macros, but also some really great reflections about setting goals, developing an action plan and also mental barriers to being successful. I really liked the integration of the mental work along with the macro scientist piece (data driven decision making).
I’ve been following the program for over 8 weeks and one of the first things I identified was that I was sadly lacking in protein - I was averaging 60g/day which is low. I am now up at 140 g/day and feeling stronger and more alert and active. I’ve gotten into a good routine and although my goal was not to lose weight but to find my maintenance level and revitalize my metabolism, I have been slowly losing weight while retaining the muscle that I’ve been building with my strength training.
This sort of blows my mind as I’m eating more food now than since before I can remember and I’m feeling energized and actually changing my body shape (good bye back rolls!).
Headed to Iceland
Well everything was going swimmingly until I saw the date of my trip to Iceland fast approaching. I started to feel very uncertain about my ability to keep up the good habits I had been acquiring during the first 5 weeks of following this program.
One of the benefits of Macros 101 is the access to coaches to help you work through challenges or problems. I expressed my concerns with the upcoming trip as I didn’t want to slide back and lose all the ground that I had gained during the first 5 weeks, but I also didn’t want to be so focused on food that I missed the whole essence of the trip. I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
Travel food stores for Iceland.
Through some really good coaching and encouragement to develop a plan that started by focusing on how I wanted to feel coming out of this trip (i.e., excited about capturing some amazing photographic moments and connecting with fellow photographers as well as enjoying my time in Iceland) I found that my feelings of overwhelm started to calm down.
In addition to how I wanted to feel, I started to work on things that I could do to help achieve my food goals during the trip. I felt that it might be a challenge to get in all of my protein, so I packed low sugar protein bars (they pack 20 g of protein each) and herbal tea which I enjoy rather than coffee.
I made a commitment to myself that I would still track all of my food (I use an app called “Lose It “ to do this which makes it really easy with bar code scanning capabilities). I also decided that I would focus on hitting my daily calories and protein levels and not worry about hitting carb or fat targets. This turned out to be a really good strategy as the days were really long and we didn’t stop for lunch (kind of a snack as you go approach) and sometimes dinner didn’t happen until after 9 pm.
Relationship with food on vacation
Beautiful landscapes of glaciers and mountains in Iceland.
I find myself to be an all or nothing kind of person. If I commit to something I tend to be all in and when I decide I’m done - I’m done! I think some of this comes from my perfectionist tendencies and it certainly shows up in my relationship to food.
I’m good at eating healthy and I will make all sorts of things from scratch so as to avoid processed foods, but every once in a while I just say enough! That’s when the binging on anything I can see occurs. All sorts of things can trigger a binging episode - yes I’m definitely an emotional eater. I eat to celebrate - I eat when I’m depressed and I eat when I’m bored.
Recognizing and admitting that I don’t have the healthiest relationship with food has been a big deal (yes I’m also a closet eater).
I was determined that this vacation was going to be different - I wasn’t going to throw out all of my hard work and just say I’m on vacation so anything goes and then regret it when I got home.
One of the key things that I did on this trip was to be flexible about my eating - I didn’t restrict myself, however I did commit to eating good sources of protein (mostly fish which I enjoy). Committing to track all my food also helped me to stay on course while I focused on enjoying the landscape and photography.
Being Intentional and Good Decisions
One of the things that I have been practicing is to be intentional about making decisions. This applies to food choices as well as anything else. Our brains are amazing organs and they like rewards - even small insignificant seeming ones. As soon as we start to be negative or restrictive our brains kick into high gear and want that something more than anything.
Skyr - high protein snack.
Being intentional means identifying the driving forces for a decision and then weighing the pros and cons of each option before making an informed and intentional decision. For example, one evening after a particularly long and mentally exhausting day we stopped at the only restaurant that was still serving dinner at 9 pm - the local pub with pub style food. I was tired and hungry and I hadn’t consumed nearly enough food that day, so I made the informed and intentional decision to have fish and chips for dinner. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and I didn’t regret making that call.
I have come to realize that indulging in a favourite or less healthy food occasionally is not going to throw off weeks of focused success. Making this mind shift is a big deal for me - remember the all or nothing piece.
I did score a new treat idea when our tour leader introduced us to Skyr a local delicacy similar to greek yogurt - high in protein and pretty low in calories. This became my staple lunchtime snack along with a protein bar and some fruit.
How to measure success - the gap versus the gain
I have been working on the mental side of reaching my goal of getting stronger and changing up my body composition (i.e., lose fat and gain muscle) as this is key for sustainable habit changes.
One thing that I’ve realized is that how we set goals and measure our progress against them can have a profound impact on our success rate. Far too often we set a goal and after making some progress we measure where we are at versus the goal - this is called the Gap because we are rarely at our goal and in fact we often shift our goal as we get closer to it. Mentally this is a very negative approach - remember that the brain likes rewards and positive reinforcement to keep motivated.
In contrast consider setting a goal and making some progress - but measuring that progress against your starting point rather than the end goal. You will always see progress as you move forward and it is that positive reinforcement and reward that will keep you motivated to continue.
Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy wrote about this in their book The Gap versus the Gain and I would highly recommend this read. It has really changed the way I frame goals and measure my progress.
If you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack. Being in the GAIN means you measure yourself backward, against where you were before.
Landscape photography is out of my comfort zone, but living in the gain helps me to continue to improve. (image credit - Paul Sansome)
Landscape photography is definitely outside of my comfort zone (as is standing on cliff edges photographing Fulmars flying back and forth), but living in the gain and measuring my progress from where I started rather than living in the gap of what an ideal landscape photographer looks like, keeps me motivated to continue to practice and learn and grow.
The benefit is that I have noticed an improvement in the compositions of my wildlife photography because I’m slowing down and being more intentional about what I include and even more importantly what I exclude from the frame.
Debrief - so how did I do?
Well I quickly recognized that with the very busy schedule of the trip that my strategy of tracking food and focusing on calories and protein was a good decision. There were days that I wasn’t even able to do more than track and that was ok - it kept me accountable and provided data for me to use when I got home.
By the end of the trip I was feeling really proud of myself for not binging and for focusing on the purpose of the trip - connection with fellow photographers and capturing amazing moments from the various locations we visited. I felt that I did both of these things very well.
I felt proud of the fact that I followed my strategy and even found local foods that aligned well with my goals (score for Skyr!). I also felt proud of the fact that I did not make the trip all about food - there was so much more to enjoy in Iceland.
When I got home and did my check in measurements and weight I was really happy to have stayed the same as I was before my trip. This has given me the confidence to know that I can handle being out of my comfort zone and regular routine without throwing in the towel - maybe the All or Nothing Woman’s mentality is shifting.
How do you handle getting out of your normal routine? Do you just not worry about it and go with the flow or do you have strategies that you employ to try and stay the course? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or feel free to send me a direct message.
Small iceberg reflecting in the still waters of the Glacier Lagoon.
I hope you’ll come back soon, share a cuppa, relax and enjoy more of my musings.
