The mirror can be harsh. Tracking our actions provides a mirror into the self that few of us want access to.
Isn't it uncomfortable to know that you are unable to follow very basic commitments that you made to yourself?
If you can't even follow your own orders and do what is right for your health and fitness, how on earth can you expect a functioning society?!
Stepping back from the prism of social chaos, I want you to ask yourself if you can actually handle the truth about your nutrition, exercise, and overall lifestyle.
Where is this coming from?!
We have many clients who adopt a tracking-focused approach to nutrition (e.g. using MyFitnessPal or similar apps to quantify their intake). One thing that comes up very often is a day or two per week where the tracking documentation we use with clients is blank. When we probe a little further, the client often lets us know that they "slipped up" and didn't want to track.
What's going on here?
It is much easier to ignore the truth of your errors than to face it, even though facing it allows you to make better decisions and thus progress. We don't always do what's best for our future, as we would rather feel better about ourselves in the moment and avoid the pain of that mirror.
Depending on the client, I often encourage facing that dragon head on. For example, if one of my clients has a "slip up" where they had a feed of pizza, ice cream, and a few beers, I will often ask them to track it anyway. This allows them to actually gain knowledge that helps them in future, rather than just trying to minimise feelings of discomfort.
This may result in some discomfort in the short term, as they can now see that one night of indulgence led to them "undoing" the calorie deficit that had accumulated over the week, but it also allows us to create solutions. For example, rather than blindly assuming results are off the table now, the discussion may go as follows:
Client: "I f*&ked it. Don't know how much I ate, but know my results are gone now, feel awful, 8 weeks of work ruined!"
*following active tracking*
Coach: "Okay, so you went over your maintenance by ~1400 calories. This is the equivalent of a 200 calorie surplus per day across the week, but you had already been in a weekly deficit of ~700 based on the beginning of the week, so your net surplus is ~100 per day. This equates to about 0.2kg of body fat gained, which you had been losing every 2-3 days up to this point. Therefore, you should be back to where you were within the next couple of
days. Does that make you feel a bit better?"
Client: "Okay. It doesn't feel so bad now."
Being objective with yourself may mean a little discomfort in the short term, but as you can see, with proper guidance on how to use the knowledge generated, it can mean a net reduction in discomfort and a solution-focused approach.
