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S1 E 13 To Track or not to Track?
88 Plays2 years ago
Is tracking your food helpful, harmful, and/or healthful?
If you are someone working towards trusting themselves more with a history of tracking food and having a hard time letting go of it, someone who finds tracking food confusing and stressful, someone applying intuitive eating principles and curious if tracking can help at all with health, or someone curious about the actual benefits or necessities with tracking food - this is for YOU.
Today I am going into the ins and outs of tracking, what most people skip or miss when tracking their food, how to utilize this tool in a productive fashion, and when to know if it is not the right choice for you.
Come come, lets get into it.
theresemartinezrd.com
Nothing you hear on the Eating Between the Lines Podcast should be taken as medical advice. Please consult your physician before making changes.
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Transcript
Welcome and Podcast Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Eating Between the Lines.
00:00:05
Speaker
I am your host, Therese Martinez, and I am so happy to have you here. If you want to untangle yourself from diet culture conditioning and get appropriate actionable options to nourish your unique life and body, I'm going to dive deep into the nuanced spectrum of health to help you figure out what to prioritize in your journey without getting trapped in the extreme ideology of health optimization or total complacency.
00:00:32
Speaker
I am here to help you apply the science effectively, not rigidly, and get you feeling better in your body and mind. Here is how to eat between the lines.
Understanding Food Tracking
00:00:47
Speaker
Hey, welcome back to another episode of eating between the lines. I am your host, Teresa Martinez. I am really excited to dive into today's topic. You guys, this is a conversation I have multiple times a day, every single day, working with clients and patients, really figuring out the benefits and the reasons around tracking food.
00:01:15
Speaker
So if you are someone who has tracked food before with mixed feelings about it, maybe you're shifting into a more intuitive eating lifestyle, but you have tracked previously and unsure how to come away from that or kind of interested in looking at your, your intake more, but you don't want to trigger anything
00:01:40
Speaker
in the disordered eating realm. Maybe you are thinking about it to see if it helps with your health or if you are feeling a little defeated around tracking for other reasons, but feel like you should, or just not really sure. This episode is for you. I wanted to talk about this topic largely because I want y'all to understand this on a deeper level beyond the numbers.
00:02:08
Speaker
I want to paint the picture for folks why and how I see this work or not work for individuals. Go over the pros and cons, maybe hybrid options, and also touch on some alternatives down the line. I've seen a lot of clients do tracking over the years, whether they come and see me after years of tracking or they start looking at their own food a bit while we work together.
Pros and Cons of Food Tracking
00:02:39
Speaker
tracking your intake is a tool. It is a tool that can
00:02:45
Speaker
lead to improved dietary habits. It can also have many negative side effects when not utilized appropriately and or when used by vulnerable populations. Now this is not just eating disorder related populations either. There can be folks that are just vulnerable to having obsessive tendencies around intake and health and optimization and wellness.
00:03:13
Speaker
I've seen that a ton. So there can be this process of honestly learning how to vet yourself to see if something like this is appropriate. And so.
00:03:24
Speaker
Conversations today is going to help a person understand questions to ask themselves and maybe who to talk to to see if it is something that may benefit them or harm them. I am personally not a fan of knowing every single thing that goes into my mouth. I have a history of eating disorder behavior.
00:03:46
Speaker
And I also have a very good idea around what foods taste great that also make me feel great.
00:03:56
Speaker
provide appropriate nutrition and support appropriate patterns of intake. This is a process I have been working on for a long time to get to know myself and my body's needs and what makes me feel my best. It is a process that I have really had to work on to not get really obsessive again with my food intake.
00:04:22
Speaker
I have developed a way to figure that out for my own self. And it's also a process that I take a lot of clients through every day, really trying to understand their own self and how to step away from rigid tracking and get back into their bodies a little bit more, which will kind of go into.
00:04:43
Speaker
Now I say that not to say by any means that I am anti tracking. I also have clients that track their food. I just know that for me and many treading that line is dangerous. And when there are things laid out for me that I must follow and have to hit and, you know, need to, in order to achieve X, Y, or Z health, aesthetics, what have you.
00:05:13
Speaker
It gets problematic and I lose touch with my own self. So I do not think it is essential to see results to track and it is extremely important to know thyself and or get help vetting yourself on the appropriate use of this tool.
Personalizing Food Tracking Strategies
00:05:31
Speaker
So should you track your food? Well, first, what works best for you is what helps you create the most beneficial, consistent patterns over time, potentially possibly, especially in a way that matches your physical and mental health goals. Patterns are everything.
00:05:54
Speaker
So we'll get into how tracking can help or harm patterns, but it's really important for you to understand that that is often the biggest goal, right? When a person's trying to create consistent eating patterns and that are sustainable, long-term benefits. How is this helping a person in that regard? That's something I'm also going to be talking about a lot and what I probably refer to the most due to the fact that
00:06:22
Speaker
many people I meet with that come to see me are interested in sustainable, healthy changes.
00:06:31
Speaker
And so I like to always bring it back to patterns. So what is tracking? So when I'm referring to tracking your food, I am talking about utilizing apps primarily. I guess you could do it just free-handedly, but apps are often a little more helpful, but tracking calories and macronutrients
00:06:57
Speaker
And sometimes micronutrients. I think that there are a lot more apps these days that are tracking more micronutrients, which I am very excited about. I probably see the most people using apps that just track calories and macronutrients though.
00:07:15
Speaker
So macronutrients would be protein, fat, carbohydrates, sometimes fiber. So you kind of plug and play, right? So you consume a food, you put it into the app and then the app pops out the amount of calories and the amount of macronutrients that that food contains. And so, and sometimes micronutrients. So.
00:07:37
Speaker
I approach working with patients kind of showing painting this picture, right? Like our bodies have umbrella needs for energy. So energy is kind of synonymous with calories. So we have caloric and energetic needs, big umbrella. Okay.
00:07:56
Speaker
This is based off of a handful of variables. We also have umbrella needs for nutrients. So I kind of consider like, I don't know, a visual, like a big umbrella, and then underneath the energy calorie umbrella comes macro nutrient needs.
00:08:13
Speaker
And that's protein fat carbohydrates. And then underneath the macronutrients are micronutrients. So micronutrient needs are vitamins, minerals, fiber is a little bit of a hybrid, a macronutrient, micronutrient, but ultimately everybody is different with what their needs are, how much they need to consume to feel their best and what they need to consume to ultimately get to goals that they're trying to achieve.
00:08:42
Speaker
Whether it's, you know, improving lab markers, energetics, performance, feeling just more capable, able, lighter in their body, all of those things. And so the assessment for needs is relatively complex.
00:09:00
Speaker
However, many of these apps utilize formulas. So there's a couple of different ways that you can utilize tracking apps.
Challenges with Tracking Apps
00:09:10
Speaker
So if you do it so low, generally like an app like my fitness pal, you put in certain metrics. So we have height, weight, gender, age, a lot of times it's weight oriented. So if you want to lose a certain amount of weight or gain a certain amount of weight and X amount of time,
00:09:30
Speaker
Those are all things that the formula considers when you put it in. Additionally, your activity level. So it's kind of a plug and play situation. So it takes that information and it throws out a number for you in terms of calories to consume.
00:09:49
Speaker
And then it can also throw out macronutrient recommendations and you can manipulate what these recommendations are, but a lot of people don't really know how to manipulate them or why unless they get more professional help. So limitations with that is somewhat, well, I think a little bit obvious. It's formulaic, right? So this doesn't know you.
00:10:15
Speaker
And if you understand the complexity of the human body, you can have an idea that putting your metrics into a formula to that will pop out a number for you to follow that is supposed to correlate with your.
00:10:30
Speaker
energetic needs is kind of hard to believe that that would really be super accurate, right? Things that affect our energetic needs include essentially looking at our metabolism, which is multifaceted, but we basically have a basal metabolic rate. So the amount of energy that we burn just by existing in this world.
00:10:57
Speaker
for our organs to function, our immune system to work, all of these things that our body does just by being in this body. And then we have other influences of energy expenditure that are needed to be taken into consideration, like the thermal effect of food. So when you consume food, you actually do also expend energy. You also have
00:11:24
Speaker
Um, daily movement. So that can be anything just from fidgeting to also intentional exercise and, you know, considerations around the gym, walking, hiking, anything like that. And so sometimes these formulas can get in a rough ballpark, but gosh, I can't tell you how many times I have seen what.
00:11:48
Speaker
certain apps recommend for individuals and know that they are just so far off. I mean, think about it with those metrics with age, height, weight, gender. Can you really like believe that people with all of those same numbers will need the same amount of food and the same amount of macronutrients? So it obviously doesn't really equate that well when you are just using the apps, right? So.
00:12:18
Speaker
That's a consideration. Um, but the other thing too, that I always like to point out without professional guidance here is that when you are, if you're plugging in numbers to lose weight, they will usually just utilize 3,500 calories. Cause that equates to a pound.
00:12:37
Speaker
and then spread that out over the course of seven days. And however many pounds you want to lose in X amount of time, they'll subtract the, that amount per per day. So a person can end up being in an extremely high caloric deficit when it is not actually that appropriate for them. Now I again believe that there is a lot of advancement in many apps, but I just like to
00:13:02
Speaker
tread lightly and cautiously when people are following these things so rigidly. So that is in a nutshell what tracking is, okay? Recording your food intake into these apps that give recommendations for weight loss, weight gain, or maintenance, and just considering calories and then some bits of macronutrients.
Benefits of Tracking for Nutritional Planning
00:13:28
Speaker
So I want to go over some of the benefits here. I think that this is actually really, really important to acknowledge. I mean, if tracking your food was all nonsense and didn't have, you know, pros to it, then so many people would not utilize it, right? So I find that the benefits are really coming down to a few different main points.
00:13:58
Speaker
So balancing macronutrients and honing in your calories can often create more structure, better ratios, and ensure improved intake. Meaning if I am eating really sporadically, if I am not very intentional with the balance of balance of my plate or my meals,
00:14:21
Speaker
in terms of how much protein fat and carbohydrates I'm having, or if I'm even having any protein in my meals or the types of
00:14:29
Speaker
carbohydrates and fats in my meals. I will likely not be getting the results that I'm wanting to get, right? My energy patterns are going to be off. I may feel like I'm having more cravings. I might have a lot of intake in the evening and that might lead to other consequences the next morning for me that then again translate to patterns of intake that are unfavorable. So ultimately when we can have something to follow,
00:14:58
Speaker
And it kind of gives us a guideline of consistency. A lot of times we just naturally find a little bit more regulation with our hunger and our energetics and our performance and honing in.
00:15:13
Speaker
those things can be super beneficial, right? Then naturally we also may find benefit with our aesthetics as well, depending on whatever that means to you. And so that is why generally a lot of people like to follow the macronutrient based approach.
00:15:31
Speaker
So other things to consider, right? If I am needing to hit a certain amount of carbohydrates, fats, and protein in a day, I will probably kind of balance that out throughout the day. Well, balancing intake with macronutrients can lead to balanced blood sugars, regulate hunger cues,
00:15:52
Speaker
you know, prevent those crashes and cravings, like I mentioned. So again, we just have this natural regulation because we're balancing our meals more intentionally, right? Creating intentionality and being proactive with our nutrition can help immensely versus being reactive and impulsive, right? So it kind of gives us this, um, this structure.
00:16:20
Speaker
And so I think that that's huge. It's huge. If you remember this analogy in a previous podcast, if you've listened to, um, Oh, I'm going to forget which one I talked about this in, but this is all about, I think it was in the patterns. And when we were thinking about macro nutrients and micronutrients.
00:16:42
Speaker
I love this analogy. So macronutrients are like the coaches on a team. So they're the ones really calling the shots, the plays, they're determining who's in, who's out, right? So similarly in the body, if we get our macronutrients honed in to a degree that's a little bit more beneficial for us, we now have benefits of
00:17:07
Speaker
better regulation of eating patterns, right? Cause it has the better balanced blood sugar, regulation of hunger cues, prove satiety, generally more appropriate intake overall in a caloric realm. And so then the micronutrients though, are the players on the team. So they're the ones that are actually executing the plays.
00:17:30
Speaker
We'll get into micronutrients a little bit more in actually the next episode, but also really important to understand their influence when we're thinking about tracking as well. Because if you think about being like players on a team, they've got injuries and there's substitutions and they're
00:17:52
Speaker
You know, it was poor communication. Those are going to impact the efficacy of the plays being called by the coaches, right? So we want to make sure that players are healthy and that the communication is on point. Similarly with micronutrients, we need to make sure we are prioritizing an appropriate intake with micronutrients as well.
00:18:18
Speaker
And so again, with that intentionality and oftentimes when people get more intentional around tracking their food and macronutrients, they just get more aware around the quality of the food they're consuming, which can translate to increasing
00:18:35
Speaker
micronutrient intake, which also has a downstream effect with improving health overall, right? So definite benefits when we're thinking about it in that regard. So, um, reasons why people may want to track their food beyond all of those benefits we've already kind of talked about, but ultimately looking at folks that just don't trust their own body's natural hunger cues.
00:19:03
Speaker
Right. They don't believe that their body will kind of communicate with them when they're hungry, when they need to stop eating, what's appropriate to eat, you know, how much all of that. And so tracking can just help naturally regulate that intake. It can also be really beneficial for folks that are training for performance based activities that need to really make sure that they're consuming sufficient
00:19:33
Speaker
uh, calories and, um, inappropriate macronutrients and micronutrients. So that can also be beneficial. The limitations. So I've noted a couple already, but this is, this is where I, I just really, really like people to understand.
00:19:54
Speaker
how this may be more compromising than not to their health. So with the, like my fitness pal recommendations, you know, the calorie recommendations are limited because it's formulaic.
Pitfalls of Calorie and Macronutrient Focus
00:20:08
Speaker
It does not know you.
00:20:10
Speaker
The nutrient recommendations are limited because they're going off macronutrients and they're not considering micronutrients. Many, many apps are not. Again, I don't know all of the apps out there. If you have actually an app to recommend to me, I would love to hear it because I do think that these can be tools. Overall, you know, if we're looking at calories and doing a plug and play recommendation, it's just, it's
00:20:37
Speaker
It has potential to be really like under or over what a person's current intake is. And to just take something that's a recommendation and start following it can be problematic. You know, if you are consuming, if you're regularly consuming, I don't know, like 2000 calories a day, and in order to be in your, your calorie caloric deficit,
00:21:03
Speaker
to lose however many pounds a week you are wanting to, it might put you down to like 1300 calories because it's a formula. And that is not going to be beneficial, right? I really, with all of my patients and clients, I like to do something called titrating. So I see what your current intake is and we move out from there. We manipulate.
00:21:32
Speaker
We connect the dots from whatever intervention and manipulation we make, meaning say, you know, we add a little bit of volume to breakfast, or maybe we change some of the macronutrients at breakfast. And then we see what happens. We see what happens to your hunger. We see what happens to nighttime eating. We see what happens to your satiation throughout the day, your energy throughout the day, how you feel in your body. And then we continue to titrate out from there. We see what works.
00:22:02
Speaker
and how it works and how to continue manipulation from there, right? So that doesn't mean we can't record food, but if you take recommendations from something like MyFitnessPal and just plug and play and try to apply it, that's going to be potentially problematic.
00:22:23
Speaker
Similarly, if it gives you recommendations to hit certain macronutrient numbers that require knowledge on where to get those macronutrients, then you do not know where to find them, how to apply them, what like
00:22:40
Speaker
35 grams of protein looks like what 40 grams of carbs looks like. That's also going to be really hard. And so you may just resort to other foods that have food labels, you know, packaged foods that again may not be super nutrient dense, but I might have you hit the macros.
00:23:00
Speaker
There's just because you want to hit the macronutrients. I see this all the time. People like pounding like 17 protein shakes a day and eating protein bars and just like trying to get all of this protein in because of this super high recommendation or the fact that they don't know how else to get protein. And they're missing the bigger picture of like the quality of the food that actually kind of matters too. And.
00:23:29
Speaker
finding ways to increase overall nutrient intake and not just focus on just hitting the macronutrients. So really, really important to kind of get that personalized touch from someone that can meet you where you're at with your lifestyle knowledge and skills when it comes to being able to hit certain numbers and work on the education component.
00:23:56
Speaker
you know, I kind of like to think it's like getting a meal plan or something with ingredients that are foreign to you. Nothing makes sense for your time, right? I feel like we've all, well, I don't know, many people that I have worked with and myself included, I will be really excited to get a meal plan previously, historically speaking, and I will look at it and be like, okay, I get that this is all healthy and I get that this is like,
00:24:23
Speaker
hits protein and fiber and probably a caloric range that I need. And there's no way I'm going to be able to make this. This does not make any sense. Or a person will get that and be like, OK, this is what I have to do to be healthy. This is the food that I need to eat to be healthy. And I have to spend this much time prepping. And I have to do this and that that are ultimately really overwhelming. And 180 degrees difference from what they were used to.
00:24:51
Speaker
consuming and, you know, prepping planning or not at all. And so it just makes it so much more challenging to actually feel motivated to have that last. And then also once you're done with the meal plan, then what happens, right? You need to figure out how to build
00:25:12
Speaker
upon your database of options, see what works for you, what fits your lifestyle and that's, that's feasible for you and move out from there. So a potential other limitation in that regard as well.
00:25:29
Speaker
So I like to kind of think also as another analogy, I feel like these are just nice little visuals, right? And I think this is one that I see often with macronutrient tracking, calorie tracking, this visual of following, like putting a destination into your GPS and following MapQuest or Google maps.
00:25:53
Speaker
And saying, Hey, I want to get here. So maybe that kid with the analogy be like a state of health, right? Maybe it's a feeling of feeling better in your body. What have you. And you put it in and you start following the directions and it's like, okay, turn left here, go right here. And you're just kind of blindly following these directions.
00:26:19
Speaker
I don't know if any of you have seen that episode of the office where Michael does this, but you know, where it's like, all right, turn left. And he starts to turn left and Dwight's like, no, Michael, no, that's a lake. And he's like, but it said to turn left. And so it's like this, it's like following something so blindly just because it's saying to do it and not really understanding how you're getting there, what you're doing, why you're doing it.
00:26:46
Speaker
and all of that and then you get to the destination maybe so I think of this like if you're following a diet or something right like you're following a meal plan you're following a diet and you're finally like I don't know at a state of health that you are wanting to be in or maybe aesthetics or whatever it is and
00:27:08
Speaker
You kind of look back and you're like, okay, how did I get here? Like, do I want to continue doing that? That didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. I don't really know how to repeat this without say that said meal plan. I don't know how to go back through because I wasn't really paying attention and I don't really know why I was doing what I was doing. And so.
00:27:31
Speaker
With nutrition changes, with these behavioral changes, having that intentionality is so important. Having the awareness of what your body is doing, how it's responding to interventions and changes, connecting those dots.
00:27:48
Speaker
is wildly important for you to actually have that sustained, that success and be able to repeat it, develop the lifestyle and identity of the individual that can keep those habits and behaviors so that you can continue to maintain that state of health or, you know, the goal that you're looking for.
00:28:11
Speaker
And so it is a huge disadvantage following a macronutrient or calorie approach because of how it can potentially disconnect you from your body. You know, um, I find that it's, it's so challenging for folks to
00:28:33
Speaker
Step away from the rigidity, you know, I mean, if say like you are following something like a, like, I don't know, a protein intake for the day. And according to what you recorded, you actually.
00:28:49
Speaker
You know, you fell short of what you needed to consume, but you're not actually hungry. So I see people that force feed themselves to like get to their numbers, or I have people that are so hungry, but feel like they shouldn't eat because they already hit their numbers.
00:29:07
Speaker
To me, that's just so stressful. A, but B, just like a total feeder into the issues with body trust to begin with.
Emotional Impact of Tracking Goals
00:29:20
Speaker
And so that's probably, I don't know, one of my biggest frustrations with it is like how attached people get to following these numbers so rigidly, even when their body is communicating something so very different in terms of needs.
00:29:36
Speaker
Uh, another, um, limitation too, is that, you know, when, when numbers aren't hit that it can lead to this feeling of failure and guilt, you know, it feeds that cycle of not being able to attain quote unquote health. It's like that meal plan. If the meal plan is like what health looks like and none of the food looks good to you, none of it makes sense for your lifestyle.
00:30:03
Speaker
It takes too much time. There's too much prep, whatever it is. And then you feel like you can't do it. Now you have a narrative that you can't be healthy, right? You can't do what it takes to be healthy. And that's inaccurate. It's just utilizing one thing and thinking that that's the way the truth and the light to wellness, right?
00:30:32
Speaker
And it's not the case. It is not the case.
00:30:36
Speaker
Uh, the last one to note is that it is like very tedious and time consuming and taxing to record every single thing that goes into your mouth. So many times it's not even that accurate, right? People get kind of lazy with recording and then they get, they feel guilty when they don't hit their numbers appropriately, or then they start justifying things because they have so much estimation going on.
00:31:07
Speaker
then becomes a tool that isn't even very beneficial in that regard. So I find that that's also really helpful to understand and kind of like why even continue to do it then, right?
Alternative Methods to Food Tracking
00:31:21
Speaker
So what do we do with all of this information, right? Kind of understanding the benefits, understanding the limitations of tracking your food. I like to provide an alternative. So,
00:31:31
Speaker
And so it just it
00:31:36
Speaker
I like to have patients and clients take food photos. So this is something that you can do and use with a practitioner or another professional. Why this is so helpful is because it literally paints the picture of your intake. You can see your food, you can see the distribution of the different components in your meal. You can see colors, you can see diversity, you can see the volume of
00:32:05
Speaker
certain components. And what that does is it already kick-starts the ability to start the educational process of this food and this amount that makes me feel this way. And so we start to learn that visually and then we can take that more long-term versus
00:32:33
Speaker
Again, that MapQuest example, like I see this, if folks are eating a breakfast with 30 grams of protein and they just plug it into my fitness pal and they're like, all right, 30 grams of protein, cool. But they don't really take the time to look at their plate, look at their bowl, look at their dish and be like.
00:32:49
Speaker
Oh, that's what 30 grams of protein looks like. Okay. Okay. Um, okay. And then how does that make me feel? What is my energy like after I consumed that? Does that change my patterns throughout the day, my trends overall throughout the week?
00:33:03
Speaker
Those are super important to take note of. If we're trying to come away from always and forever tracking and obsessing over our food, we get to know our bodies more. It's what I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, right? I have developed that skillset to really know what volume of food makes me feel the most satisfied.
00:33:23
Speaker
and what the components of meals are that help me feel that way and also recognize when I know I won't feel very good and still making the educated decision to have the food. It's being proactive and intentional versus reactive and impulsive.
00:33:42
Speaker
I'm not getting to the destination and being like, how the heck did I get here? I know exactly how I got there, whether it's in favor or not for like, you know, appropriate satiation and energetic patterns. I use this example a lot with clients talking about having a cheese bagel in the morning.
00:34:01
Speaker
Like, you know, sometimes I want a cheese bagel and it's not perfectly balanced. And I know that, and I still might want to have it because I am kind of craving it. And I feel like it's going to satisfy me in a different kind of way than what my maybe normal breakfast would, but I can think, okay, hold on. Am I going to be recording a podcast, maybe in an hour or two, or do I have something else really mentally demanding?
00:34:29
Speaker
otherwise in like this morning.
00:34:31
Speaker
And if I do, I know that having a bagel might not really sustain my energy for very long. And so either I can plan to have a snack in an hour or two to kind of boost that energy up, or maybe I say, yeah, okay. When I have half the bagel and maybe add some protein, make it a little bit more balanced and a little bit more satisfying. Or I say, Oh, okay. I know I want the bagel. And I think that this other option is just going to be a little bit more in favor for my, you know, mental
00:35:01
Speaker
performance in an hour or two. Cool. That's intention. That's being proactive. That's not being on the other side, recording my podcast and being like, I am exhausted and tired and brain foggy. And this is so upsetting and then pounding coffee to feel better and not knowing how I got there. Right. So.
00:35:24
Speaker
Pictures can be super helpful. So where, where do we really go from here? My, my curiosity with tracking while fully recognizing the benefits and definitely not like poo pooing on it entirely, but really seeing a lot of like disorder and struggle when it comes to the rigidity of it and the flaws and the recommendations in the first
Improving Relationship with Food
00:35:46
Speaker
place. My question is like, where did we lose the trust in our bodies? You know, can.
00:35:53
Speaker
Can we build it back? Can we heal our bodies to improve hunger signaling? Can we heal our relationship with food to create connection to our bodies again? Can we really learn how to connect the dots so that we don't have to obsess and be confused with food all the time for the rest of our lives?
00:36:15
Speaker
And I really believe we can. I believe we can. And the degree of challenge that that holds for each person is unique based off of their own history, genetics, and environment. So I am not saying that this is the only way and the best way to heal your relationship and not have to track and trust your body again. But I am saying that with foundational action and work,
00:36:45
Speaker
This can be done to get to a better place. The more we connect the dots and stay intentional and proactive, you know, the more we learn about our bodies and the better we can implement.
00:37:00
Speaker
changes consistently to best support those long-term benefits and sustainability. Tracking may help with development of knowledge around composition of meals, diet, and nutrients. And it can also hurt one's relationship with food and damage their health, especially when recommendations are not sound.
00:37:24
Speaker
So definitely curious to know what y'all think about this. I am always, always wondering what people find valuable and what they do not in terms of how things help improve their health.
00:37:39
Speaker
Um, and really what feels sustainable, you know, so let me know if you have any questions and otherwise I will catch you next time. Thank you so much for listening today. If you found this information valuable, please share this episode and give it a review. They truly help a ton. If you want additional support and information, you can head over to my website, teresemartinezrd.com.
00:38:08
Speaker
where you can snag my free guide on how to improve your hunger signals, get on my email list for regular juicy content, or apply for the next round of my signature program, Restoring Nutrition Intuition. Otherwise, Instagram at Teresa Martinez RD or my Facebook group Fed Fit and Fad Free Nutrition with Teresa are always places for more content and support. Until next time.