How can you build nutrition awareness?

I’ve been feeling breakfast lately.  I’m not normally a breakfast gal.  Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE breakfast food, just not at the traditional breakfast time.

Remember nutrition timing? That was a thing where we’d say you must eat X before or after Y… for Z outcome. Then we found out our bodies are way more efficient generally at providing the nutrients we need when we need them and everything turned to overall intake. Was your head spinning ? Is it now…? Full of mostly not useful to you, and ever changing science (I am not poo-pooing science, btw… that’s just how it works) do you latch on those little journal blurbs in fitness publications, or some advice from a friend, who heard it from a friend who read it on some influencers page?

That 100% used to be me. It felt overwhelming. Trying to get it “right”, the timing, the macros, the micros, the whole grains, the non processed, the weighing, the measuring…but what happened to feeling it?

Remember feeling hungry? Maybe not… if you’re looking for one thing to transform your nutrition life, it’s self awareness. How do I feel, how do I perform, how do these foods effect me? No one else… me.

Yes, I pay personal attention to all the things, the macros, the micros, the portions, etc… but not all the time. I can adjust my awareness as needed to fit my current priorities. This helps me not go crazy. So I’m not overloading my plate (pun intended) when my priorities are elsewhere I can rely on my existing habits.

Mostly I think, am I hungry… and what do I need for what I have planned today? And usually I ask, can I get something green in there too?!? Keep it simple, start paying attention to you, and be your own self scientist, you’ll be amazing what you may discover!

How can you build nutrition awareness? Start simple! Heck, keep it simple forever! I started just writing down what I ate in a plain old sketch book. No macro counting, no calories, no nothing, just words on paper. You can take photos, use an app, whatever feels best to you. Think about some habits you might already have that you can attach it to. I was an art student when I started building awareness around my nutrition, and I always had my sketchbook in my hand, so that was a low barrier of entry for me to use. Maybe you love to cook and collect recipes, can you add a tracking page to your recipe book? Perhaps you already do some daily journaling? Maybe you spend a lot of time on your computer, great, can you track there? Yes! Look for a great desktop tracking app. Or, do you always have your phone in your hand? Maybe there is a great app for you. Here are a few nutrition apps I like, have used, or my clients have introduced me to over the years:

• My Fitness Pal
• The Ate app
• See How You Eat
• Trifecta
• Macrostax

There are so many more out there, you just have to be willing to look and experiment with what works for you!

If you are looking to build nutrition awareness I’ve got some great resource for you! Grab my FREE EMPOWER your prep recipe book here: https://coachchristine.podia.com/empower-your-prep

Then head to the EMPOWER-ed Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1104296846848402 and tell us what your favorite breakfast food is, or share your fave breakfast recipe, or tracking tool with the community! The more insights the better to help each-other succeed. I can’t wait to see you there!

Happy Meal Prepping,

Christine Bettera
PN L2 Master Coach + ACSM CPT