So, a couple of years ago, April of 2017 specifically, I had gotten my Garmin fitness watch. It’s basically like a FitBit, but better in my opinion! It is battery operated so you never have to charge it, and I’ve loved it and have worn it ever since then. But that’s not what I’m talking about here today. So on the Garmin app, it tracks all of your data including steps, water in take, and calories in and out. I ended up downloading the My Fitness Pal app along with the Garmin app because as soon as I would log my food intake, it would immediately transfer those calories into my Garmin app so I could see how many calories I had left to eat for the day. Sure it might not be 100% accurate with how many calories you’ve expended for the day, but it just tries to help you stay on track with your fitness goals which I really liked.
So everyday, I would log in the food that I would eat into My Fitness Pal app. I love numbers, and I have a tendency to overeat because I just love food, so it seemed like a smart thing to do to start tracking my calories. Sure there were days I would do good, and then other days when I’d go way over my calorie goal for the day, but I liked tracking my calories.
One day turned into the next, a month turned into a couple of months, and a year turned into a couple of years of logging my food. And it came to the point that I had logged my food for over 1,140 days. Sure there were days when I didn’t perfectly track, but I did track something every single day. It was so engrained into me whether I ate at home or ate out to find the exact thing I ate on the app or something similar to log it into My Fitness Pal.
I wouldn’t say I went overboard and started obsessing over every little thing I ate and felt guilty if I ate something bad, but I did see numbers and calories when I saw food. I can tell you that a 12 piece grilled chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese from Chick-fil-A is 1,000 calories. I can tell you that those protein shakes I drink and those salads I eat are around 500 calories, and so on.
The weird thing that I realized I was doing these past couple of months is not even paying attention to my calories in and out. I was just logging because I was in the habit of doing it and I really didn’t care if I went over or under. I was just doing it just because I wanted to keep my streak going. I did like to check my sugar and protein intake and make sure that I wasn’t going 3,000 calories a day or something, but I didn’t care that much. I was just going through the motions.
So this past month, I decided to just stop tracking. And it wasn’t a struggle at all. It was like this out of sight, out of mind thing. Sure I was nervous that I was overdoing it with the food, but not too much. To be honest, I didn’t even think about it the first week or so because I was so busy. How weird is that to completely quit a habit that I’ve been doing for so long and not even miss doing it or have any withdrawals?
One of the main reasons why I decided to give up using the app was because I didn’t want to associate food with numbers anymore. I wanted to start eating more intuitively and listening to my body when it’s hungry. How many times do we eat out of boredom and not because we are really hungry? It took a couple of weeks, but I’ve really started listening to my stomach more to see what I’m actually craving and if I’m even hungry to begin with.
Even though it hasn’t even been a month yet since I’ve quit, I feel like I have more clarity and I’m more in tune with my body. I don’t see numbers when I see food, I just see food that is nourishing to my body. I honestly don’t know if I want to go back to tracking my food. If all I’m doing is eating whole foods with some cheat meals here or there, why do I need to track it all? I think if I feel like I’m overdoing it or if I just want to track my sugar and protein intake, maybe I’ll track again. Maybe.
This is a random post, but I just wanted to share because I had been doing this for so long. I’ve always wanted to eat more intuitively, but I also wanted to continue tracking my calories just because I had wanted that streak to continue. But I had come to realize how much I wasn’t getting from it, and I wanted to try and do something different. My Fitness Pal, you’ve been great these past couple of years in my health and fitness journey, but I really don’t think I want you in my life as much anymore. I’m not saying it’s goodbye, but it’s pretty dang close. Thanks for reading today’s post, hope you have a great week! <3